Christian Right Leader Happy About ‘Drive-Thru’ Bully Losing His Job

August 4, 2012

I’m in a hotel with incredibly slow wi-fi so I can’t see the video for myself, but apparently, the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer is gleeful over the fact that Adam Smith lost his job after berating a Chick-fil-A employee the other day (the relevant part seems to begin around the 6:00 mark):

If you hear any interesting parts, leave the timestamp and a summary in the comments!

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LesterBallard

Just another shit stain in humanity’s underwear.
Margaret Whitestone

Of course if it had been a Christian who got canned for bawling out an employee of some business that supports LGBT equality Fischer would be whining about the “PC Police” and the way people can’t even express their views about “traditional values” without risk of being persecuted, blah blah blah.
Baby_Raptor

So can the employee start whining about Mr. Fischer attacking his First Amendment rights now? I mean, it’s just like we did with CFA! /snark
Margaret Whitestone

Yes, and one no amount of bleach will remove.
northierthanthou

In the end, the right will want to make the narrative about stuff like this and the Mayors overreaching their authority, etc. In the end, they will sidestep the issue of Chick-Fil-A’s donations entirely. The harm done to innocent people through that company’s donation policy will get buried under a hundred complaints about the liberal response.
Ed Reese

I haven’t watched the video, and I am definitely on the side of those who are boycotting. But the drive-thru guy was a world class dick. Hassle corporate management, hassle owners. But leave the teenagers and minimum wage workers alone. I worked at a lot of shitty jobs over the years, especially restaurants, and I rarely had any love for my corporate masters. I was just trying to scrape together a living. Let’s make sure we’re directing messages to right people.
Luke Allport-Cohoon

Does everyone have to be an asshole on both sides? Yeah, this Bryan Fischer fellow is a dick, but Adam Smith deserved it. You know, for being a dick to an innocent bystander. I am not defending Chik Fil A, but that girl in the drive through window has nothing to do with anything, she just needs a job! Sure, Adam has the right to the freedom of speech, but people have to realize that rights have responsibilities and all actions have consequences.
Margaret Whitestone

I don’t think anybody is defending Smith’s actions. It’s the part about him losing his job over it they’re up in the air about. Yes, he was a jerk but he didn’t do it on company time or as an agent of his corporation so firing him seems a bit extreme. And while Bryan Fischer is having a party over this, he’d be the first one crying foul if a Christian had been fired for berating a Starbucks employee because Starbucks supports marriage equality.
Gordon Duffy

But I thought the Westboro Baptist Chicken supporters were pretending this was all about a person’s free speech right to say offensive things without censure?
Sandy Kokch

Get real….. Smith was not being a “dick” – he was actually very polite. Strident in getting his point across, but having seen the vid these accusations that Smith was in any way dickish are just ridiculous.

Strangely haven’t yet seen, in any of the reports, the lass concerned complaining about how “rude” Smith was to her. She just looked embarassed and like she wanted to say… “yeah I agree but its a job and I need the money”.

And compare his actions and words with those of the customers who had cued up for their hate burgers and were proudly flying their ignorance, bigotry and Kristyhun Famlee Valoos at whatever news camera they could find.

And one final point…. consider that the overwhelming majority of customers in the same cue Smith was in … the car in front and the long line behind him, were probably there to go honk honk on their horns and cheer a hearty “Yee Haw….F U GAY FAGS! Yur Gunna Burn!”
The Godless Monster

Disgusting
Alter

By the STATE, Duffy. There’s a difference.
WoodwindsRock

That’s what I was thinking. If Dan Cathy had somehow been let go for what he said (I know this wouldn’t happen and is a ridiculous scenario, but bear with me), Bryan Fischer would be screaming “How dare they fire him for using his freedom of speech.” Freedom of speech only applies to homophobes, apparently.
Mael Radec

Whether or not he was on the clock is irrelevant. He’s an executive at his company and they thought that his actions would reflect badly on them if they did not do something about it.

Would you want to do business with a company you knew was run by assholes?
Tracker

Off topic, the Chick-fil-a is having a weekend conference here at the Courtyard Marriot in Pittsburgh, Homestead. I can’t get away from these people.
Coyotenose

Chik-fil-A-hole supporters are deliberately conflating criticism from government with private criticism. It’s the only way they have any argument, by pretending they’re martyrs.
Rick Roberts

Mr Fischer did act like a dick, but I don’t think he should be fired.
Guest

I guess since I’ve seen more than one case of people who speak out against gays losing their job in recent years, don’t see the unique issue here. It’s the way of our country. And it’s not just the pro gay or anti gay issues. We are a country growing tired and impatient with all this freedom and liberty garbage. Increasingly, we see rights as something earned, largely by agreeing with us. The Bill of Rights is values based: have the right values, or you don’t have rights. Oh, everyone denies we want to impose our values on others, but it would take an idiot not to see that’s exactly what a growing number of people want. Again, it would be ridiculous to say it’s only liberals or pro gay or any such thing that is behind it. It’s a lazy, intellectually foppish generation that doesn’t have the stones to wade into the arena of debate, and so just wants an end run to winning the argument: punish anyone who disagrees with me (just don’t punish me of course).
Guest

Thanks for displaying the fact that it isn’t just anti-gay types who can make a side look bad.
Guest

Because there are many issues in all this. When the mayors jump in, it’s censorship. When Andrew Sullivan and Jon Stewart agree with conservative Christians that it’s censorship, that argument is finished.
roz

I’m happy too, that guy was a dick. I’m consciously not buying Chick-Fil-A (and have been for a while), but to take it out on an individual employee is stupid.
jdm8

I am uncomfortable with the idea that an employer has this much say over what an employee can say and do off the clock and off the property of the employer. I can understand the employer’s concerns about a perceived representation, but it’s a measure of serfdom that I don’t like.
Guest

I would be too, if we were always uncomfortable with it. Though at the same time, I’ve been working in places for decades, and most employers have a ‘don’t say this’ policy. For instance, in my job, to speak out in any way against homosexuals can lead to termination – and that includes social media. That is made quite clear in CBTs that we must take every year. Now, if that’s bad, then it’s always bad. But it must always be bad in all cases, no matter what the person is saying, not just because he agrees with me or not.
Therubah

I would not. Which was the point of people boycotting Cfa until this guy was an asshole to an innocent bystander.
Mael Radec

Then you can understand why his employer decided to sack him as well. People don’t respond well when company executives start acting up.
kaydenpat

If you think Fischer is happy now, just wait to see his delight if Romney wins in November. This man is full of HATE. Nothing but HATE.
allein

Complaining to the customer service department about a legitimate issue you are having with your service (which is what they’re there for, and which you can do without being an asshole) is not the same as holding up a line of cars to berate a front line worker over what the senior management of the corporation does with corporate profits, which she has nothing whatsoever to do with. Implying that she’s a horrible person for even working there (most people don’t exactly work in fast food for the glamorous lifestyle it affords them), and knowingly complaining to the entirely wrong person, is what makes him a dick.

She was just caught in the crossfire, and if I were her I wouldn’t be making any public statements, either. Personally I would not appreciate being videotaped and posted on the internet without my permission (which I would not give if I were the employee in this situation, and I could be wrong but I doubt he asked her).
Michael Brice

I think an explanation to the employee as to why they as his employers were peeved, a warning and a request not to be dick would have been appropriate. Smells like wrongful dismissal to me.