The campus of the Jesuit-run Fordham University is at peace this week after having undergone a terrible ordeal last week that could have resulted in the establishment of a dangerous and subversive group being set up in the heart of one of America’s most venerable Catholic universities.
Here’s how it went down.
A Chick-fil-A restaurant was planning to set up shop at Fordham’s New York City campus. Can you believe it? And the fast-food chicken giant would have succeeded had it not been for Fordham’s rainbow-sashed crusaders who managed to step in at the last minute and save the day.
As The Fordham Observer reports, thanks to the courage of the LGBTQ lobby (who didn’t allow fear of a fast-food restaurant stop them from standing up for peace, justice and the American way), other groups on campus soon discovered the will to fight. Everyone from the Commuter Students Association to the United Student Government leapt into action—led, of course, by the fearless campus’ Rainbow Alliance—to keep the pro-Christian marriage Chick-fil-A far away from Fordham. After all, there are young and impressionable kids on that campus!
We can laugh about it now, of course, but for a while there it looked like a pro-marriage chicken sandwich seller was about to gain a foothold at one of our premier Catholic universities. Thank God, the Rainbow Alliance at Fordham found a way to alert the Jesuit brass to the fact that, back in 2012, Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy had had the audacity to tell a Baptist newspaper that he believed in the biblical definition of marriage. The horror! Once that message went viral on campus, it was easy for the Jesuits to understand the urgency of the situation, and to do the right thing. “Get thee behind me, Chick-fil-A!” The Jesuits at Fordham took a stand.
Disaster averted!
That’s one way of putting it. Here’s another: Because a few whining activists put up a little stink over a chicken peddler on campus, a school run by one of the most powerful Catholic missionary orders in history couldn't summon the intestinal fortitude to stand with a restaurant chain under fire for defending the Church's position on marriage. Incredible as it may seem, Chick-fil-A is too Christian for Fordham University.
We've come a long way, baby:
The Society of Jesus, requiescat in pace.