A popular Virginia restaurant is gaining nationwide attention after it declined service to a Christian group due to the organization's stance on same-sex marriage and abortion.
The Family Foundation, a well-known Virginia-based faith-based organization, had reserved a private room at Metzger's Bar and Butchery in Richmond, VA, but was told 90 minutes before the event that the reservation had been canceled due to the organization's beliefs.
"Recently, we refused service to a group that had booked an event with us after the owners of Metzger found out it was a group of donors to a political organization that seeks to deprive women and LGBTQ+ persons of their basic human rights in Virginia," the restaurant owners said in a Facebook post. "We have always refused service to anyone for making our staff uncomfortable or unsafe, and this was the driving force behind our decision. Many of our staff are women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community. All of our staff are people with rights who deserve dignity and a safe work environment. We respect our staff's established rights as humans and strive to create a work environment where they can do their jobs with dignity, comfort and safety."
Victory Cobb of The Family Foundation revealed in a blog post that her organization was the group that was booted. The Family Foundation, on its website, says its mission is to preserve and promote "the family in Virginia as God's foundation upon which all free and thriving societies are built." Among its goals, the foundation says it wants a commonwealth where "every child conceived is recognized as a gift to his or her parents and society." The website further defines marriage "as the lifelong union of a man and a woman."
The cancellation, Cobb said, left guests of the Foundation "scrambling just moments" prior to the event starting.
"For weeks, we had planned a gathering of supporters and interested people in a private room to fellowship and receive an update on our work," Cobb wrote. "About an hour and a half before the event was set to take place, one of the restaurant's owners called our team to cancel the event. As our VP of Operations explained that guests were arriving at their restaurant shortly, she asked for an explanation. Sure enough, an employee looked up our organization, and their wait staff refused to serve us."
The controversy, Cobb wrote, does not bode well for the future of Christians in America.
"Welcome to the 21st century, where people who likely consider themselves 'progressives' attempt to recreate an environment from the 1950s and early 60s when people were denied food service due to their race," Cobb wrote. "Thankfully, in 1960, 34 brave Virginia Union University students held a peaceful lunch counter sit-in at Thalhimers Department store in Richmond to demand service at a whites-only counter. They were convicted of trespassing but, after a tremendous legal battle, were vindicated by the U.S. Supreme Court."
The foundation's work, Cobb added, "will not be silenced."
"We will speak out when we see this type of religious discrimination occurring in Virginia," she wrote.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/S_Z
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
