"Adam Smith" is a rather common name, but most people associate it with the 18th century Scottish social philosopher, the author of The Wealth of Nations and the father of capitalism. Another Adam Smith of modern times is/was the CFO of a medical manufacturing company called Vante.
The latter, lesser known Adam Smith has achieved his fifteen minutes of fame. He does not happen to care for Chick-fil-A, calling the company a horrible organization, a hateful organization, because the family owned restaurant chain supposedly hates gays. To be precise, the owners said they believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, to not only include the union of one man to one woman, but the faithful “until death do us part” definition of marriage. In Mr. Smith’s eyes, that is hateful.
The latter, lesser known Adam Smith has achieved his fifteen minutes of fame. He does not happen to care for Chick-fil-A, calling the company a horrible organization, a hateful organization, because the family owned restaurant chain supposedly hates gays. To be precise, the owners said they believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, to not only include the union of one man to one woman, but the faithful “until death do us part” definition of marriage. In Mr. Smith’s eyes, that is hateful.
So intent was Mr. Smith on making this point that he shot a video of himself pulling up to a Chick-fil-A drive-thru window, taking advantage of their free water, and giving the young lady at the window a piece of his mind. Mr. Smith was so proud of himself for his tremendous act of courage that he posted his video on YouTube. Have a look.
Adam Smith has an inalienable right to express his opinion. But as the more well known Adam Smith would undoubtedly remind him, and as Vante CEO Roger Vogel ultimately told him, he does not have an inalienable right to be the CFO of Vante. In a company statement, Vogel said that
Vante regrets the unfortunate events that transpired yesterday in Tucson between our former CFO/Treasurer Adam Smith and an employee at Chick-fil-A. Effective immediately, Mr. Smith is no longer an employee of our company. We hope that the general population does not hold Mr. Smith's actions against Vante and its employees,By contrast, the classy girl at the drive-thru who endured Smith's tirade and responded with soft spoken kindness is still employed, having done an admirable job of representing the values of a very classy company, whose owners also have freedom of speech. After all, it is still a free country, for now.
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Addendum:
Well, sometimes people do see the error of their ways, think better of it and apologize. Good for Mr. Smith for apologizing to Rachel. Though he is still wrongheaded about Chick-Fil-A and the organizations that Chick-Fil-A supports, he does have a right to his opinion. I have no reason to think that he is not sincere in his apology and I hope he gets his job back. Better yet, I hope and pray that God would use this incident to open Mr. Smith's heart to the Gospel.
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