In their long crusade against trite villains everywhere, religious extremists have now turned on the Hooters Restaurant and its plan to open up shop right here in Fayette County. Holding a 30-minute prayer vigil outside of a recent city council meeting, churchgoers prayed against the moral tyrant of attractive women, orange shorts, and hot wings.

Perhaps the question isn't why the moral crusaders have aimed their dogmatic barrels at Hooters, but why they have stopped there.

Why not hold a prayer vigil outside of Barnes and Noble, where one can buy anything from Anton LeVay's “Satanic Verses” to the latest CD promoting themes such as genocide to rape? Or perhaps we ought to ban Blockbuster Video. After all, they rent homicidal games such as Perfect Dark and Resident Evil. Well, these extremists just may if they have their way.

You won't find prayer vigils outside of any bookstore, video store, movie theater, or anywhere but a meeting concerning a new Hooters. Why? Because we all know that in the world of catch-phrase dogma, satanic texts and homicidal fun-time don't hold a proverbial candle to the godless idea of short shorts.

Like a bad sequel to Footloose, these crusaders without a cause have let go of their modern villains like Teletubbies and Harry Potter to burn Hooters at the stake. In the Falwellian tradition of ignoring real world problems, like poverty, hunger, and other Christ-like agendas, the religious right seems to be stubbornly committed to creating friendly, kinder villains. Yet the scary truth in all of this isn't the extremity of these modern crusaders' villains, but the deep-seeded agenda it reveals.

Hooters is simply a continuation of religious extremists' long battle to take choice away from Fayette residents. What they call “protecting Fayette's morality” is in reality promoting their morality upon Fayette. To say that a Hooters restaurant in Fayette County would pave the way for strip bars and pornography is a gross overreaction.

This campaign isn't about protecting you, it's about taking away your choice. They've already taken away your choice to order a certain types of alcohol at your favorite restaurant, and now they want to take away your choice to eat at Hooters. If they had their way, we would all live in a theocratic community where you wouldn't have to choose much at all.

Fayette County residents do not need a parental watchdog protecting them from the “evils” of attractive women and orange shorts. We do not need a reactionary minority dictating what businesses can and cannot enter the community. We do not need an extremist few to give a bad name to the local church community (many of which actually address real-world problems and solutions).

Yet frighteningly, this may prove to be a stepping-stone in an agenda of social and moral dictation which will span far beyond shorts and hot wings.

Chris Armstrong

Peachtree City

Fayetteville

Back to Opinion Home Page | Back to the top of the page