“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit.”

With those innocuous words, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy last week set off a firestorm of invective in his direction from those on the left who never miss an opportunity to bash and trash traditional Christianity — especially if they can push the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender agenda in the process.

Never mind that Cathy’s outlook should come as no surprise to anyone remotely familiar with his family’s Atlanta-based restaurant chain, which foregoes millions of dollars in potential revenues each week by choosing to close on Sundays. Cathy and his father, chain founder Truett Cathy, have never for a moment tried to closet their conservative beliefs.

You’ll note that Dan Cathy said nothing about planning to treat LGBT customers any differently than other customers. Yet his implied criticism of the push for gay marriage was sufficient to make him and his chain a sudden pariah to many liberals.

As noted elsewhere on these pages, big-city mayors suddenly indicated that businesses that were not overtly LGBT-friendly were not welcome in their cities.

Among the most critical was Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, even though, as columnist Cal Thomas notes nearby, Emanuel has cozied up to openly anti-Semitic demagogue Louis Farrakhan, who is notoriously anti-gay. But then, Farrakhan is not a conservative Christian, so he’s not a legitimate target for those on the left.

Moreover, let’s not forget that Rahm was chief of staff for President Obama until earlier this year — who at the time held the same position on gay marriage as Cathy. So would Obama have been allowed to open an eatery in Chicago had his position not “evolved” earlier this year?

It all goes to prove there’s nobody more intolerant these days than some liberals.

All Dan Cathy did was have the courage to say to a reporter what the majority of Americans still believe: that marriage was meant to be between a man and a woman. In return he has been scalded by “progressives,” whose goal is to browbeat and intimidate anyone with differing views into acquiescing with their supposedly enlightened worldview. And they are egged on by President Obama, whose administration has bludgeoned Catholics for failing to embrace his new requirement that even faith-based institutions must provide contraceptive coverage in their employee health-care plans.

Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee is urging people to eat at Chick-fil-A today to show support for Cathy and for free speech.

To that we say “Eat More Chicken.”