'Pure projection': Fox News host claims she was asked to leave a restaurant for praying over food

06 June 2023

Fox News and Fox Business have a long history of promoting outrage over fake "problems" — most notably, the nonexistent War on Christmas. And Fox News' Harris Faulkner was clearly going for maximum outrage when she claimed that people of faith are being persecuted for saying grace in restaurants.

Guest-hosting "Fox News Tonight" on Monday, June 5, Faulkner (who hosts "The Faulkner Focus" during the day) told viewers, "For those of us who believe, we must be bold in our faith right now. When you gather in public spaces, pray thankfully over your food — even when the server gives you the stink eye or tells the manager that your peaceful grace is triggering them."

Faulkner continued, "I had it happen to me. I've been asked to leave a restaurant for openly bowing my head in prayer hands — in America. It's all good. They don't deserve my money anyway."

It wasn't long before Twitter users called Faulkner out for trying to drive fake outrage with a non-issue.

Twitter user Isaac Bailey, @ijbailey, posted, "Evidence? I have prayed over my food a thousand times in a thousand restaurants all across this country, and this has not happened to me even once. I haven’t heard it happen to any grace-saying person I know. Name names if this is true."

@Ebyrdstarr posted, "If, IF, there is anything remotely true in this story, I guarantee it was something Faulkner or another member of her party said to the server that led to them being asked to leave."

Twitter user Keith England wrote, "Wonder what her 'prayer hands' have to say about bearing false witness? Funny how conservative 'Christians' all feel perfectly entitled to ignore that particular commandment at will."

@GhawinRiver argued, "Here's how I know there's more to this story, if indeed it's not an outright lie. Faulkner is a multimillionaire. If that were even REMOTELY true, she'd be suing, loudly, and publicly, because people that rich can casually do that even if nothing happened, much less if it did."

@GhawinRiver added, "Further, not only would she be suing, every right-wing law firm in the country would be chasing her down and setting off a bidding war to represent her because that'd be an open-shut case and an easy win."

Twitter user @penumbra_w, who is Catholic, did have an unpleasant experience saying grace in a restaurant — only the offenders weren't atheists, but the type of evangelical Christian nationalists Fox News caters to.

@Penumbra_w posted, "This is pure projection. When I was a kid, my Catholic family said grace in a restaurant in Georgia. We were verbally attacked by evangelicals (RIGHT WING NUT JOBS) for making the Sign of the Cross — we were called un-Christian. From then on, we didn't cross ourselves in public."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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