Editor’s note: This article was updated on June 15 to include comments from Ross McKnight, which can be found near the end of this article.
BUSH, Louisiana (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic father of five who runs a small farm in Louisiana has lost some of his biggest customers after he defended traditional Catholic values and criticized “pride month” in a social media post.
On June 3, Ross McKnight, the owner of Backwater Foie Gras, wrote on Instagram: “The push to have every mainstream value and holiday represented in some way in our Louisiana ought to make no sense at all to any Louisianais or Louisianaise, unless recognized as a forward offensive by an ever-encroaching enemy that has sought for generations to destroy our unique culture which is so intimately tied to our Catholic identity.”
McKnight referred to “pride month” as an “attempted coup of the month of June” and suggested “some antidotes to a false pride.”
These antidotes included enthroning the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home, wearing “the Sacred Heart as a badge wherever you go,” and praying “the Rosary for the conversion of souls.”
Shortly after the Instagram post, the McKnights lost some of their biggest customers, amounting to two-thirds of their restaurant business.
“Recently, we received two texts from two restaurant owners who have decided that they’ve had enough of our Catholicism based on our latest Instagram feed post and have canceled their large, recurring orders,” McKnight wrote in a subsequent Instagram post.
“While we’ve never required our customers to pass a litmus test before serving them, it seems our values, which come from lives lived as Louisiana Catholics, are considered unacceptable by some,” he continued.
McKnight did not express regret over his post, nor did he or his family despair over the financial losses they suffered. Instead, in true Catholic fashion, McKnight rejoiced amid their suffering.
“We count it a privilege to have lost much,” he wrote. “It is an honor to participate, through the suffering of our family, in the triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
“We have already seen Divine Providence working through all of this, and we have already seen that business we lost by rejecting pride beginning to be restored – in no small part by fellow Catholics who have reached out to support us and to share in the great victory that it is to suffer for and with Christ the King.”
Harrison Weinhold, a friend and supporter of the McKnights, told The Federalist that the family lost between $6,000 and $10,000 in monthly revenue due to the canceled orders. Since the family only runs a “tiny artisanal operation,” according to McKnight, that amount could potentially threaten the livelihood of the family.
Weinhold wrote in a Twitter thread that the restaurant owners who canceled the orders “are not from Louisiana” and “are the exact transplants that ruin the culture of a once great community, and are the type of virtue signaling leftists that are more than happy to persecute and ruin the lives of a native son and his family in the name of celebrating pride.”
Despite having lost much and fearing for his family’s livelihood, McKnight has displayed fortitude and remained committed to his beliefs.
“If we don’t stand here, on the last assault of the family, then there’s no more ground left behind us,” he told The Federalist.
“So this is where we have to stand because there’s nothing behind it. There’s nothing. You know, once this battle is over, and we lose, if it is that we do lose, then there’s nothing else behind it. So we have to fight.” McKnight warned in an interview with Fox News.
In comments later delivered to LifeSiteNews by email, McKnight stated:
“The battle is very clearly pitched. On the one hand, Christ presents His heart aflame with His true, divine love for all mankind. On the other hand, the mad refrain continues endlessly: ‘Love is love is love is…’ (this is the matter of the battle). The appointed time? The month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart in 1856 by Pope Blessed Pius IX – but the war of those who cry for ‘liberty’ against truth has been raging through the ages.”
“The old enemy, revolution, continues to rob us of religion, culture, tradition, and attempts to undermine the fundamental realities that support them. ‘Liberty,’ the cry to unleash all passions unrestrained upon society (created by God as is the family) drags the freedom of the soul to serve God to its demise. There is no other option but to fight – and to fight until the end.”
To support the McKnight family, you can buy their products from their farm Backwater Foie Gras or donate to their GiveSendGo.