The president of Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that has been attacked by homosexual activists for its moral and biblical stand on marriage, has put the company in the cross hairs of cultural controversy once more for re-affirming its commitment to traditional family values. In an interview published in Baptist Press News, Dan Cathy, son of Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy, said that he and others at the helm of the restaurant chain “are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family owned business, a family led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”
Cathy conceded that such a view “might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”
Later, appearing on the syndicated Ken Coleman Show, Cathy offered a somber warning concerning the nation’s increasingly errant attitude about biblical marriage. “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’” Cathy said. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we should have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about.”
Chick-fil-A is unique in that it is perhaps the only major business chain that openly operates on Christian principles. Cathy said that while he does not consider Chick-fil-A a “Christian business,” it nonetheless embraces solidly Christian values, “asking God and pleading with God to give us wisdom on decisions we make about people and the programs and partnerships we have. And He has blessed us.”
Cathy told BP News that his marketplace goal is “to take biblical truth and put skin on it…. We’re talking about how our performance in the workplace should be the focus of how we build respect, rapport, and relationships with others that opens the gateway to interest people in knowing God.”
While the national media has focused its attention on the chain’s unapologetic embrace of traditional marriage — and the resultant attack from combatant homosexuals — over the years Chick-fil-A has been famous for acting on another biblical precept: honoring the Sabbath. Since the business’ founding over 65 years ago, none of its now 1,608 restaurants has ever been open on Sunday. “It was not an issue in 1946 when we opened up our first restaurant,” Cathy told BP News. “But as living standards changed and lifestyles changed, people came to be more active on Sundays.”
But Chick-fil-A has held the line on the closed-on-Sunday policy — and it has paid off handsomely. “We’ve always put in our lease that we will be closed on Sundays,” Cathy explained of malls and business centers where the chain rents space. “We’ve had a track record that we were generating more business in six days than the other tenants were generating in seven [days].”
As for the company’s well-publicized support for traditional marriage, Cathy told the Baptist publication that it is “guilty as charged,” adding that “we are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit.” He explained that the chain operates “as a family business … our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that.”
While Cathy’s comments were applauded in conservative and Christian circles, they were immediately spun by the major media as controversial, and condemned by homosexual activists and their supporters. The Los Angeles Times capitalized on the issue, running a story headlined “Chick-fil-A’s anti-gay-marriage stance triggers online uproar.” The article centered on the Tweets, blogs, and Facebook posts of those who were either enraged or inspired by Cathy’s comments. “Remind me to never eat at chick-fil-a ever again,” Tweeted Michael Symon, a “star” on the Food Network. Chick-fil-A’s own Facebook page drew both hateful and supportive posts, such as, “… boycotting this hateful company with immediate effect,” and “I LOVE Chick-fil-A!!! Love your food and your family values!!!”
Predictably, the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s premier homosexual activist groups, got into the act, deriding Chick-fil-A for its support of traditional marriage and asking its fellow travelers to sign a pledge aimed at damaging Chick-fil-A’s business. The group’s president, Chad Griffin, reacted to Cathy’s comments, saying that the chain “has finally come clean” on its view of same-sex marriage. “While they may have been in neutral, kicking this fight into overdrive now allows fair-minded consumers to make up their own minds whether they want to support an openly discriminatory company,” Griffin said in a statement. “As the country moves toward inclusion, Chick-fil-A has staked out a decidedly stuck-in-the-past mentality.”
Christian and pro-family leaders also weighed in on the issue, with Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council applauding Cathy for “taking a bold stand. Chick-fil-A is a bible-based, Christian-based business who treats their employees well. They have been attacked in the past about their stand. But they refuse to budge on this matter, and I commend them for what they are doing.”
This is not the first time the restaurant chain has been attacked by homosexual activists. As reported by The New American, several universities have dropped their contracts for Chick-fil-A restaurants on their campuses, after students and “gay” activists complained about the company’s support of traditional family values through its WinShape Foundation.
For its own part, Chick-fil-A appears ready to move beyond the controversy sparked by Cathy’s comments. In a July 19th statement the chain said that “going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.” The statement said that the company would continue its policy of treating “every person with honor, dignity and respect — regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation, or gender.”
Photo: Chick-fil-A headquarters in College Park, Georgia
