The Patriot Post® · Demonizing Chick-fil-A
The mainstream media, and the political left, are demonizing Chick-fil-A because, in response to a recent interview question posed by a Christian publication, the company CEO said that the company does not sanction gay marriage. As a result, the company’s business and political enemies are making all kinds of unfounded accusations. The mayors of Boston and Chicago have even threatened to bar Chick-fil-A from opening any new franchises in their cities, and others on the left are accusing the company of being rabidly anti-gay, and supporting rabidly anti-gay organizations.
Chick-fil-A is a private, family-owned company. No stockholders. No one to report to but the private individuals who own the company. The CEO was expressing what the ownership of the company believes. The company is very charitable, and, because the company was founded in 1946 on Christian principles by a Christian family, they use a lot of their profits to support Christian (not ‘anti-gay’), and what they deem to be worthwhile secular, organizations. Most Christian organizations define marriage scripturally, as occurring between a man and a woman.
The company’s business philosophy has been, and continues to be: “The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every patron with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender." These are the organizations that most of Chick-fil-A’s contributions support:
• Marriage & Family Legacy Fund
• Fellowship Of Christian Athletes
• National Christian Foundation
• Focus On The Family
• Eagle Forum
• Exodus International
• Family Research Council
Every one of these organizations, Christian-based and secular, is well-respected. Focus on the Family is possibly the most well-respected and followed (with the possible exception of the Salvation Army) Christian organization on the globe. And none of these organizations were formed as ‘anti-gay’ groups. Many of them, being Christian by nature, do not support the concept of gay marriage. Perhaps 1% of their focus even involves the idea of homosexuality. That hardly qualifies these groups to be labeled as rabidly ‘anti-gay’, except in the minds of those with an agenda. If the politically correct are so up in arms about Chick-fil-A’s ‘anti-gay’ (actually Christian) agenda, then why are they not boycotting the gas stations that sell gas obtained from Muslim nations who outright require the execution of gay people (which represents the majority of gas stations in this country)? When you compare the fact that Chick-fil-A supports several Christian organizations (which, by definition, cannot sanction a marriage between other than a man and a woman) with the fact that many of the nation members of OPEC require the execution of anyone discovered to be homosexual, where should most of the outrage on the part of the politically correct be? And yet it isn’t, simply because their attacks on Christianity would not be furthered by publicizing the practices of OPEC nations. In this case, ‘tolerance’ appears to be situational and agenda-driven.
This is a sterling example of the way in which the political left is actively seeking to control the political debate in America 2012. CEO and President Dan Cathy’s interview took place on the Baptist Press, an internet publication that circulates to 40 state Baptist newspapers.
Two observations:
(1) Since when do the mainstream media report on anything that is printed in such a minor, non-mainstream publication, let alone to this degree of feverishness?
(2) Why has so much attention been paid to a few sentences of a lengthy interview?
I’ll tell you why: Chick-fil-A is a Christian, conservative-based example of a successful business enterprise – the bane of the leftist political philosophy. And this is simply another example of the left’s hatred of such success, as well as their refusal to allow Christians their beliefs. It accompanies many other recent political outrages that are seeking to subvert the Christian’s personal rights, the most blatant of which was the president’s decree earlier this year that Catholic institutions must provide birth control/abortion services.
Anyone who disagrees with the company’s philosophy has every right to speak out, both privately and publicly, against it, and to refuse to patronize their establishments. But the current politically-motivated efforts to demonize a company’s ownership simply because they do not embrace the concept of gay marriage amounts to the worst kind of extortion: "You must embrace the homosexual agenda, no matter your own personal religious beliefs, or we will destroy you.”