It all started with a comment to the Baptist Press last week, where Chick-fil-A's Dan Cathy admits he's a faithful Christian witness who goes to church on Sunday (when the Chick-fil-A's are closed) and is (gasp!) married to his first wife. That's not the comments that got him in trouble though, this is:
"We 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.
"We operate 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," Cathy emphasized.
"We intend to stay the course," he said. "We know that it 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."
So Chick-fil-A are run by Baptists who keep the shop closed on Sundays. Got it!
Chick-fil-A has tarnished the fried chicken industry's once-sterling reputation for never being bigoted, historically, in any way.
— Danforth France (@danforthfrance) July 19, 2012
Touché.
But wait? Hate? Yes. Being a family run business = having anti-gay policies. I read it in CNN so it must be true. Well, that and the Winshape foundations marriage program.
"The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 restaurants run by independent owner/operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena," said a statement from Don Perry, the company's vice president of corporate public relations.
The Human Rights Campaign, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, said Wednesday that Cathy's comments gave consumers a clear choice.
“It's strange to say, but it's good to see Chick-fil-A finally admit to their anti-LGBT policies," Michael Cole-Schwartz, the organization's director of communications, told CNN. "Now fair-minded consumers can make up their own minds whether they want to support an openly discriminatory company or take their business elsewhere. As the country moves toward inclusion, Chick-fil-A has staked out a decidedly stuck-in-the-past mentality.”
And then, as the storm reached a fever pitch last week, Chick-fil-A lost the Muppets who posted this statement on their facebook page:
“The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over 50 years and we have notified Chick-fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors. Lisa Henson, our CEO, is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-fil-A to GLAAD” (an advocacy group for lesbian, gay and transgender people).
... and now... Chick-fil-A are recalling the Kermit dolls. Your move, world.
You might note that this notice is dated 7/19/12 , one day before the Muppets official announcement..... The recall announcement on this Chick-a-fil shops facebook page is also dated the 19th
In Defense of Eating at Chick-fil-A from The Atlantic:
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PermalinkIts simple. If the gay community wants the right to have their own values and not have other's values forced on them, they have to be willing to share the same right. Chic-fil-a has made a stance, not to hurt people, but because it is the values of their company. In that choice, they will probably loose customers, but most likely feel that their values are worth. They are forcing people to eat their chicken. Imagine a country where a vegan restaurant was forced to serve meat because meat eaters decide to eat there. Its good and they are a quality company. That's why people eat there. Its amazing how "intolerant" the "tolerant" actually are.
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