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Dan Cathy, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Chick-fil-A is trying to do the impossible — reconcile and spin its alliance with anti-gay organizations and its official policy of a bible-based view that marriage is only between a man and a woman is personal — not mandatory — for franchisees. Anyway, take a read and see if your BS meter breaks. (PR Newswire):
Recently, there have been some misleading stories about Chick-fil-A in the media and on the Internet. As a result, I feel strongly about the need to clarify some things.In recent weeks, we have been accused of being anti-gay. We have no agenda against anyone. At the heart and soul of our company, we are a family business that serves and values all people regardless of their beliefs or opinions. We seek to treat everyone with honor, dignity and respect, and believe in the importance of loving your neighbor as yourself.
We also believe in the need for civility in dialogue with others who may have different beliefs. While my family and I believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, we love and respect anyone who disagrees.
Chick-fil-A has a long history of trying to encourage and strengthen marriages and families, both within our Chick-fil-A system and with our customers. My father and our Founder/CEO, Truett Cathy, is a role model for the Cathy family and all those who have joined Chick-fil-A. His personal and business values have always reflected a belief in the importance of marriage and family. We have seen these principles honored powerfully in Dad’s marriage of more than 63 years to our mother Jeannette and those of his family, including my wife Rhonda and me in our 37 years of marriage.At Chick-fil-A, we have a heart for helping marriages because we know marriage can be difficult at times. Through the years, we have supported our Chick-fil-A staff and franchised Operators in their marriage journey, and since the formation of our family foundation, the WinShape Foundation, we have helped others as well. Primarily through WinShape, we have supported summer camps for girls and boys, 14 foster homes, more than $26 million in college scholarships and the development and operation of the WinShape Marriage Retreat Center.
Some recent coverage has incorrectly reported that we require potential franchisees to discuss their church involvement. In addition, we do not require this in our franchisee selection process nor do we require a pledge to follow Christian values for the college scholarships we provide.
Chick-fil-A’s Corporate Purpose is “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us, and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” As a result, we will not champion any political agendas on marriage and family. This decision has been made, and we understand the importance of it. At the same time, we will continue to offer resources to strengthen marriages and families.
To do anything different would be inconsistent with our purpose and belief in Biblical principles.
In summary, we are a dedicated family business committed to three core areas:
- A 65-year history of operating the business according to Biblical principles.
- A 65-year history of providing genuine hospitality for all people.
- A 65-year history of serving families and communities without a political agenda.
Our commitment to these areas has never been more important in light of recent events. Speaking of commitment, I want to thank our restaurant Operators and their more than 60,000 team members for their commitment to customer service.
We appreciate, value and have enjoyed serving all of our customers for many years. We also appreciate this opportunity to clarify any confusion about our beliefs, and we thank everyone for supporting our restaurants and your love for the Chick-fil-A experiences. It has and will continue to be our pleasure to serve you.
Dan T. Cathy
President and COO
Chick-fil-A, Inc.
WTF? How does this let the restaurant chain off of the hook at all? So he loves teh homos…just eat mor chicken.
31 Comments
Chicken
Very true. Couldn’t agree with you more.
YOU FUCKING SELL CHICKEN!
“values all people regardless of their beliefs or opinions”In other words they pretend to care about you because they want your money.
It’s especially interesting to watchthis after the incident with the Harps store in Arkansas. Harps calmly explained how it happened and fixed the problem. Chick-Fil-A can’t stop digging themselves deeper.
MMMMYet we don’t get mad when HRC took our money,, and then throw the Trans-community under bus…
What cave have you been sleeping in?People are furious with the HRC. I very much doubt anyone here gives them money anymore.
It’s “and I” not “and me!”He’s an idiot, or at least a mal-educated person. He obviously inherited the family business.
And there’ no way he can backbpedal this one.
The message is very vague…
Does that mean that franchisees will no longer be allowed to give free food to so-called “family values” organizations? Or does it mean that the corporation won’t? Unless they distance themselves from those organizations through all of their restaurants AND their WinShape Foundation, this press release is completely worthless.
I think the main thing isDo not patronize them no matter if it’s a company or franchise store.
Vote with your bucks.
Not in that case.“I” is the subject pronoun, “me” the object. The phrasing in that sentence is awkward, but “me” still makes sense grammatically.
Too bad he doesn’t know any gay peopleHe could have run it by them first, they would have told him, “No, that isn’t going to help at all.”
MSM AlertTonight on ABC’s World News, there was a short bit on the controversy…
At least he didn’t say ‘he has gay friends,’ You know how Bible Spice and others claim they have.
The NY Times ran a story on thisA Chicken Chain’s Corporate Ethos Is Questioned by Gay Rights Advocates
Too cutesy, in my opinion. And it didn’t really explain how the beliefs and actions of the business and its foundation denigrated gay people. Still, we surely do seem do be in the news a lot these days, don’t we? No, really. It’s a sea change.
UK Daily Mail had an interesting additionUK DailyMail, a pub to be taken with a grain of salt (it’s kind of journalistic trash) but still I found this very interesting:
This is more than a “unusual practice” this is a violation of Federal law. I’d be curious to know The Daily Mail’s sourcing for this and to know if there is anything to this. Are they turning away Jews, Muslims, unwed mothers? I wonder if Equal Opportunity Employment Commission complaints are public record?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…
Underlying Context in that statement…Is that being gay is a belief or opinion.
Also, they say they are for the Biblical definition of marriage, but they are not. They just think they are.
The Biblical definition of marriage is One Man, One or More Women, and concubines. In short, the Biblical definition of marriage is polygamy. I challenge ANYONE to dispute that with any quote from the Bible.
Another statement they made today says….That they don’t prohibit gay couples from their WinShape marriage seminars, or counseling, or whatever the heck they do. But, that is in direct contradiction to an e-mail exchange they had with Good As You blog.
They have now stated two diametrically opposed things as both being factual, and that is impossible.
I guess this is what is known as lying for Jesus.
Analysis…Some quotes from this news story:
http://www.ajc.com/business/ch…
On Saturday, Cathy issued a statement saying that “While my family and I believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, we love and respect anyone who disagrees.” Cathy said Chick-fil-A would not champion any political agendas on marriage and family. That is not a change from previous practice, Cathy said — “just a confirmation.”
So, in other words, nothing has changed.
By the way, the Biblical definition of marriage is:
One Man, One or More Women, and Concubines. In short, Polygamy.
Another quote from the above article:
“The company’s WinShape Foundation, which has trained hundreds of couples, does not bar gay couples from its marriage retreats or training, Cathy said. But he added that the curriculum is designed for heterosexual couples.”
This is in DIRECT CONTRADICTION to the following from
http://news.change.org/stories…
Now comes some email correspondence that Good As You has shared on their blog, where the WinShape Foundation’s Retreat Center — a center run by the charitable arm of Chick-fil-A — admits that they have a severe distaste for LGBT people.
The email correspondence goes a little something like this. Someone writes WinShape an easy question about whether their retreat center is open to LGBT people. WinShape’s response:
“WinShape Retreat defines marriage from the Biblical standard as being between one man and one woman. Groups/Individuals are welcome who offer wholesome, educational conferences and programs that are compatible with Biblical values and WinShape’s purpose,” WinShape wrote back.
Kind of some corporate speak, right? So the activist wrote back: can you just give a clear-cut answer? And WinShape confirmed:
“We do not accept homosexual couples because of the statement in our contract.”
So, as we can see, Win Shape BOTH totally bars and completely admits gays at its marriage conferences — an amazing and utterly IMPOSSIBLE combination!
a chicken sandwich hold the eternal damnation
In the age of Citizens Unitedits the only way to left to vote sometimes
chicken little’s – the sky is falling in-,lolevery other word out of this fundies mouth is bible,biblical,bible,etc, THUMP,THUMP,THUMP, he wont change anything, his values firmly in place…thump thump thump,I wonder if his chickens have been ‘specially blessed”?
Re:I’ve read statements over at Prop8 Trial Tracker that this is true. From people who have close friends who worked there.
Also things like mandatory prayer at management courses and the like.
How’s this:
So, if for Christians, there is neither male nor female in Christ, then by definition, it is wrong to limit participation in any human institution based on gender.
Oh, you meant Biblical justification FOR limiting marriage equality to one man and one woman. My bad.
The statement is too vague.The problem with the statement is, of course, that most of the people who are supporting marriage equality are also all about supporting and defending marriage and families – kind of the point.
If this same statement were issued by someone whose company had a robust non-discrimination policy and an a history of supporting progressive causes and marriage equality groups, it wouldn’t be inaccurate – even with the Biblical references thrown in. I grew up with people who had very strong feelings about what was personally appropriate and moral for themselves, while being strongly dedicated to freedom and equality for others. They aren’t incompatible.
I’ve never seen anyone working for same-sex marriage equality who in any way wanted to damage, or even inconvenience, straight marriages, or even, despite strong distaste in many cases for religion, for doing anything to interfere with religions making religious decisions about the religious aspects of marriage for their own members.
So the biggest part of the above is pure non-sequitur and unrelated filler. (Not unlike some of their products.)
Exactly as I expected“We don’t hate gays: we just hate everything you do, say, think and are. If you have money, we will let you buy and then beat you over the head with our Bibles.”
Where is this statement?Curiouser & curiouser.
That is because, RP……the Harps incident originated with “a store employee at one of our 65 stores.” http://www.proudparenting.com/… The article does not specify if the employee was store management or the guy who stocks the magazine rack.
As to Mr. Cathy, he’s just a good ol’ boy from UGA [Upper Georgia] who just doesn’t know the pitfalls of the Big Boys’ [pun intended] sandbox. Once his profits drop 40%, he can change his tune… or go outta bidness… or starve.
Of courseDon’t you know that being gay or trans is a belief but being a Christian is a genetic factor?
You must have been absent that day in 6th grade when everyone picked their sexuality and gender.
He has a fallback planHe’ll cry “Christian persecution”
Standard faux-liberal media.It’s the usual approach: “Instead of hunting down any facts or printing anything that might be controversial, we’ll just find sound-bites from ‘both sides’ — and by ‘both sides’, we mean the right-wing theocrats and the center-right theocrat-appeasers.”
You’ve never heard of….cognitive dissonance? It seems very common among the Bible thumpers.
UpdateTurns out the story was written by a * gasp* lesbian and some right-wingers are trying to make a big deal out of this. Because, you know, you’d never have a woman cover a story about abortion or a black person cover a story if any people of color are involved.
Anyway, the writer is Kim Severson who is primarily a food writer. This may account for the way she covered the issue and why it initially struck me as “cutesy.”