Recently, Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press that the company values families, and tries to embody a family-values culture. He said:
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.
Cue the liberal boycott and subsequent conservative buycott. It seems like the fastest way to boost a business’s sales is for liberals to try and boycott it for espousing conservative ideals. Remember Whole Foods? CEO John Mackey published in op-ed in 2009 saying that he did not support Obamacare and that it would raise the cost of doing business. Liberals boycotted, and then all of a sudden the health food stores were jammed with freedom (and deodorant!) loving people trying to figure out the difference between 'organic' and 'hormone-free.'
So liberals decided that Chick-fil-A hates the gays, even though that’s not even close to what Dan Cathy said, and therefore must be made to pay for their intolerant ways! Conservatives, eager to stand up for Dan Cathy and his first amendment right to freedom of speech, organized a buycott for Wednesday, August 1, at Chick-fil-A franchises across the country.
It worked. The restaurants in every corner of the nation were packed. Because tasty chicken and free speech are awesome.
As I perused Facebook yesterday, I saw several posts from apolitical friends saying that they were ‘sad’ or ‘scared’ for the future of this country when so many people would go out of their way to support ‘hate.’ It occurred to me that too few people understand what this is about, because it really has very little to do with gay rights.
Chick-fil-A has never refused to serve, or even hire, someone based on his or her sexual orientation. The company does not have an official position on gay marriage; they just value traditional marriage. Having an opinion that marriage is between one man and one woman is nothing new, and in fact is a position held by Barack Obama until very recently. Let me repeat: Chick-fil-A has never, ever discriminated against the homosexual community.
Dan Cathy dared to express a completely valid opinion, and liberals tried to vilify him for it, with the goal of shutting him up. Conservatives rallied around his right to speak his mind in the best way they could: Boosting his business.
Now here’s your feel-good story of the day ... how did the supposedly intolerant Chick-fil-A employees treat protesters accusing them of hate? They passed out cold water to them. Oh yeah, Chick-fil-A is totally evil. Or something.
Do you think Dan Cathy was out of line or within his rights by expressing his opinion on marriage?
Image via Randy Son of Robert/Flickr
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Comments 64
Are you effing kidding me? I didn't say she couldn't say it. I didn't threaten her, I didn't take away any rights. I said it was offensive; because it is.
Are you going to refer to African-Americans as a "n*gger community"? How about Mexicans as a "beaner community"? No? Asians as a "chink community"? White people as the "honkie community"? No?
Then it is so effing offensive to refer to the LGBT as a "sodomite community". The. End.
Smug, white Christians are not being picked on, they're just losing their stranglehold on how the country and Americans "should be." Not happy losing ground, are you, Jenny?
Smug, white Christians are not being picked on, they're just losing their stranglehold on how the country and Americans "should be."
Yes, as demonstrated by the loooooooong lines of customers at CFA........
Check out this hate!! What do you guys say about this??
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/08/02/Chick-Fil-A-Drive-Thru-Bully-Fired
@billsfan, how long do you think it's going to take for bleeders to call for a boycott of Vante?
And how telling that berating an employee for doing her job, made him feel 'purposeful'. I bet his former staff is having a party today.
Again noone is complaining about the pro-gay marriage community boycotting.
And again, billsfan, yes they were. Go find any article about this before the mayors even came into play and you'll find people doing that very thing. I know many people personally who have boycotted them for years because of their donations. It's not a new thing and yes, that is the reason for the boycott. The only reason it seems as though "they changed their tune" is probably because the majority of people probably had no idea that the company was actually making donations to those groups. They were just boycotting them because they didn't agree with Cathy's views (a legitimate reason to boycott, whether you think it is or not). Once they learned of the donations became that much more important to them to not spend their money there. Has this been blown out of proportion? Absolutely. By BOTH sides. Just don't sit there and try to say "oh nobody cared about the boycotts until the mayors tried to block them from their cities" because that's a flat out lie.
I think the majority of people agree that what they mayors were trying to do crossed a line. So get that out of the way and let's talk about individuals and companies. If you think they're boycotting them to "take away Cathy's free speech", then you have missed the entire point. It has just gone right over your head.