‘Guilty as charged’: Chick-Fil-A owner stands by true marriage stance
ATLANTA, Georgia, July 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Baptist president of fast food chain Chick-Fil-A is facing renewed claims of “homophobia” after confirming his organization’s stance against same-sex “marriage.”
“Guilty as charged,” Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press on Monday of his company’s support for the traditional family.
Dan Cathy
“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,” said Cathy, whose father started the business in 1946.
Homosexual activists have been calling for boycotts against the chain, which operates 1,608 restaurants across the U.S. with annual sales last year in excess of $4 billion, because it has made substantial corporate donations to pro-family groups.
Earlier this year, college activists launched a petition calling for the chain to be removed from campuses across the country, alleging that it is out of sync with their universities’ “open and inclusive” nature.
Chick-Fil-A had been deflecting questions on the issue, but now Cathy has confirmed the company’s stance and insists they have no intention of backing down.
“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.”
IRS documents show that the company’s charitable foundation, WinShape, donated about $2 million in 2009 to groups such as the Marriage & Family Legacy Fund, Focus on the Family, Exodus International, and the Family Research Council.
The foundation began as a college scholarship program but eventually “morphed into a marriage program in conjunction with national marriage ministries,” said Cathy.
He says the company is founded on “biblical principles” and that he considers their work as a mission field. “If you’re obedient to God you are going to be evangelistic in the quality of the work you do, using that as a portal to share [Christ],” he explained.
Significantly, the company maintains a policy of remaining closed on Sunday. According to Cathy, malls and other proprietors have allowed the exception because “we’ve had a track record that we were generating more business in six days than the other tenants were generating in seven [days].”
