Fillet-O-Compromise…?

In spite of
early rumors of “caving” by Chick-Fil-A, the company has not changed its policy
on donations to exclude traditional marriage proponents.

Yesterday, ADA reported on the rumors
buzzing around that the Christian-owned Chick-Fil-A fast food restaurant, fresh
off its biggest day of sales due to support of CEO Dan Cathy’s statements on his
support for marriage, was buckling under pressure from the homosexual movement
and halting support for pro-traditional family organizations and
ministries.

The Washington Post reported, “Chick-fil-A stopped funding
traditional-marriage groups in an effort to open a new Chicago restaurant, but
the company initially kept quiet about the decision, prompting gay rights groups
to speculate that the company feared a backlash from conservative
customers.”

Our email
yesterday urged our readers to not jump too quickly on condemning Chick-Fil-A
for their unconfirmed actions and that caution was shown later that night to be
well-founded.

From
CitizenLink.com, “Contrary to reports
first made by the gay-activist group The Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA) on Tuesday
and later picked up by mainstream media outlets, Chick-fil-A and its
charitable-giving arm, the WinShape Foundation, did not agree to stop making
donations to groups that support the biblical definition of marriage in exchange
for being allowed to open a franchise in Chicago.”

The company
finally released a statement explaining their position, “For many months now,
Chick-fil-A’s corporate giving has been mischaracterized and while our sincere
intent has been to remain out of this political and social debate, events from
Chicago this week have once again resulted in questions around our giving. For
that reason, we want to provide some context and clarity around who we are, what
we believe and our priorities in relation to corporate giving.

“A part
of our corporate commitment is to be responsible stewards of all that God has
entrusted to us. Because of this commitment, Chick-fil-A’s giving heritage is
focused on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich
marriages, and support communities. We will continue to focus our giving in
those areas. Our intent is not to support political or social
agendas.

“As we
have stated, 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.”

CitizenLink
also quotes Focus on the Family’s President Jim Daly – Focus on the Family was
reported by several sources as being one of the organizations Chick-Fil-A would
no longer donate to – in showing his support for the restaurant, “Dan and
Bubba Cathy are my Christian brothers and good friends. They and their company
have long shared Focus on the Family’s commitment to helping build strong and
thriving families — and they have in no way deviated from that deeply held and
biblically inspired passion while working with the city of Chicago to open
Chick-fil-A restaurants there.”

There is
still an outrage to be found in this news story, however. We noted yesterday
that any news piece regarding Chick-Fil-A changing their donating policies cited
“The Civil Rights Agenda’s” press release.

This does
not seem to be an accident. It is not a stretch of the imagination to assume
that The Civil Rights Agenda purposely released their vague statement praising
Chick’Fil-A’s non-existent decision specifically to turn the restaurant’s fans
against it.

It is my
opinion that TCRA knew exactly what they were doing when they pulled vague,
accepting statements from their correspondence with Chick-Fil-A and shrouded it
in the specific demands of the LGBT community, claiming that Chick-Fil-A was
validating their complaints by dropping support for companies which disagree
with the homosexual agenda.

We asked you to show
Chick-Fil-A support for their stand for marriage yesterday when it seemed as if
their support might have been wavering. The company even more-so deserves our
encouragement now.