Chick-fil-A is America’s favorite fast food restaurant and has been for the seven consecutive years. The restaurant known for its delicious chicken and top-notch customer service is often in the news for its Christian values, and especially for its stance regarding biblical marriage.
In 2019, the city of San Antonio, Texas, blocked Chick-fil-A from opening a new restaurant at its airport because of CEO Dan Cathy’s outspoken stance on same-sex marriage. The city does “not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior,” city council member Roberto Trevino said at the time.
Trinity University, a college in Texas, also barred Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant on campus because the popular chain charitably gives to organizations known for speaking out against LGBTQ+ initiatives and organizations.
Those actions led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to sign a law protecting businesses like Chick-fil-A from discrimination due to their religious beliefs or where they donate money.
Cathy told the Baptist Press in 2012 that he was “guilty as charged” for supporting and leading a company that supports traditional marriage. “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.”
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“We operate as a family business…our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single,” Cathy continued. “We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that.”
Over the past decade, public support in America for the LGBTQ+ community has increased while support for the value of Biblical marriage has waned. Cathy has come under fire for being vocal about his beliefs. “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.”
In 2020, Chick-fil-A announced a shift in its charitable giving, stating it would no longer donate to groups like Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and the Salvation Army. The company’s giving would focus “exclusively in the areas of hunger, homelessness, and education.” Both FCA and the Salvation Army have been criticized for holding anti-LGBTQ+ stances.
This shift in donation policy led some Christians, including former Arkansas Governor and current Conservative Baptist Network Steering Council member Mike Huckabee to argue that Chick-fil-A was caving to secular pressure. “The sad message of @ChickfilA is quite clear,” Huckabee tweeted. “They surrendered to anti-Christian hate groups. Tragic.”
New Jersey Township Mayor Doesn’t Want Chick-fil-A
The latest attempt to block construction of a Chick-fil-A is Mayor Michael Venezia of Bloomfield Township in New Jersey. The mayor is calling on the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to reconsider its decision to allow a Chick-fil-A to be built at an upcoming service area located on the Garden State Parkway.
