Chick-fil-A Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy has never sugarcoated his ideals about traditional marriage. He recently took that a step further when gave a staunch warning to those in opposition.
“I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’” Cathy said on the Ken Coleman Show. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think we can try to define what marriage is all about.”
In the midst of a national firestorm surrounding gay marriage, Cathy won’t back down from his biblical values. Despite left-wing criticism and pressure, Cathy has reaffirmed his company’s stance and support for traditional family values.
“Guilty as charged,” Cathy told the Family Research Council. “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.
“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.”
Chick-fil-A is the second-largest quicker-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States based on annual system-wide sales.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino this week told the Boston Herald that he vows to keep Chick-fil-A from coming to his city. The Atlanta-based chain has more than 1,600 restaurants nationwide, but only two in Massachusetts, a state where same-sex marriage is legal.
“Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion,” Menino told the Herald Thursday.
Cathy said that Chick-fil-A “doesn’t claim to be a Christian business,” but that “as an organization, we can build on biblical principles.”
“That is what we claim to be,” Cathy told the Baptist Press. “We are based on biblical principles, asking God and pleading with God to give us wisdom on decisions we make about people and the programs and partnerships we have. And, He has blessed us.”
Cathy and Chick-fil-A have taken a great deal of heat from the Left, especially when it donated lunches to a healthy marriage seminar in Pennsylvania in 2011, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. Gay activists took exception to that action and encouraged liberals to boycott the restaurant.
