The fact that once-proud Christian establishment Chick-fil-A has just been scared off from donating to its Christian allies by the leftist mob feels like a betrayal and the end of an era. For the past seven years, the chain has championed conservative Christians and their values and now, by ditching their donations to Christian charities to appease a vocal 4 percent of the population, it’s clear they care more about their PC image than the Christians who stuck by them through thick and thin.
Various outlets reported on Monday, November 18, that the popular fast-food chain officially decided to stop donating to Christian charities, The Salvation Army, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. This comes after years of Chick-fil-A standing their ground against accusations from lefty media that they’re a bigoted organization for giving to “anti-LGBTQ” groups. The Advocate claimed that The Salvation Army and FCA “organizations have long histories of being anti-LGBTQ and will now allegedly no longer receive money from the company.”
Of course, this is just the classic hyperbole hurled at explicitly-Christian charities. It’s the same way the left has smeared Second Lady Karen Pence for working at a Christian private school. Last Spring, Huffington Post insinuated that Mrs. Pence was a bigot working at a school that “bans” homosexuals.
Chick-fil-A has withstood this attack for the past seven years, refusing to balk at the left’s accusations ever since restaurant founder Dan Cathy’s 2012 affirmation that his franchise supported the “traditional family.” At the time, network programs like Good Morning America and CBS This Morning pounced on the company for its founder's statement and even Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Boston Mayor Tom Menino called for a ban on the chain doing business in their cities.
Conservatives and Christians immediately went to Chick-fil-A’s defense, slamming the media’s glaring double standards. Media Research Center’s Founder and President Brent Bozell led a conservative coalition for the Christian company, including other conservative groups like Family Research Council, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Susan B. Anthony List, among others. In a press release, Bozell claimed, “The media smeared anyone who lined up for a chicken sandwich as an anti-gay bigot instead of a proud Christian or free speech patriot.”
Then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee went to bat for the fast-food chain, calling for a “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” on social media in the summer of 2012 to counteract what he called “vitriolic assaults on the Chick-fil-A company.” Huckabee got “almost 35,000” to pledge support for the chain, asking them to “affirm a business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse.”
Of course, many conservative groups have consistently championed Chick-fil-A’s first amendment rights since then. More recently conservative outlets and lawmakers pushed back against heinous calls from both the San Antonio and New Jersey local governments to boycott new Chick-Fil-A restaurants in their cities because of these donations to Salvation Army and the FCA.
Members of the San Antonio City Council (prompted by haters at the now-defunct leftist outlet ThinkProgress) justified their decision by calling the business a “symbol of hate.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) responded forcefully, asking the Federal Department of Transportation to investigate whether the council’s decision was unconstitutional, calling it “discriminatory.”
Following San Antonio’s lead, Buffalo, New York’s regional airport also moved to ban the restaurant from the vicinity for continuing to “donate money to several anti-LGBTQ organizations.”
It’s clear that Chick-fil-A has flipped on what appeared to be rock-solid convictions and abandoned many of the conservatives who have bent over backward to protect it. The saddest aspect is that the chain is selling out the values of at least 35 percent of the population (conservative Americans) to appease the Christian-hating anger of a much smaller 4 percent (LGBT Americans) who, as we’ve seen, will never be satisfied.
