By now you’ve surely heard that the Chick-fil-A Foundation, the arm of the chicken giant ($10.5 billion in revenue and growing fast) that gives money to various causes, has changed its giving mission. Part of the announcement included the news that they will no longer give money to the Salvation Army, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The reason is obvious. These organizations are unapologetically Christian, and support the biblical view of sexual morality (I’ll give the context below). This was disappointing when I first read about it Tuesday morning, but far worse than I first thought. I realized this as I read a piece in PR Week this morning titled, Did Chick-fil-A Make the Right Move? Uh . . . nope.
If their goal is to alienate their most faithful customers, those that helped them double their revenues in the last five or six years, then I predict it will be a resounding success. If their goal, however, is to grow their business, it will be a spectacular failure. The reason I am undoubtedly right about this is the unavoidable implication of the philanthropic change of direction.
First, the promised context. The radical, secular, sexually obsessed left has been at war with Chick-fil-A since 2012 when CEO Dan Cathy affirmed the traditional and biblical view of marriage, that it is, always has been, and will be, between one man and one woman, for life. When this impudent rich white guy had the temerity to voice his support for real marriage, leftist bullies called for boycotts on the restaurants. That kind of backfired, to say the least. Former Arkansas Governor and Fox news personality Mike Huckabee called for a Chick-fil-A appreciation day that summer, and it was a gargantuan success. We lived in Illinois at the time, and the closest Chick-fil-A was in Naperville, about 20 minutes from our house. I, of course, had to go and spend my money to support a company that had the courage to stand up to the leftist bullies. I’ll never forget as I got close to the restaurant and saw for the first time that the lines of cars seemed to go on forever. I’d never seen anything like it! And standing up for their Christian beliefs, including being closed on Sundays, has been very, very good for business.
Then the gut punch Monday. It’s bad enough that the company is caving to leftist bullies like a. . . . chicken, but that by caving they are affirming what the left believes: that Christians are bigots! Affirming that standing up for biblical norms of sexuality and marriage means we are motivated by hate, not any better than full blown racists. This was the realization I had as read the piece linked to above. There is no way around these implications, regardless of what the ownership and leaders of Chick-fil-A believe. By making this move they are declaring that the enemies of all things Christian have been right all along. The end of the piece answers its question without directly answering it:
American Principle Project Director of Policy and Government Affairs Jon Schweppe said Chick-fil-A has damaged its brand for no gain. “The activists who urged them to abandon The Salvation Army won’t be satisfied. Nothing Chick-fil-A does will be enough,” he told me. “Meanwhile, Christians and conservatives who flocked to Chick-fil-A…feel betrayed.”
We won’t know the reality for some time, but I think Schweppe is right. Openly liberal cultures at Starbucks, Twitter, and Facebook haven’t protected them from liberal boycotts. Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A just alienated a significant portion of its customer base.
The market will decide.
Indeed it will. This may be the dumbest corporate move in history, making the “New Coke” look ingenious. All I know is that unless they repent, I, and my family, will never darken the doors of a Chick-fil-A again. I’d rather spend my money at companies who thought I was a bigot all along.
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