Who knew that chicken, religion, and anti-gay organizations went hand-in-hand? It does with Chick-fil-A restaurants.
According to the Huffington Post, Chick-fil-A has been under some fire for its documented support of anti-gay Christian organizations, and officials have remained mostly quiet about the controversy, until recently.
In an interview with the Baptist Press, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy, the son of company founder S. Truett Cathy, addressed what the publication describes as his franchise's "support of the traditional family."
He responded, "Well, guilty as charged."
He went on to note, "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."
"We don't claim to be a Christian business," Cathy said in a recent visit to North Carolina.
"But as an organization we can operate on biblical principles. So that is what we claim to be. [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."
In the interview he goes on to say, "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 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."
According to the Business Insider, the chain, founded in 1946, donated a total of $2 million to anti-gay groups including the Marriage & Family Foundation and the Family Research Council in 2010.
Cathy's remarks definitely sparked responses from LGBT advocacy groups and bloggers.
According to the Huffington Post, David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement said, ""Apparently, in the Cathy family's mind, gay people don't have families, no one divorces, and everyone must be Christian."