(By Patrick Hobin, NewsMax.com, 24 Jul 2012)
CNN and other left-friendly media outlets are running full speed with an erroneous story that brands the president of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain a homophobe because he allegedly told a reporter he is “guilty as charged” when it comes to his company being opposed to gay marriage, The Weekly Standard reported. But the Chick-fil-A president, Dan Cathy, did not condemn gay marriage. CNN and other liberal outlets made their own leap from Cathy expressing support of the traditional family and Christian growth and ministry to making Cathy appear to be condemning gay marriage. A review of the original interview shows he wasn’t even asked a question about gay marriage nor did he say he condemns it.
The
erroneous report caused such an uproar that even Boston's mayor threatened to
deny the company business permits, and the Muppets announced the fast food
chain wouldn't be able to license any new toys for their kids meals. For example, CNN said in its story: “But the
comments of company President Dan Cathy about gay marriage to Baptist Press on
Monday have ignited a social media wildfire.
‘Guilty as charged,’ Cathy said when asked about his company's support
of the traditional family unit as opposed to gay 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,’ Cathy is quoted as saying.”
In the
actual interview, Cathy wasn’t specifically asked about gay marriage. His remarks to the paper were as follows: “We
don’t claim to be a Christian business,” Cathy told the Biblical Recorder in a
recent visit to North Carolina. He attended a business leadership conference
many years ago where he heard Christian businessman Fred Roach say, “There is
no such thing as a Christian business.” “That
got my attention,” Cathy said. Roach went on to say, “Christ never died for a
corporation. He died for you and me.”
“In that
spirit . . . [Christianity] is about a personal relationship. Companies are not
lost or saved, but certainly individuals are,” Cathy added. “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.”
And here's what Cathy says about marriage, the Weekly Standard reported:
The company invests in Christian growth and ministry through its WinShape
Foundation (WinShape.com). The name comes from the idea of shaping people to be
winners. It began as a college scholarship and expanded to a foster care
program, an international ministry, and a conference and retreat center modeled
after the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove. “That morphed into a marriage program in
conjunction with national marriage ministries,” Cathy added.
Some have
opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. “We are very much committed to that,” Cathy
emphasized. “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.” CNN and other outlets reported that Cathy
spoke words directly addressing gay-rights issues and implied that he delivered
anti-gay remarks. GetReligion.org said
the reporting “raises an interesting journalistic question: Is a defense of one
doctrine automatically the same thing as an on-the-record attack on the
opposite doctrine? In this case, is it accurate for CNN (and others) to say
that Cathy made comments about gay marriage when, in fact, he did not speak
words addressing that issue?”
The reporter
of the original Biblical Recorder story, K. Allan Blume said, according to
GetReligion.org, that Cathy was "very positive” and the conversation was
not being portrayed accurately. Many of
those reports “turned [the original story] into a negative,” Blume said,
according to the website. Blume said the term “anti-gay” never came up in the
interview. “He was not saying ‘guilty as
charged anti-gay,’” Blume said. “[Cathy] never even brought up that subject.
Everything he stated was on the positive side . . . He never stated anything
negative.”
Chick-fil-A
is not without its backers, however, as the backlash of the non-controversy has
a backlash of its own, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee asking
supporters to eat at one of the fast food chain's more than 1,500 locations on
Aug. 1 as part of an "appreciation day." "The goal is simple: Let's affirm a
business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing
to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating
at Chick Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1," Huckabee wrote on his Facebook
page.
In the
follow-up to the original article ( http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38301
), I was particularly impressed with the following passage:
“It remains
to be seen whether the controversy will harm Chick-fil-A, but the company
likely will survive and might even pick up some new customers. That's partially
because its base is passionate about its food and, for the most part,
apparently appreciates its traditional stance…because its base remains in
conservative states. Texas has the most Chick-fil-A restaurants at 262.
Including Texas, five states have more than 100 restaurants, and they're all in
the South. North Carolina, which has 143 Chick-fil-A restaurants, passed a
constitutional marriage amendment in May defining marriage as between a man and
a woman. By contrast, the entire state of New York has one Chick-fil-A
restaurant. Washington state doesn't have any. Neither does Oregon. Or Vermont.
This means that
many of those calling for a boycott don't have a restaurant in their area to
boycott -- and they've likely never been to a Chick-fil-A.
After
watching the uproar, Focus on the Family's Glenn T. Stanton, who often debates
the issue of gay marriage and takes the traditional side, told Baptist Press,
"I'm gonna have to stop by there for spicy chicken sandwiches and a
milkshake more often." "We
hear almost monthly of new major companies announcing their support for the gay
community, regardless of what most of their customers want," Stanton said.
"And here we have the CEO of a clearly on-the-record traditional values
company simply saying he supports the traditional family and how tampering with
it is contrary to God's will. And the split-second reaction from these
activists is to slander him and his company in the press and blogosphere. It
just takes one company taking an alternative position to make the gay activists
and liberal press hit the ceiling. But that's where we are today." Stanton said the message by some opponents of
Chick-fil-A apparently is, "Speak up for the natural, traditional family
and we will come after you." "If
you don't believe this," Stanton said, "just watch how Chick-fil-A
will be treated in the coming months. They [Chick-fil-A's critics] are the new close-minded
fundamentalists."
My take, in
case you were wondering, is that I don’t have any issue with gay marriage
rights. I have several friends that are
married to a same sex partner and I’m very happy for them. In fact, I’m jealous that they found someone
and I haven’t. What I do have an issue
with though, is when people get slammed for voicing their opinions. Being “pro” something doesn’t automatically
make me “anti” something else. I donate
to cancer research organizations but that doesn’t mean I’m “anti-polio cure”
because I don’t donate to polio research organizations. If your argument is that traditional family
negates the concept of gay marriage, fine.
Then Chick-Fil-A is anti-gay marriage… and they have a right to be.
If the
anti-Chick-Fil-A group got their “genie lamp wish” granted, Chick-Fil-A would
go out of business and a differing opinion would be eradicated. How is that different from misguided people
in the 1950’s whose genie lamp wish would be something along the lines of “to
have all the queers disappear”? If the
culture of oppression from before needed to change to allow gay marriage to
happen, why do the pro-gay marriage advocates want to institute their own
culture of oppression? America was founded
on the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. People should be free to say and do what they
what as long it doesn’t interfere with my right to do the same. Being the most vocal doesn’t make you the
majority, or even right. Your voice needs
to be heard but you also have to let others speak too, even if you disagree
with them. Being close-minded on either
end of the political spectrum is wrong. That’s
why the “Coexist” bumper sticker had to be created.
