Okay, so we know what that means. But it’s hardly anything new. There were articles about CfA’s partnership with the Pennsylvania Family Intitute back in January '11. The Henson Company was presumably aware of CfA’s general positions before the toy deal was set up in the first place.
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That’s not all Cathy said, even though just that statement would be bothersome. He also said the following:
[QUOTE=Dan Cathy]
It’s very clear in Romans chapter 1, if we look at society today, we see all the twisted up kind of stuff that’s going on. Washington trying to redefine the definition of marriage and all the other kinds of things that we go—if you go upstream from that, in Romans chapter 1, you will see that because we have not acknowledged God and because we have not thanked God, that we have been left victim to the foolishness of our own thoughts, and as result, we are suffering the consequences of a society and culture who has not acknowledged God or not thanked God—he’s left us to a deprived mind. It’s tragic and we live in a culture of that today.
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I think that’s what’s gotten people more riled up.
It’s not just the owner. The company donated more than $1 million to anti-gay causes from 2003 to 2008. My cite is here.
My understanding (from other threads on the subject) is that Chik-Fil-A does not franchise. They’re all owned by the Cathy family - everyone at your local chicken stand is an hourly employee.
But if the bigoted cretins who run CfA have to explain to their franchisee’s, and their suppliers, and everyone else that “sorry, business is taking a downturn due to the fact that we hate gay people and are bigoted cretins”, then the greater good is served.
I think I have eaten from there twice in the past 6 years, but I won’t do it again, and will explain to my friends why if it comes up. Not likely, but I’ll do my part the best I can.
Okay, that’s from another, earlier occasion. Nothing wrong with bringing it out, of course, but I believe I was still correct to say that the present kerfuffle began with this interview in Baptist Press.
And things have gotten strange fast. The bit about the Henson Company divestment is interesting (and Chick-fil-A looks silly for their “recall” response), but it’s gone beyond that.
“Yep, Chick-fil-A is still stuck in its own reality and is doubling down on its lie. Instead of owning up to the fact that The Jim Henson Company stopped doing business with them because they’re overrun with bigots, the chicken sandwich company appears to have made fake Facebook accounts to defend its honor on the social network. How do we know the accounts are fake? Just check out this back and forth on Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page between real, breathing people and “Abby Farle”, a Facebook account that was made 8 hours ago by a chicken PR flack with a stock image of a teenage girl as her profile picture:”
Chick-fil-A as a company is technically separate from the Cathy philanthropic organization known as The WinShape Foundation but the money behind WinShape is made at Chick-fil-A.
Additionally, it would seem that there are franchisees, but they are vetted to be the “right kind” of people. (See Above Link)
This Abby Farle crap, and then pretending that there’s a safety recall instead of Henson Inc. withdrawing their toys, is quickly moving into Cooks Source territory.
But more importantly, it’s well within the power of local governments to ban discrimination. There is evidence that Chik-fil-A discriminates in recruitment of at least some of its higher-level employees. You’d have to check local law, but it seems well within a municipality’s rights to refuse a license to such an operation, if that evidence is accurate.
“In case any of you are undecided as to whether or not you’re going to come to our place and buy more junk food, we are offering a FREE ICE CREAM CONE instead of a $0.13 plastic toy that your kid would play with for about twelve minutes and then lose behind the sofa.”