Head of Chick-fil-A clucks that gay marriage brings God’s judgment?
The head of Chick-fil-A restaurants appears to have stated again his personal opposition to gay marriages, and possibly alleged that God will be displeased with America over the expanding acceptance of marriage equality.
Jeremy Hooper of the blog Good-As-You uncovered a radio interview, from June, in which Dan Cathy, the President and CEO of Chick-fil-A, Inc., seemed to denounce marriages that are not “traditional” heterosexual couplings.
On June 16, The Ken Coleman Show [podcast] hosted a discussion about the topic of “strong fathers.” Coleman claimed that the country was suffering from a “fatherless crisis” and invited Cathy, by phone, to share his point of view. Cathy replied that he believed “stability” and something called “emotional DNA” came only from homes where a mother and father were present. Then Cathy veered off topic to reveal his thoughts about society’s current direction on marriage:
“I think we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him, you know, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’ And I pray God’s mercy on our generation, that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about.”
For his part, Ken Coleman tweeted out today:
“My interview with Dan Cathy caused a stir on gay marriage…. Chickfila’s Dan Cathy comments on my show about marriage is trending # 3 on Yahoo. Disagreement does not = hate.”
In a separate interview posted by North Carolina’s Biblical Reporter on July 2, Dan Cathy again appeared to have stated his support only for male-female marriages. The Reporter wrote:
“Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. ‘Well, guilty as charged,’ said Cathy when asked about this opposition. ‘We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit…. We intend to stay the course. 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.'”
Last Word and many other news blogs have documented past links between Chick-fil-A and anti-gay organizations. In February of 2011, Dan Cathy claimed: “we have been accused of being anti-gay. We have no agenda against anyone…. While my family and I believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, we love and respect anyone who disagrees.” Mr. Cathy’s latest bizarre religious claims about God’s intent seem to have undermined that statement and possibly revealed his deeper perspective.
There is only one Chik-fil-A restaurant located in Washington, DC at Catholic University. However the company has expanded greatly in recent years with dozens of restaurants across central Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Georgia-based company reports that it has achieved $4 billion in annual sales despite the long-running controversy. Reaction has been mixed among gay marriage supporters over calls for a unified boycott of the company and its restaurant franchises.
And if you didn’t catch it this past March, these three queens of mockery created a viral hit with their music video, “Chow Down (at Chick-fil-A)” [NSFW]:
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