Henson issues statement about Chick-Fila-A

[Bannanasketch]

I'll believe that statement when I see it in action, but I still wouldn't eat there even if they became the gay-friendliest company or hired a gay spokeschicken because I'm a vegetarian that doesn't eat fast food.

I hope they actually do put that statement into action. Not necessarily because I agree, which I've really tried not to pick a side. But I'm just tired of hearing about CFA. I want to eat my Chicken Sandwich in peace, without automatically being accused of bigotry, dang it!

I think a friend of mine on Facebook said it best when he said that if you ate Oreos and Chick-Fil-A a few months ago, you'd just be an ordinary fat American. But now, you eat Oreos, you hate Jesus because you support gays. And if you eat Chick-Fil-A, you're a bigoted homophobe. Seriously, think about how stupid that sounds. Can't we all just eat what we want to eat without having to worry if it goes against our beliefs???

 

[jvcarroll]

I hope they actually do put that statement into action. Not necessarily because I agree, which I've really tried not to pick a side. But I'm just tired of hearing about CFA. I want to eat my Chicken Sandwich in peace, without automatically being accused of bigotry, dang it!

I think a friend of mine on Facebook said it best when he said that if you ate Oreos and Chick-Fil-A a few months ago, you'd just be an ordinary fat American. But now, you eat Oreos, you hate Jesus because you support gays. And if you eat Chick-Fil-A, you're a bigoted homophobe. Seriously, think about how stupid that sounds. Can't we all just eat what we want to eat without having to worry if it goes against our beliefs???

I'd like to agree with you, but that is a flawed argument.

• Gays and gay-supporters don't have an issue with Christians. We aren't trying to oppress Christianity or Christian rights.
• Some Christian groups do have a problem with gays and are trying to oppress our rights.

If you truly believe that both sides are on equal-footing, you must read this link to a heartfelt perspective that explains why. It's really sweet and it's only fair after I read yours.

There's a group of people who believe that America must believe in one or the other, but we cannot allow both.

By buying a ticket to last year's "Muppets" movie or this year's "Avengers" or "Brave" these anti-Oreo people were already supporting one of the largest gay rights advocates. Disney! They've been on the Southern Baptist boycott list for years!

Incidentally, the Henson company has never called for a boycott of anyone for any reason or disparaged any group.

 

[Slackbot]

"The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

Chick-fil-A is a family-owned and family-led company serving the communities in which it operates. From the day Truett Cathy started the company, he began applying biblically-based principles to managing his business. For example, we believe that closing on Sundays, operating debt-free and devoting a percentage of our profits back to our communities are what make us a stronger company and Chick-fil-A family.

Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."

I'll be interested when I see evidence that they're no longer supporting organizations that actively seek to suppress and harm gay people.

 

[jvcarroll]

I'll be interested when I see evidence that they're no longer supporting organizations that actively seek to suppress and harm gay people.

It will take two tax-return cycles to know that for certain and by that time the spotlight will have dimmed.

 

[RedFraggleRocks]

Actually, its only on Good Friday. But I'm a horrible Catholic that will burst into flames if I was to ever enter a church so...XD

LOL I'm an Ex-Catholic and laughed by behind off reading that...

 

[RedFraggleRocks]

Interestingly enough, my two best friends of late, both of whom I've met on the Internet and continued the friendship into Real Life, are very religious women. One's LDS and the other is Catholic. Neither one was ever put off by my sexual orientation. They both believe that we have brains and judgment for a reason, and we should think about what is right and wrong.

I suppose that's the flipside of the "Cafeteria Catholic" thing, though. If you agree with the person's stance, you say they make intelligent judgment calls. If you don't agree, or believe that the only way to be religious is to follow every word of the Bible literally, you see that as using the Bible only to justify your own views.

yup totally agree! ...actually when people start bible quoting I get SOOOOO annoyed because it's been translated so many times and is what, 2000 years old? Did someone follow Jesus around with a tape recorder? The Gay haters made me proud in college to ditch Christianity forever. I'm actually Panthiest which coincidentally is what a lot of Fraggle fans believe they are- they worship nature.

 

[dwmckim]

"The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

Chick-fil-A is a family-owned and family-led company serving the communities in which it operates. From the day Truett Cathy started the company, he began applying biblically-based principles to managing his business. For example, we believe that closing on Sundays, operating debt-free and devoting a percentage of our profits back to our communities are what make us a stronger company and Chick-fil-A family.

Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."

This looks nice on first glance but doing a more careful reading i don't take away from it any actual changes...

First two sentences = "If anyone wants to give us money, we'll happily take it. (We might not like, care about, or want them to have rights, but we'll always take their dollars."

Third sentence = "No more controversial statements to the press. (We learned our lesson: keep our mouths shut)" Also mentions leaving debate to "government and political arena" - but are they still lending their dollars to exactly that?

Paragraphs 2 & 3 is press release talk with no real meaning and nothing that can really be interpreted as doing anything different.

Also noticably absent: anything resembling either (a) an apology or (b) acknowledgement that they've done anything wrong.

 

[jvcarroll]

This looks nice on first glance but doing a more careful reading i don't take away from it any actual changes...

First two sentences = "If anyone wants to give us money, we'll happily take it. (We might not like, care about, or want them to have rights, but we'll always take their dollars."

Third sentence = "No more controversial statements to the press. (We learned our lesson: keep our mouths shut)" Also mentions leaving debate to "government and political arena" - but are they still lending their dollars to exactly that?

Paragraphs 2 & 3 is press release talk with no real meaning and nothing that can really be interpreted as doing anything different.

Also noticably absent: anything resembling either (a) an apology or (b) acknowledgement that they've done anything wrong.

Good point. It implies that they will stop funding anti-gay politics, but it never actually says that.

This controversy is unlikely to make much of a financial dent. However, it will severely limit their options for partnerships for years to come. Their president now has a bad reputation in business relations after the Henson debacle. I wish they'd apologize to the Jim Henson Company.

 

[Vincent L]

Religion is all about peace on earth, but how come it brings chaos, disagreement, and even war?

 

[Drtooth]

Good point. It implies that they will stop funding anti-gay politics, but it never actually says that.

This controversy is unlikely to make much of a financial dent. However, it will severely limit their options for partnerships for years to come. Their president now has a bad reputation in business relations after the Henson debacle. I wish they'd apologize to the Jim Henson Company.

There always could be an Eisnering out of the president, but unfortunately, that's in the case that his stances cause the stockholders to lose money. At this point, I'd LOVE to see some company just buy out Chick in a hostile take over, even if it means Crazy Cathy dumps everything he gets into more militant Christian Supremacist groups. Just to give him the relative obscurity that he deserves.

The issue isn't so much that he doesn't agree to something... the issue is he said what he said with all the grace of an elephant with digestive problems crashing through the walls of an art museum, leaving a trail of sickly droppings all the while, and all the misplaced, smug, self righteousness of a televangelist just before he's caught in either a money laundering scam or in a Caligula-esque sexcapade, or both. The guy owns a fast food restaurant. I want his opinion on religion as much as I want Grimace's opinions on health.

And yet, they're making people who politely say they don't want to do future business with someone they don't agree with/could stand to make them look bad the bad guys. People who passive aggressively take pride in eating a sandwich from a company because it's become a symbol of their self manufactured victimhood in a culture war they made up. My favorite is a certain Jabba the Hutt impersonator who thinks everyone but him is a ho, when he gets more tail than a forest full of Disney style wildlife. They've completely out D-bagged the most annoying of atheists in this debate.