Chick-fil-A to End Donations to Christian Charities after LGBT Backlash
“We made multi-year commitments to both organizations and we fulfilled those obligations in 2018,” a representative for Chick-fil-A said, saying the chain will now focus its charitable donations on “education, homelessness and hunger.” - National Review
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I’m going to start eating at Popeye’s. At least if I can find my ballistics vest….
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Todd Starnes has some video/articles about this: https://www.toddstarnes.com/
The fact that CFA is not a church is irrelevant. They are a business which made very public identification with Biblical family values concerning marriage. They have now chosen to minimize that identification because of the problems that identification caused with the growth of the business. Any expectations we had from CFA were created by CFA itself. A “sandwich place” has to maintain Biblical fidelity when that sandwich place publicly identifies with Christianity, which CFA has done. Again, that expectation was created by CFA itself. For those looking for “explicit” statements from CFA that they are caving to the culture, you’re not going to see such statements since CFA is using carefully chosen words to hide what they are doing - similar to some denominations which hide their unbelief with conservative-sounding words. Yes, the church is the pillar and ground of the truth, but the church is composed of individual believers, many of which work in CFA management. Now those individual believers, who are part of some church somewhere (I would hope) are now caving to the culture. So, yes, part of the church is abandoning its “pillar and ground”. The “works of kindness” they say they will support are presently themselves compromised with the culture. So don’t be naive. CFA’s policy change is a major shift in attitude and practice. Eventually those Christians who work for CFA will have to make a moral/ethical decision when the CFA they work for is pressured to donate money/food to immoral organizations. Your business is not “pleasing God” when it gives financial support to immorality.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
Wally wrote:
Eventually those Christians who work for CFA will have to make a moral/ethical decision when the CFA they work for is pressured to donate money/food to immoral organizations.
I wonder how many Christians who feel the same extend this principle to the policies of their local and State governments, which their tax dollars support.
Or, alternatively, people could realize they’re getting worked up over a fast-food chicken restaurant.
Fast.
Food.
Chicken.
Restaurant.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
You don’t understand.
Chick Fil A is not just a fast food chicken restaurant.
It is one of the few corporate entities that God appoints at any given time to fight liberalism and promote cultural Christianity in America. It, along with Hobby Lobby gives American Christians discernment, courage, and confidence on the stands that they can and should publicly make. Without these appointments, American Christians would be utterly devoid of a spiritual champion, even though the rest of Christianity takes ultimate comfort in promised return and triumph of Jesus Christ.
As for Chick Fil A, its betrayal means that cherubim stand ready to accompany the Glory of the Lord out of a restaurant near you. Your church should not waste any time and get your home-made “Ichabad” signs out, ready to nail to each restaurant in bitter condemnation as His Glory departs.
May God raise up another corporate champion of American Evangelicalism soon.
John B. Lee
Victory … in CFA
My Savior … forever
It sought me
and it bought me
with its redeeming chicken
it loved me, ere I knew it
and all my love is due it
it plunged me to victory
beneath the cleansing flood (of chicken grease)
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[WallyMorris]Todd Starnes has some video/articles about this: https://www.toddstarnes.com/
The fact that CFA is not a church is irrelevant. They are a business which made very public identification with Biblical family values concerning marriage. They have now chosen to minimize that identification because of the problems that identification caused with the growth of the business. Any expectations we had from CFA were created by CFA itself. A “sandwich place” has to maintain Biblical fidelity when that sandwich place publicly identifies with Christianity, which CFA has done. Again, that expectation was created by CFA itself. For those looking for “explicit” statements from CFA that they are caving to the culture, you’re not going to see such statements since CFA is using carefully chosen words to hide what they are doing - similar to some denominations which hide their unbelief with conservative-sounding words. Yes, the church is the pillar and ground of the truth, but the church is composed of individual believers, many of which work in CFA management. Now those individual believers, who are part of some church somewhere (I would hope) are now caving to the culture. So, yes, part of the church is abandoning its “pillar and ground”. The “works of kindness” they say they will support are presently themselves compromised with the culture. So don’t be naive. CFA’s policy change is a major shift in attitude and practice. Eventually those Christians who work for CFA will have to make a moral/ethical decision when the CFA they work for is pressured to donate money/food to immoral organizations. Your business is not “pleasing God” when it gives financial support to immorality.
Wally, I can (sort of) see the point about people (theoretically) having to decide whether or not to work there but that’s the great thing about being able to change jobs. We all have to make moral decisions related to employment. Anyone looking to their job as some sort of quasi-church or spiritual center needs to study somw ecclesiology. I just don’t understand why anyone would expect a business to maintain some type of Christian testimony. Maybe I’m cynical but I don’t believe really any public claim to Christianity. As I already said, it’s too bad that the LGBTQ crowd has so much power but the gospel is the answer which I’m sure you would agree with. We can’t “win” through social structures.
1. Of course the CFA Foundation and the CFA restaurant are 2 distinct legal entities. Practically, however, the donation policies of one are the same as the other. Obvious.
2. Of course we can’t “win” through social structures. I’ve never said we should or can. The point here is very simple, even though some obscure the point through irrelevant comments. Once again: The issue here is that CFA very publicly identified with Biblical teaching concerning marriage and supported that identification with financial donations. The “Christian testimony” is one which CFA gladly and publicly embraced but now is releasing that “embrace” for financial gain. CFA admitted that its previous donation policies hurt its business growth. Therefore, the change.
3. By law (and Biblical principle), we all have to pay taxes to governments. No one HAS to work for CFA. BIG difference, one which those Christians who manage a CFA restaurant will have to decide eventually when the local restaurant they manage is pressured (by the new donation guidelines & job security) to give money/food to immoral organizations. The issue is not about chicken, never has been.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
1- Can’t preach the gospel in public schools
2-Can’t preach the gospel in college anymore
3- Boy Scouts is now the bastion of progressiveism
4- Gay marriage accepted
5- Can’t not make a gay wedding cake or your business is shut down
6- Psuedo-Christian CEO makes a tangentially Christian statement he is run out of town on a rail
7- Military chaplains on the defensive about proselytizing and LGBTQ
8- Towns by dozens are amending their civil rights laws to include LGBTQ protections
9- Many locals threaten to remove Churches tax-exempt status
10- Doctors/nurses right to refuse to participate in abortion is being challenged
–—
Yep, no problems here. After all, that’s just cultural Christianity dying. No we can really fight!
The Salvation Army is the latest target of progressive wrath. British pop singer Ellie Goulding threatened to cancel an appearance at the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving halftime show, which will celebrate the army’s red-kettle campaign, unless it made a “pledge or donation to the LGBTQ community.” She backed down after the Salvation Army assured her it serves needy members of that community. Chick-fil-A this week said its charitable foundation will no longer donate to the Salvation Army and two other organizations that hold traditional views on same-sex marriage—apparently yielding to intense political pressure.
The 154-year-old organization has long faced criticism for positions on marriage and sexuality that are typical of Christian groups. In the late 1990s, it abandoned a contract with the city of San Francisco rather than comply with a mandate to provide benefits to gay employees’ domestic partners. Along with other religious leaders, its commissioner signed a 2012 letter advocating traditional marriage and religious freedom. Queerty.com in 2014 touted internal documents revealing the Salvation Army doesn’t let officers officiate same-sex marriages. One blogger urged last year: “Please Don’t Support the Salvation Army: It’s an anti-LGBTQ church.”
Yet the organization says it doesn’t consider sexual orientation in hiring and now provides “the same benefits to opposite-sex and same-sex couples.” A page on its website called “The LGBTQ Community and the Salvation Army” declares that “all people who come to us for services are offered assistance according to their need and our capacity to help” and specifically invites sexual minorities to avail themselves of its shelter, job-training, food, substance-abuse and suicide-prevention programs. The organization has a shelter in Las Vegas specifically for transgender people. …
“We believe we are the largest provider of poverty relief to the LGBTQ+ population,” the Salvation Army said in a statement after the Chick-fil-A decision. Considering it serves nearly 25 million people every year, that’s likely true. The Illinois-based Prairie Pride Coalition last year praised the “sincere, earnest efforts by the staff and leadership at our local Salvation Army.”
Feeding, clothing and housing people—and affirming their dignity regardless of sexual identity—meets their needs in ways that activist groups cannot. But for today’s activists, good works are irrelevant without professions of faith in progressive orthodoxy.
The Salvation Army tiptoes now somewhat. Its position on marriage is mentioned on the website but hard to find. As long as its work for the needy remains generous and available to any kind of person, it should have no shame in its convictions.
JIm’s excerpt from the WSJ illustrates the problem Christian ministries are having with balancing helping people in practical ways yet maintaining Biblical teaching on moral issues. And when some of these ministries accept money from government or charitable organizations, the eventually have to decide which to maintain: Biblical fidelity or financial support. Some make “minor” changes in order to pacify complaints from secular culture, but that is only delaying the inevitable open clash between Bible truth and secular unbelief. I have not given any money to the Salvation Army in a very long time since many of the local SA churches do not know what the gospel is anymore.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
I don’t know why you all are bickering over this. As I’ve said before, I don’t particularly like CFA, never have figured out why they are so popular. I suppose that is just me.
But when secular sources are commenting that CFA is caving to the queer crowd, I don’t see why it is so hard to admit it here. CFA isn’t a church, true. They are just another example of a corporation cowed by the pressure groups. Time will tell if it’s a good business decision or not. I personally don’t think it will matter all that much, business-wise.
as for us, we should all be eating more slow food anyway…
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
The aggressive secular culture’s “serious threat to Christian orthodoxy” is not in eliminating Biblical belief (that won’t happen) but in intimidating people from openly supporting Biblical belief. CFA, or any other business, cannot “make a great product for the glory of God” if they are caving to an ungodly culture’s pressure on social/moral issues. Donating to a LQBTQ cause is probably not that far away, although perhaps in a backhanded way. It’s never a good business decision to cave to secular culture on moral issues. Again: The issue isn’t the chicken. It’s what CFA used to financially support and what they are refusing to financially support. More “Christian” business will follow.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
I beg of you all to realize how silly this is. I just returned from a meeting of every manager at my State agency. The agency is trying to figure out how to regulate INSURANCE while at the same time accomodate the idea that gender is a social construct. How should insurance companies rate a man who claims to be a woman … without using biological gender as the rating factor for life insurance? And, the agency is about to require people to specify their preferred pronouns on all correspondence!
This is the madhouse world we live in. And some Christians, many of whom live in the remnants of the Bible Belt, are upset about … a fast food chicken restaurant.
I think the horse left the barn a long time ago! A chicken restaurant’s donations are the least of my worries. I have much more relevant and pressing indications that the secularists have crashed down the gates and are storming the keep!
Sincerely,
Tyler (he/him)
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20191120/values-go
Now, some of you might argue that walking away from the Salvation Army or Fellowship of Christian Athletes isn’t an endorsement of an LGBT agenda. But it is exactly that. And here’s why. Chick-fil-A didn’t just switch their giving practices, they broadcasted it. They made a conscious choice to draw attention to this very public divorce from two Bible-believing charities. And then, in a calculated move, announced their support was going to an organization that, on its website, openly and proudly supports everything about the LGBT community.
Still not sure why we are arguing about this. It’s pretty obvious what’s happening.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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