Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy enters gay-marriage argument

Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy enters gay-marriage argument

It's not on a daily basis that the leader of an industry steps into a nationwide debate that has the possible to annoy a lot of its consumers.

Yet Dan Cathy, head of state of the preferred junk food chain Chick-fil-A, has done simply that, claiming on a radio program that \"we're welcoming God's judgment on our country when we shake our clenched fist at him and also say we know better than you as to what comprises a marital relationship. And I pray God's grace on our generation that has such a prideful, big-headed perspective that assumes we presume to redefine what marital relationship is all about.\"

Adhering to reaction after those statements, Cathy then told the Baptist Press in a post uploaded July 16 that he is \"guilty as charged\" and is extremely \"helpful of the family-- the biblical interpretation of the family.\"

Response has actually been fierce as well as swift. Blog writers sounded off. Stars promised to boycott Chick-fil-A. Followers of the company responded on Twitter and Facebook with whatever from assistance to disgust.

Chick-fil-A's Christian principles is already extensively recognized. The chain, which has more than 100 areas in Virginia and also greater than 50 in Maryland, is closed on Sundays, pipelines in hymns on the premises bordering its headquarters and has formerly come under fire from lesbian, gay and bisexual and also transgender groups for donations made by the firm's structure.

So why have Cathy's comments caused such a stir? On the one hand, you could say leaders of services, specifically personal, family-owned ones, must be able to speak their minds. However when a business leader chooses to take a public and singing position on a hot-button political concern in an election year, he or she additionally takes the chance of shedding the assistance of a lot of its consumers. It is something to be a company that \"run [s] on biblical principles\"-- remaining shut on Sundays, making donations to teams it sustains, continuing to be debt-free. However it is quite an additional to suggest that people who sustain same-sex marriage-- much of whom are undoubtedly customers-- have a \"proud, arrogant mindset.\"

Cathy's comments would have been less explosive, if still controversial, had he made them a minimum of a bit extra balanced, as he had in the past. In January of last year, he informed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: \"we're not anti-anybody,\" including, \"our mission is to develop raving followers.\" The firm additionally released a statement to the paper stating that \"while my family members and I rely on the Scriptural interpretation of marriage, we like as well as value anybody who differs.\"

For leaders of firms with a nationwide, varied client base, that's probably where it ought to be.