Recently, many have found new reasons to stop eating Chick-Fil-A that go beyond lack of nutritional value. Chick-Fil-A is a chicken chain that claims to attempt to uphold Christian values through its practice. Recently, it has come out that their charitable endeavor, WinShape, has been giving generous amounts of money to organizations known for being anti-gay. Here is a list of organizations they donated to, and how much they donated, in 2009:
Marriage & Family Legacy Fund: $994,199
Fellowship Of Christian Athletes: $480,000
National Christian Foundation: $240,000
Focus On The Family: $12,500
Eagle Forum: $5,000
Exodus International: $1,000
Family Research Council: $1,000
This adds up to almost 2 million. A closer look reveals that each and every organization on that list is anti-gay. The Marriage and Family Legacy Fund is owned by the senior vice-president of Chick-Fil-A and is explicitly anti-gay in its agenda. Focus on the Family holds conferences that discuss how gay marriage is wrong and has a page on their website devoted to what to do if your spouse “struggles with homosexuality.” Additionally, they boast an entire section on “God’s Design for Marriage” that maintains that marriage is between a man and a woman. Exodus International offers “hope and help to people seeking freedom over their homosexual impulses and behaviors.” Their mission statement is to “Mobiliz[e] the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality.”
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has a section on its leadership application that makes applicants promise to obtain from any homosexual acts and claims that it has “freed” people from homosexuality. The Family Research Council has a section discussing homosexuality on its website that states that the “Family Research Council believes that homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it” and call it “by definition unnatural, and as such associated with negative physical and psychological health effects.” The National Christian Foundation gives grants to Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. The Eagle Forum vehemently bashes all anti-bullying organizations, calling Dan Savage (founder of the “It Gets Better” project) a “foul-mouther, anti-Christian homosexual activist” and calls transgenderism “Gender Identity Disorder.”
So, there you have it. Every single organization Chick-Fil-A funded in 2009 is blatantly and openly homophobic. There is no way around this fact. No one can control where Chick-Fil-A decides to send its money. What we can control is whether or not we patronize the restaurant chain.
The only Chick-Fil-A in New York City resides on the New York University campus in one of the freshman dorms, Weinstein Hall. Every day, students pick up their chicken sandwiches and happily eat them around campus. This begs the question: is eating at Chick-Fil-A supporting homophobia?
Many students don’t think so. One student said “I don’t care…as long as the people working here are being nice,” and another says she “respects them because they uphold Christian values.” Many students expressed that the anti-gay funding simply acts as another reason to avoid unhealthy food. “I started getting sick from it earlier in the year,” said one Weinstein Resident “but also, my money is going to causes I don’t support that would be against me.” Another Weinstein resident asserted that “”NYU is such a pro LGBTQ school, that it just absolutely doesn’t make sense. We should only have things on our campus that represent who we are as a University, and that’s just not it.”
Regardless of whether or not the Chick-Fil-A remains on campuses or street corners, we all need to be more aware of where we are funneling our money. If it’s going to a series of homophobic organizations, Chick-Fil-A, and any other chains with similar positions, they’ve definitely lost this writer and countless others as customers.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Nice work. Focus on the Family also produced what was essentially an anti-abortion ad which was aired during the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. The star of that commercial just so happens to be the new quarterback of the New York Jets…Tim Tebow.