As I previously wrote, Chick-fil-A and Dan Cathy have come under fire as the President of the business stated that he supported the traditional marriage in a recent interview with Baptist Press. One of the organizations calling for American’s to start boycotting Chick-fil-A is Human Rights Campaign, which has taken the time to write up a pledge that people can sign condemning Cathy for his beliefs.

Personally, I think H.R.C. has taken far too many liberties in their reporting of this story. In fact, I will go as far as to say that they are misleading readers who haven’t taken the opportunity to read the original article for themselves. Where do I get off making a statement like that? Here’s where I came up with my conclusion:

[The following statements are all from HRC’s website and can be found there in its entirety]

Chick-fil-A is boldly embracing one of the darker values that drives their organization: discriminating against LGBT Americans.

By claiming that Chick-fil-A supporting the traditional family is a “darker value” is to play on the emotions of the reader.

Stating that the organization “discriminates against LGBT Americans” is not accurate. In fact, nowhere in the article or in any of the interviews I’ve found with Dan Cathy, does he ever claim to be against members of the LGBT community. I have yet to read about him or the company discriminating about their employees who are homosexual/bisexual/transgender or anything of the sort. There is no discrimination going on here. The man simply supports marriage between husband and wife.

When questioned about Chick-fil-A’s donations in a recent interview, COO Dan Cathy replied: “Guilty as charged.”

As you can read in the article from Baptist Press, Cathy was not talking about donations at all. He was responding to the company’s position of supporting traditional marriage. [Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. “Well, guilty as charged,” said Cathy when asked about the company’s position.] He was not questioned about donations or any other funding issues when he replied with “Guilty as charged.” That line on HRC website is a fabrication and is misleading.

In a follow-up interview, Cathy continued: “We’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say we know better than You as to what constitutes marriage.”

I have an issue with this “quote” because I have yet to find the interview where Cathy said this. In addition to not being able to find the origin of this statement, I haven’t found a reliable news outlet that has included this quote. If I do in fact find the original source of this statement I will post it on here. I refuse to comment on any quotes from the internet without verifying the source.

Moving along…

As support for LGBT equality grows, fair-minded customers now have the facts they need to decide whether they want to support a discriminatory company like Chick-fil-A.

By using language like “fair-minded customers” and  “support a discriminatory company”, HRC is saying that if one supports Chick-fil-A’s stance they that person is not fair-minded and is also discriminatory. It is written in a manner to invoke agreement in the reader.

Here is the “pledge” from HRC that they want people to sign:

I am dismayed to see Chick-fil-A’s COO, Dan Cathy proudly touting his company’s business decision to discriminate against LGBT Americans. Cathy claims to run Chick-fil-A based on biblical principles — but he is ignoring the fact that the Bible calls us to treat all with love and respect.

In addition to the majority of Americans who support marriage equality, we know that a large majority of Christians — nearly 90 percent — say the very tenets of their faith lead them to reject discrimination against LGBT people.

As support for LGBT equality grows, fair-minded customers like myself have the facts they need to decide whether we want to support a discriminatory company like Chick-fil-A. While I respect Mr. Cathy’s right to his personal opinions, I strongly urge Chick-fil-A to stop using money from customers as part of a larger effort to oppress LGBT Americans. Until then, I will have to reconsider whether I spend my money at Chick-fil-A.

Lets review the issues with this pledge:

1- As I mentioned before, Chic-fil-A does not discriminate against members of the LGBT community. Not agreeing with someone is not the same as discriminating.

2-The Bible does call us to love and respect others. I have yet to see Chick-fil-A not do that. Again, not agreeing with same-sex marriage does not constitute being unloving or being disrespectful of someone.

3- “Nearly 90 percent”… I would like to see where HRC found this statistic. I am not aware of a study that was done that offers this statistic in its findings.

4-Even if that statistic is true, it is irrelevant. I do not support same-sex marriage but I reject discrimination against the LGBT community, or any other community. My faith does teach me to love others, to treat all people with respect, and with kindness. It does not teach that I have to hold the same beliefs as others.

5-Stating that one support’s Cathy’s personal beliefs in this pledge seems odd. The entire pledge is based on not supporting his personal beliefs. It is based on not supporting his personal beliefs and that of his company.

6-I strongly urge Chick-fil-A to stop using money from customers as part of a larger effort to oppress LGBT Americans.”- Again, never once did Cathy ever say he was using customers money to “oppress” anyone. In fact, there have been no actual instances where money from the business has been used for anything involving marriage issues in any way. If HRC has proof that Chick-fil-A has been using money to “oppress” anything I would really like to see it.

7-Speaking of “oppress”, what are they even talking about? Lets head to the good old dictionary to find the actual definition…

      Oppress:[verb] Keep (someone) in subservience and hardship, esp. by the unjust exercise of authority.

    Dan Cathy is not forcing anyone into hardship. LGBT are not living in hardship. Slaves, they were living in hardship. Being unable to legally marry someone is not severe suffering.

“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.”

As you can see in the original interview, Dan Cathy was not trying to get into a debate about marriage nor he intending to make a public statement about the legalization of same-sex marriage. This has all stemmed from a few comments the business’s family-centered spirit and commitment to biblical principles.