It isn’t as if I missed the fact that Chick-Fil-A, as a result of its CEO S. Truett Cathy, had a strong religious bent. Most people familiar with Chick-Fil-A know that the store is closed on Sunday and that is per corporate policy that is religious based. So far, so good, I have no problem with that.
However, when a friend goes into a store and along with their meal is handed a video DVD by James Dobson of “Focus on the Family” infamy, a DVD which no less purports to tell a woman “how to be a good wife” they have gone too far. Focus on the Family is not just a religious group, it is a political one. As with many groups on the religious right, they seek to marry church and state and impose their views on the rest of the country.
In case anyone was wondering, this shared marketing between Chick-Fil-A and Focus on the Family is not new. According to Wikipedia:
Chick-fil-A has promoted religious groups via toys and CDs included in children's meals, much as movie studios promote new movies via McDonald's Happy Meal toys. These have ranged from including toys from the Christian television series VeggieTales in children's meals to including Financial Peace for Kids children's books by Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey and CDs from the Christian radio program Adventures in Odyssey, as children's meal incentives. The latter show is produced by the radio division of Focus on the Family, and typically heard on Christian radio stations.Chick-fil-A and Focus on the Family also have a history of cross-promotion. Chick-fil-A has also sponsored meetings by the group All Pro Dad; All Pro Dad is a group with affiliations with Focus on the Family via a group called Family First; Family First promotes a large number of conservative religious causes, including covenant marriage.-------------------------------------------------
I’m surprised such practices have not caught the eye of Liberal and Progressive groups before now. Again, the issue is not that Chick-Fil-A and its CEO are promoting a religion. They could hand out Bibles or Korans or anything like that if that is their desire. It is the promotion of a group like Focus on the Family that should earn Chick-Fil-A a boycott. Please spread the word. No Democrat/Liberal/Progressive should patronize Chick-Fil-A until they get out of the business of promoting the Christian Right.
