Right-wing pundits are devastated today after news that Chick-fil-A, a principal source of lib-ownage, was restructuring its charitable giving and leaving organizations that oppose same-sex marriage behind.
Bisnow exclusively reported Monday that the new charity initiative will “instead focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger.” Chick-fil-A faced years of public criticism after it was revealed that the company donated to organizations that oppose LGBTQ rights and its CEO Dan Cathy expressed anti-LGBTQ beliefs in a 2012 interview. The fast-food company’s perceived anti-LGBTQ stance made it a sacred bastion in the right-wing culture war and a beacon of Christian values at work among the religious right. But today’s news tore that all apart.
Religous right radio host Todd Starnes, who had been an ardent defender of Chick-fil-A, speculated in a blog post that the company’s decision validated “quiet whispers in the conservative movement” that the restaurant “had moved to the far left of the political chicken coop.”
Conservative writer and editor Rod Dreher shamed Chick-fil-A and called the company’s leaders “cowards.” In a lengthy screed, Dreher complained that companies are choosing to market products to the LGBTQ community, asserting that Chick-fil-A had been successful because it donated to anti-LGBTQ organizations, rather than in spite of the fact. From The American Conservative:
I love Chick-fil-A, but it’s going to be a while before I go there again. This is nothing but gutless surrender.
And it’s a lesson to all of us. The LGBT lobby, and their progressive allies, will never, ever leave you alone. Never. You watch: within five years, Chick-fil-A will be embracing woke advertising campaigns. Just this morning, I was looking across the breakfast table at my kids’ cereal box, saw this rainbow, and wondered why Honey Nut Cheerios had gone gay.
[…]
Chick-fil-A’s surrender today reveals the true order of this world, and who holds the power in it, and who are the pariahs.
Washington Examiner commentary writer Kaylee McGhee declared in a headline that Chick-fil-A’s decision was “shameful capitulation in the culture war.” As told by McGhee, the fast food company had surrendered its Christian values in response to “the cultural Left.” From Washington Examiner:
This capitulation is shameful. Chick-fil-A has always been an explicitly Christian business — and not just because it closes on Sundays and includes Bible verses on its cups. Those details are just outward expressions of the faith this company’s founders hoped to share with their customers.
[…]
Now Chick-fil-A is distancing itself from those values by holding at arm's length other Christian organizations that uphold them. That they did so for the sake of the cultural Left is disappointing. That they did so at the expense of their company’s purpose is disgraceful.
More than ever, we need companies willing to stand up for what’s right. Religious companies and individuals alike are regularly demonized for simply living out their faith, and now Chick-fil-A has decided to look the other way.
PragerU, the wildly successful digital messaging project of Dennis Prager, mocked Chick-fil-A for caving, referencing the fact the fast-food chain trains its employees to answer expressions of gratitude with “my pleasure”:
The mob: Cave! Cave! Cave!@ChickfilA: My pleasure
?♀️?♂️https://t.co/4ZL1Bumn4y
— PragerU (@prageru) November 18, 2019
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro tweeted that Chick-fil-A had “caved at the behest of the censorious Left,” and was an indicator “that the center cannot hold.”
Chick-Fil-A has survived and thrived because they served everyone AND refused to cater to the cancel culture. Now they’ve caved at the behest of the censorious Left. This is a terrible move and just the latest indicator that the center cannot hold. https://t.co/dyb0Vbp5QS
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 18, 2019
The Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh expressed a similar sentiment.
Rage mob: "Stop being Christian"
Chick-fil-A: "No"
Rage mob: "Stop being Christian"
Chick-fil-A: "No"
Rage mob: "Stop being Christian"
Chick-fil-A: "No"
Rage mob: "Stop being Christian"
Chick-fil-A: "No"
Rage mob: "Stop be-"
Chick-fil-A: "Okay fine"
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 18, 2019
Allie Beth Stucky told Chick-fil-A: “Bye!”
Really @ChickfilA? This is the direction you want to go? You’ve garnered the unconditional support of millions not in spite of but BECAUSE OF your stances, which is the sole reason you’re successful. Idiocy. Bye! https://t.co/LIAzBt9Xos
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) November 18, 2019
One America News personality and Pizzagate truther Jack Posobiec mourned Chick-fil-A’s decision.
The Left wins again @ChickfilA caved to the mob and sacrificed everything they stood for
And they did it at Christmastime
— ✌?Jack Posobiec✌? (@JackPosobiec) November 18, 2019
Iowa talk radio host Steve Deace said that what Chick-fil-A did is “called slandering the brethren.”
What #ChickfilA is doing today is called slandering the brethren. And if you know what that's a reference to in the New Testament, that is nothing to trifle with. Galatians 6:7
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) November 18, 2019
