Mayor Menino vows to block Chick- fil- A over anti-gay attitude

[Auburn85 434]

http://bostonherald....ti-gay_attitude

Mayor

Thomas M. Menino is vowing to block Chick-fil-A from bringing its Southern-fried fast-food empire to Boston — possibly to a popular tourist spot just steps from the Freedom Trail — after the family-owned firm’s president suggested gay marriage is “inviting God’s judgment on our nation.”

“Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion,” Menino told the Herald yesterday.

“That’s the Freedom Trail. That’s where it all started right here. And we’re not going to have a company, Chick-fil-A or whatever the hell the name is, on our Freedom Trail.”

Chick-fil-A has been swept up in a growing national controversy over company president Dan Cathy’s remarks questioning gay marriage and lauding the traditional family.

Chick-fil-A did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But the company released a statement yesterday saying it has a history of applying “biblically-based principles” to managing its business, such as closing on Sundays, and it insisted it does not discriminate.

“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,” the statement read. “Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.”

But that isn’t cutting the mustard with Menino. He said he plans to fire off a letter to the company’s Atlanta headquarters “telling them my feelings on the matter.”

“If they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult — unless they open up their policies,” he warned.

In February, Northeastern University balked at Chick-fil-A’s plans for an on-campus eatery after students squawked about reports the chain’s charitable arm donated millions of dollars to anti-gay groups.

Undeterred, Chick-fil-A — which boasts 1,600 eateries, including two in the Bay State — has been scouting the Hub for new locations and is reportedly eyeing a lease at 1 Union St., across the street from City Hall, the Holocaust Memorial and historic

Faneuil Hall.

The Purple Shamrock said it’s moving out when its lease expires in mid-September because of a 60 percent rent hike, according to a spokesman for owner Glynn Hospitality Group. The bar has been there for 32 years.

The 1 Union St. landlord, Steven Binnie of Carlisle Properties in Portsmouth, N.H., said he has no deal with Chick-fil-A and declined to discuss potential tenants. “I don’t know anything about the controversy,” he said.

Menino blocked Walmart from a Roxbury development last year, criticizing the retail giant’s impact on neighborhood businesses and lower-wage workers.

Now it looks as though he may try to do the same to Chick-fil-A.

“It doesn’t send the right message to the country,” Menino said. “We’re a leader when it comes to social justice and opportunities for all.”

[AURaptor 1,137]

This is not the proper function of govt, where mayors ( or Presidents ) act as dictator, deciding on what we get to drink or who gets to put in a business. A business that has done nothing wrong, will create jobs and bring in more tax revenue for the community. For this mayor to be spear heading the move to keep Chick-fil-A from opening up in his town, to be writing letters to the company to tell them how he FEELS, is childish and absurd.

[Grumps 3,706]

I am confused. I think this is the article that has caused all of the controversy. Where in this article is any hatred or bigotry?

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38271

CARY, N.C. (BP) -- Dan Cathy oversees one of the country's most successful businesses. As president and chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A, Cathy leads a business with 1,608 restaurants that had sales of more than $4 billion dollars last year. They sell chicken and train employees to focus on values rooted in the Bible.

His father, S. Truett Cathy started the business in 1946, when he and his brother, Ben, opened an Atlanta diner known as The Dwarf Grill (later renamed The Dwarf House). In 1967, his father opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta. Today, Chick-fil-A is the second largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States based on annual system-wide sales.

Dan Cathy's success has not erased the biblical values he learned as a child in a Baptist church. He is a warm, common man who is deeply committed to being a faithful Christian witness. And he is fully involved in New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga. He drives Chick-fil-A's efforts to provide genuine hospitality, ensuring that customers have an exceptional dining experience in a Chick-fil-A restaurant. Based on Matthew 5:41, Cathy is on a mission to provide customers with "second-mile" service -- exceeding even the highest expectations of a typical fast-food restaurant.

"We don't claim to be a Christian business," Cathy told the Biblical Recorder in a recent visit to North Carolina. He attended a business leadership conference many years ago where he heard Christian businessman Fred Roach say, "There is no such thing as a Christian business."

"That got my attention," Cathy said. Roach went on to say, "Christ never died for a corporation. He died for you and me."

"In that spirit ... [Christianity] is about a personal relationship. Companies are not lost or saved, but certainly individuals are," Cathy added.

"But as an organization we can operate on biblical principles. So that is what we claim to be. [We are] based on biblical principles, asking God and pleading with God to give us wisdom on decisions we make about people and the programs and partnerships we have. And He has blessed us."

Rather than leading from his corporate office in Atlanta, Cathy chooses to spend the majority of his time traveling to the chain's growing family of restaurants and interacting with Chick-fil-A's committed team members. His actions stem from a belief that working in the field provides a clearer understanding of the needs of Chick-fil-A customers. Leading from the front line also enables him personally to convey his servant spirit to the chain's 61,000-plus employees.

Cathy believes strongly that Christians are missionaries in the workplace. "Jesus had a lot of things to say about people who work and live in the business community," he said. His goal in the workplace is "to take biblical truth and put skin on it. ... We're talking about how our performance in the workplace should be the focus of how we build respect, rapport and relationships with others that opens the gateway to interest people in knowing God.

"All throughout the New Testament there is an evangelism strategy related to our performance in the workplace. ... Our work should be an act of worship. Our work should be our mission field. As long as we are stateside, let's don't think we have to go on mission trips by getting a passport. ... If you're obedient to God you are going to be evangelistic in the quality of the work you do, using that as a portal to share [Christ]," he said.

When asked if Chick-fil-A's success is attributed to biblical values, Cathy quickly said, "I think they're inseparable. God wants to give us wisdom to make good decisions and choices." Quoting James 1:5, he spoke of how often he asks God for wisdom.

"Frequently Jesus challenged us to just ask ... we're simply not asking as often as we should. We need to be more faithful to depend on a God who does love us and wants to have a relationship with us, and wants to give us the desires of our hearts."

There is another success story attributed to Cathy's organization. They have a positive influence in the world of Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) football.

There was a time when the Atlanta college football bowl game, which is now named after Chick-fil-A, was called the Peach Bowl. The annual bowl features teams from the ACC and the SEC. It struggled for a long time. Then 15 years ago the Chick-fil-A organization got involved. It was rebranded as the Chick-fil-A Bowl and has been incredibly successful with 15 consecutive sellouts.

"We are the only bowl that has an invocation. It's in our agreement that if Chick-fil-A is associated in this, there's going to be an invocation. Also, we don't have our bowl on Sunday, either," Cathy said.

In 2008 Chick-fil-A began sponsoring a Chick-fil-A Kickoff game matching two of the nation's top teams and hosted on the first weekend of the season in the same stadium (Georgia Dome) as the Chick-fil-A Bowl. This year Chick-fil-A will host two kickoff games, one on Friday and one on Saturday.

"That's never been done before," he said.

The pair of Chick-fil-A Kickoff games is expected to generate more than $60 million in economic impact. The bowl website describes the event as "a college football celebration of epic proportions."

When questioned about Chick-Fil-A's "Closed on Sunday" policy Cathy responded, "It was not an issue in 1946 when we opened up our first restaurant. But as living standards changed and lifestyles changed, people came to be more active on Sundays."

The policy has not changed over the years as malls began changing their policies by opening on Sundays.

"We've always put in our lease that we will be closed on Sundays," Cathy said. "We've had a track record that we were generating more business in six days than the other tenants were generating in seven [days]."

"While developers had no identity whatsoever with our corporate purpose to 'glorify God and be a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and have a positive influence on all that come in contact with Chick-fil-A,' they did identify with the rent checks that we wrote to the mall, that were based on our sales.

"So, they would make an exception for Chick-fil-A when they wouldn't make an exception for anybody else, simply because they knew we would pay them more in rent than any other tenant would that was open even seven days a week."

The company invests in Christian growth and ministry through its WinShape Foundation (WinShape.com). The name comes from the idea of shaping people to be winners.

It began as a college scholarship and expanded to a foster care program, an international ministry, and a conference and retreat center modeled after the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove.

"That morphed into a marriage program in conjunction with national marriage ministries," Cathy added.

Some have opposed the company's support of the traditional family. "Well, guilty as charged," said Cathy when asked about the company's position.

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

"We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that," Cathy emphasized.

"We intend to stay the course," he said. "We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles."

--30--

K. Allan Blume is editor of the Biblical Recorder, online at BRNow.org. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress ) and in your email ( baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

[AURaptor 1,137]

I've never noticed an employee wearing a cross, or been greeted with ' Bless you, welcome to Chick-fil-A !' when I visit. The spin on this story and the attention it's getting is dumbfounding. The Left talk about McCarthyism and witch-hunts, as if those things only exist on the far Right, when in fact, what we have here is exactly that. Any mention of Christianity, or not gleefully buying into the whole gay marriage construct, or damn near anything the Left views as important, automatically gets you branded with a scarlet letter.

I wonder if the kooks on the Left will try to charge Chick-fil-A with being racist next. I mean, with corp head offices in Atlanta, and being run by a white, Christian man...

[TitanTiger 20,708]

Good grief, that is the article. I knew it was from an article with Baptist Press that this got started.

What a bunch of overblown handwringing over nothing. News flash: sometimes people hold views that differ from you. Welcome to life with other humans. Sheesh.

[sandyclawedtiger 207]

How is Chick-fil-a anti gay but this mayor isn't anti Christian?

[MDM4AU 337]

“Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion,” Menino told the Herald yesterday.

...

“If they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult — unless they open up their policies,” he warned.

...

“It doesn’t send the right message to the country,” Menino said. “We’re a leader when it comes to social justice and opportunities for all.”

OK, unless it's in the Baptist Press article, where has Chick-fil-A shown that they discriminate? What policies need to be open? What message does Chick-fil-A send that is a social injustice?

Clearly, this ignoramus discriminates against anyone with a differing opinion. He apparently only wants to include people who share his opinions on things and exclude those that don't.

[AUn Collierville 1]

“Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion,” Menino told the Herald yesterday.

...

“If they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult — unless they open up their policies,” he warned.

...

“It doesn’t send the right message to the country,” Menino said. “We’re a leader when it comes to social justice and opportunities for all.”

OK, unless it's in the Baptist Press article, where has Chick-fil-A shown that they discriminate? What policies need to be open? What message does Chick-fil-A send that is a social injustice?

Clearly, this ignoramus discriminates against anyone with a differing opinion. He apparently only wants to include people who share his opinions on things and exclude those that don't.

That pretty well sums up the left. That No H8 group hates anyone who does not agree with them.

[The Freak 2,530]

Anyone else enjoy the irony in the mayor's blatant suppressing of freedom in the name of the freedom trail? Hilarious.

[rexbo 104]

Anyone else enjoy the irony in the mayor's blatant suppressing of freedom in the name of the freedom trail? Hilarious.

Exactly, has he not heard of the First Amendment to the Constitution? As a member of the government he cannot punish a business solely for their speech. His actions are absolutely prohibited by the First Amendment, and he would be thrown out on his head if Chic-fil-a took it to court.

[AURaptor 1,137]

How is Chick-fil-a anti gay but this mayor isn't anti Christian?

That's sorta like asking why Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton aren't racist. They are, but the Left wing media template doesn't want anyone to THINK along those lines, so it doesn't get said.

[Tigermike 3,425]

How is Chick-fil-a anti gay but this mayor isn't anti Christian?

That's sorta like asking why Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton aren't racist. They are, but the Left wing media template doesn't want anyone to THINK along those lines, so it doesn't get said.

In the spirit of bipartisanship and just trying to be helpful and get along I'll save Tex a little time.

Why all the hate Raptor? Why do you have to always be a racist?