Chick-fil-A made huge waves last month after its decision to cut charitable funding to the Salvation Army after the organization was slanderously labeled “anti-LGBT.”
According to Townhall’s Ryan Bomberger, tax records from recent years have revealed another shocking act of betrayal by the Christian-owned fast food giant: unannounced donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left extremist group.
Back in 2012, Chick-fil-A CEO and president Dan Cathy simultaneously earned the praise of conservatives and Christians and the ire of leftists when he confirmed his biblical belief in God’s design for marriage.
“[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,” Cathy said in an interview with The Baptist Press at the time. “And He has blessed us.”
Just a few days after Cathy’s infamous remarks, Floyd Lee Corkins, a pro-LGBT activist, attempted a mass shooting at the Family Research Council’s (FRC) D.C. headquarters. Carrying a backpack full of Chick-fil-A sandwiches and 50 rounds of ammunition, Corkins hoped to “kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in victims’ faces, and kill the guard.”
During an FBI interrogation, Corkins admitted that he selected FRC from the SPLC’s list of “hate groups” on its website.
SPLC has long been the subject of controversy for its practice of labeling virtually every politically and socially conservative group, including those who disavow the use of violence, as a “hate group.” According to their classification, groups like the FRC are right at home on their “Hate Map” among the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. The group’s classifications, however, have become so dubious that the FBI ceased referencing their “hate group” database years ago.
Just a few years after Cathy’s remarks and the attack on FRC, Townhall reports, Chick-fil-A donated to SPLC. On page 11 of the company’s 2017 tax forms, we see that it gave the organization $2,500 for “civic/community programming,” even surpassing amounts given to local food banks and shelters.
In a statement on the shocking discovery, FRC president Tony Perkins urged Christians to repay Chick-fil-A the same treatment they’ve shown the Salvation Army: taking their money elsewhere:
Tax reports have now exposed Chick-fil-A for funding the anti-Christian Southern Poverty Law Center; an organization linked in federal court to domestic terrorism after their smear campaign of Christian organizations resulted in a shooting in which the gunman planned to smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in the faces of his victims.
Not only has Chick-fil-A abandoned donations to Christian groups including the Salvation Army, it has donated to one of the most extreme anti-Christian groups in America. Anyone who opposes the SPLC, including many Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and traditional conservatives, is slandered and slapped with the ‘extremist’ label or even worse, their ‘hate group’ designation. At one point, the SPLC even added Dr. Ben Carson to its ‘extremist’ list because of his biblical views (and only took him off the list after public outcry).
Seven years ago, a shooter entered our building with the intent to murder as many people as possible and smear a Chick-fil-A sandwich in their faces. The gunman was enraged by the nationwide Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day held two weeks before and used the SPLC’s ‘hate map’ to identify FRC as his target. Despite being seriously wounded, the FRC building manager, Leo Johnson, heroically stopped the gunman. Dan Cathy, nor anyone with Chick-fil-A inquired about the well-being of Mr. Johnson or any of the FRC team members, but they made a donation to the SPLC which was linked in federal court to this act of domestic terrorism. Chick-fil-A has seriously lost their way.
It’s time for Christians to find a fast food alternative to Chick-fil-A.
In an attempt to explain away the questionable decision, Chick-fil-A Foundation’s Executive Director and VP of Corporate Responsibility Rodney Bullard said, “We don’t want our intent and our work to be encumbered by someone else’s politics or cultural war. If something gets in the way of our mission, that is something that we are mindful of and cognizant of.”
However, according to Townhall, SPLC is just one of several leftist, pro-abortion, and anti-Christian groups funded by Chick-fil-A in 2017 alone. How’s that for staying out of the “cultural war”?
Before this revelation, there was still some room for debate as to whether or not a Christian could continue patronizing Chick-fil-A with a clear conscience. Now, it seems the decision is much more straight-forward. Are you done eating at Chick-fil-A?
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