If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say…

“I think we are 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 a marriage. I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.” -Dan Cathy, President and COO, Chick-Fil-A

Cathy made those statements last week during a radio interview. His company, Chick-Fil-A, has also donated several million dollars in recent years to anti-gay marriage groups through the company’s foundation, the WinShape Foundation.

These comments have to make the DD wonder, why would the leader of a large, consumer-focused company willingly insult a significant portion of its clientele? As a business person, it’s just stupid to say those things. Of course, Cathy inherited his leadership role from his father who founded the company. So it’s probably not a stretch to assume that Cathy is an entitled son, assuming that it is a reasonable business move to insult a specific customer set (gay people and straight people that don’t support bigotry).

Because of Cathy’s remarks, customers and other stakeholders are trying to prevent Chick-Fil-A from expanding. The Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is attempting to block the company from expanding in Chicago. Boston’s mayor Thomas Menino is attempting to do the same. Those two cities alone have nearly 13 million potential Chick-Fil-A customers that might not be able to purchase Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwiches.

It’s worth noting here that Chick-Fil-A is a privately owned company. If it were a public company, its directors and senior executives would have a fiduciary duty to increase shareholder value. If the president of a public company were to make these remarks, shareholders could arguably file a lawsuit accusing him of not following his fiduciary duty to increase shareholder value by openly insulting a substantial customer base.

As has been said here many times before, the Dignified Devil does not tolerate hate speech or bigotry. Today’s dignified gentleman does not tolerate this type of speech. The world has evolved beyond such little minds, and there are many more important issues going on today than fighting losing battles against people that are different than you are. What makes this case of bigotry particularly unfortunate is that Chick-Fil-A is delicious.

Cathy goes on to say, “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.”

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Recent examples of men that espoused this type of language include Pastor Eddie Long (His words: “Homosexuality and lesbianism are spiritual abortions” and “God says you deserve death!”), Ted Haggard (Homosexuality is “devastating” to Western civilization), U.S. Senator Larry Craig (proposed legislation defining marriage being between a man and a woman), among many others. The one thing that links all of those men? They were caught either engaging in homosexual relationships, soliciting homosexual prostitutes, or purchasing gay porn.

So, beyond being an unwise businessman, history naturally begs a question when it comes to Dan Cathy… And we’re sure you readers can figure out what that question is.