Somewhere, a Burger King ad man’s toying with the idea of having “The King” declare himself “100% pro-life.”
~ Allahpundit describing the positive effect Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day may have on future fast-food marketing strategies, Hot Air, August 1
Chick-Fil-A company spokesman Steve Robinson announced that sales on August 1 were “unprecedented.”
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Fast food is disgusting.
I thought this was really funny. I put it on my fb page yesterday.
Jack & Joanne went on the web to try to sound smarter, Jack was droll and tried to troll and Joanne came trolling after.
Good point to this article, though short, it will be interesting to see what happens.
I see no reason why other fast-food restaurants shouldn’t declare themselves to be pro-life and pro-traditional marriage. Look how Chick-Fil-A Appreciation day turned out. Packed and with record sales. Let’s show our Christian values by patronizing establishments that uphold Christianity.
Too many nursery rhymes can be made out of my name….
I wasn’t trolling. Fast food is gross.
I don’t think other companies will just be able to “match” chick fil a’s success. Before this whole controversy erupted, chickfila had already invested decades in creating an amazing brand. Before another company expects the kind of loyalty shown on Wednesday, they better have employees as kind, helpful, and well-spoken as chickfila’s.
We have…four Chick-fil-As in my town (well, two towns, really, but they’re smushed up against each other). On Wednesday, the line to one of them was backed up for several blocks. All the way to…Gay Street. (Yes, that is really the name of the street.)
Jack is no troll. He is pro-life and has been commenting here forever. He doesn’t fit the typical pro-life mold and thats why I like to hear what he has to say.
Jack I agree with you. I do however indulge on OCCASION. I think in moderation it is okay.
I love my liberal friends on facebook were bashing Chick-fil-A then had to concede that thousands upon thousands of people showed up to support what they disdain. Then they started the “If they had spent that money feeding poor people instead of buying chicken sandwiches…” which reminds me of when the pro-aborts say we can’t be against abortion if we don’t adopt every single baby…
I know SEVERAL people who did buy lots of Chick-fil-A on August 1st to donate to homeless shelters and/or poor families.
My family is poor and I bought Chick-fil-A for our lunch on Aug. 1st so you could argue I also fed a poor family ;-)
The point is these people showed up to make a point and it excited me. But of course the marriage haters had to call in a bomb threat at one location, deface Chick-fil-A property at another location and have you seen the video of the guy getting his “free water” in the drive through lecturing the Chick-fil-A cashier? She handles it with dignity and aplomb.
lol, Jack, agreed. Chick Fil A is actually the only fast food I really like (save for the occasional McD’s fries as a hangover cure). But there aren’t any in my city anyway.
I was pretty appalled at what the Chicago politicians said about Chick Fil A, and I stand by the company’s right to have its own opinions without being denied entry to a business market by the government. But I also don’t like the identity-politicization of it – like, I saw pictures on FB of all the CFA lines etc, with text that said stuff like “We’re coming, Obama!” etc. If you’re going to say that this is about freedom of speech and freedom of religion, which are bipartisan points so people of a variety of different lifestyles and political beliefs should be alarmed by what was said, that’s fine; but you can’t then claim that everyone who turned out in favor of freedom of speech/religion supports YOUR religion and YOUR speech. I know tons of Obama supporters who think that the politicians’ statements against CFA were worrisome.
Laura Johnston: “Let’s show our Christian values by patronizing establishments that uphold Christianity. ”
MEB: “Before this whole controversy erupted, chickfila had already invested decades in creating an amazing brand.”
I would take MEB’s comment further and add that Chick-fil-A has (according to everything I’ve heard) established itself as a company that is guided by specifically Christian principles rather than purely economical or political ones.
(personally, I REALLY like that they close on Sundays, which is practically unheard of anywhere near my home)
I haven’t heard of Burger King (or any other fast-food place, for that matter) having that kind reputation to back up a similar stance, and thus a like move on their part could more conceivably (than Chick-fil-A, anyway) have absolutely nothing to do with supporting Christian values and everything to do with generating publicity and support for their ledger.
I have no problem supporting a genuinely pro-life business, but I would not be too hasty in further declaring them to be “defenders of Christianity.”
I wish I’d thought of this Wednesday: Making sure everyone in the line I was in at the local Chick-Fil-A was registered to vote!
Hi Sidney and Alexandra! Btw I didn’t defriend or block either of you on Facebook, if you noticed I wasn’t on your friends list anymore. I deleted my account. You can get my email if you ever want to get hold of me. Hope you are both doing well.
I am pretty opposed to this restaurant owner’s stance on gay marriage, but I disagree with people saying that they shouldn’t be able to express their views. Everyone is entitled to their viewpoints, and if I don’t like them I can take my money elsewhere, just like everyone else who doesn’t agree. Though it’s not like they ever got my money anyway, fast food is disgusting and like none of it is vegetarian.
You can only have a Biblical strategy work for your business if you truly are a Biblically based business owner or manager. If you are a Christian, you ought to develop a Bible study for yourself concerning how to conduct business. When you look for it, how to conduct yourself at business is in there.
Proverbs 11:1, 16:11, and 2:23 each note that you should use honest scales. A farmer is encouraged not to reap every scrap from the harvest so that those more needy can glean some of the yield from what you left behind (Lev 23:22).
I cannot remember where it is, but one scripture notes that you should not ignore someone who wants to buy someting from you on loan just because you are approaching the one of every seven years where debts ought to be cancelled, which is a debt-forgiveness provision established in Deuteronomy (15:1 and elsewhere).
All that to say that Christianity is a way of life, and you will find what you need in the user manual for life. It’s in there.
As a mid-life convert, I know how these progressives and liberals think and talk about Christianity amongst themselves. I have been in so many social settings where the same stereotypes wre repeated without challenge.
What I came to learn, across time, was that these stereotypes are not accurate, and were actually intentionally developed by marxists to help tear down Christianity, a leading impediment to the eventual worker’s revolution they believe is coming.
They have fed these ideas – Christians are stingy, hateful, are no compassionate, are hypocritical - in a hundred ways, without having this be detected as an extended campaign. With those thoughts in my mind, I was primed to interpret single events as merely examples of these things. I fit in well with the other democrats since I thought we were fighting bigoted stingy republicans.
I was the tool. I accepted stereotypes without questioning reality, or questioning who developed and purveyed these stereotypes. So now I hear my liberal friends repeating things that are ridiculous, and they don’t even see how ridiculous they are. Like – buying a Chk-fil-A is an expression of “hate.” That is ridiculous.
They look stupid to most Americans. But they have allowed themselves to be seduced by a world that positions them as benevolent superior saviours, and they cannot let go of the enjoyable power rush.
Meanwhile, the rest of us can be sure to patronize certain businesses even more when we have the opportunity. Komen fund-raising is down, and Chik-Fil-A has been enjoying a viable business for decades, despite gifting the competition one additional day per week, and will continue to do so.
Jack, I just now noticed you were gone! Do you know Carla’s email? If you need mine you can get it through her. My husband deleted his account as well. Doesn’t look good for Zuckerberg ;-)
I hope you are doing okay. I’ve been thinking about you a lot. I’m here as a friend if you ever want toy talk again.
What I came to learn, across time, was that these stereotypes are not accurate, and were actually intentionally developed by marxists to help tear down Christianity, a leading impediment to the eventual worker’s revolution they believe is coming.
I certainly don’t think the stereotypes are accurate either, but don’t you think it’s at least possible that they were not intentionally developed as a conspiracy but rather came about as a result of people interacting with those who professed to be devout Christians but behaved in unethical or even just thoughtless ways? I knew a guy who made a big show of refusing to work on Sundays, for example; but he’d take his family to the movies or go to a restaurant. He’d tell everyone [at our shared church] that Sunday was meant to be a day of rest and then he’d go and enjoy the fruits of SOMEONE ELSE’S work on Sundays. I have nothing against Sunday work – I like the idea of everything being closed on Sundays but really just so that people get a freaking break already, not for religious reasons – but even such a minor thing, his grandstanding and judging of those around him even as he benefited from the very things he criticized, I thought self-involved and oblivious to the realities and the lives of those around him.
There are thoughtless people or hypocrites in every religion but when your religion vastly outnumbers the others, it’s only somewhat natural for people to have more experience with its less ethically consistent followers.
Jack,
I have yet to make my first stop at Chik-Fil-A. But when I do, I’ll be thinking of you, buddy! But without a shred of guilt or misgivings, I confess. ;)
Jack, I am very, very glad that you’re ok. I figured you had deleted your account but I am really glad to hear it from you. I don’t want to change the subject or make things upsetting, but a friend of mine killed himself a month ago and I actually first realized he was dead because his FB account vanished (his wife closed it, I suspect at his request – he had left her a long note). He had a 6-month old daughter and one of the most successful careers I’ve ever seen in such a young person; he was two years younger than me. He had a beautiful home and a ton of friends and was always the calmest, least stressed guy in the room. It was just such a shock.
The day that his body was identified but before the information was made public, I had the sudden random urge to send him a FB message. I went to find his profile…and couldn’t. Not just on my friends list, but anywhere.
“That’s strange,” I thought, and I told myself maybe he had deleted his account. Still, something felt wrong and I started to feel a bit sick. I just KNEW, somehow. I googled his name to reassure myself (something I admittedly occasionally do – I google the traffic route my partner takes home when he’s running late and not answering his cell, to check for car accidents, etc) and caught the news article that his body had been found and identified, mere minutes after the news was released. The very first link proclaimed, in bold-printed blue search-engine font: “Body of ____ _____ identified as Hudson River corpse.” I just went completely numb and had to read the article five times just to absorb the fact that he was dead. I will never forget the stark, lonely, sickening horror of learning that information in such a banal, isolated way. Later on people called and e-mailed to publicly share the news and mourn, but I will never forget clicking through my friends list and feeling my blood start to rush even as my heart seemed to stop. It sounds like such a silly, tiny little thing – FB friends – but it isn’t. Not always.
None of that is anything to do with you but when I realized that I hadn’t heard from you in a while, and went to search for your profile only to realize that it was gone – it just made my heart stop for a second. With you I just KNEW you were ok, like how I knew in my gut that my friend wasn’t – but still. I have been very glad to see you posting here and didn’t really want to say anything until you brought it up. You are such a wonderful guy and you’ve survived so much terrible stuff that it seems cruel that life is putting you through this, now, too. I just wanted to tell you again that I really do care.
That’s terrible about your friend Alexandra, I’m sorry for you and his family’s loss. That would be an awful way to find out, as well. Suicide is so incredibly sad. I really don’t know what to say other than I hope everyone who loved him is getting the support and care that they need.
And thank you, I’ll be fine as always! I appreciate your friendship and support. Sorry, I am not very expressive but I genuinely do appreciate your care and concern.
The Lombard Chik-fil-A was ludicrously backed up onto the highway the other day, and I was on a time constraint. So I stopped today as soon as they opened (coincidental timing on my commute) to try ’em for the first time.
I’m not a big fast food fan either, but their product was good enough. The waffle fries could be a bit crisper. Their brand sauce was only so-so, I thought. I should NOT have ordered the peach shake, but I succumbed to the weakness of “first time, what the heck” and ended up feeling a bit bloated as a consequence.
The restaurant design was superb; better than most fast food chains by far (but nowhere near as nice, of course, as “local” chains such as Portillos). The staff were outrageously polite and courteous. Alas, my work has be doing fast food more often than I wish, and these staff were indeed exceptional. Usually it’s sullen, insolent, insouciant teenagerness everywhere I go. This company apparently has great training (you see that at Portillos as well).
Will I be back? Maybe. Few of them are anywhere near my typical commute points in the Chicago area. Their food isn’t awesome enough to go out of the way for, to my palate, though it’s certainly quality stuff.
That said, if I could have thrown my empty bag and trash from Chick-fil-A on Rahm’s desk at the Daley Center, I’d have laughed while doing it.
Why do they call it ‘mad cow disease’?
Because PMS was already taken!
My first experience at CFA was not hunger driven. I was there to fix their A/C.
I still work on their A/C occasionally, but I believe CFA has gotten the better end of the deal in the exchange of goods and services for CASH.
For whatever reason I did not it make by on August 1st.
On August 2nd I dropped in and inquired how things went the day before. They had a record day. Almost 34 thousand dollars in sales.
[I have been showing my appreciation six days a week for many years.]
But GOD I love it when people vote with their feet and their wallets. Stuffing the ballot box is so much fun.
All them angry white men clinging to their GOD and their guns and not one report of of a homosexual being bashed.
Flaming heterophobes reach critical mass and not one incident of a pedophile preying on little boys and girls ‘eatin mor chikun’ and havin fun.
Ring one up for soccer mom, apple pie and the one and only wife of my life.
I do have one beef with CFA.
They used to play contemporary Christian music in their stores, but for whatever reason they opted to go with instrumentals only. It changed the atmosphere and NOT for better.
Now it’s like ‘Muzak’. [Wazzzzup wit dat mr. Cathy?]
It sounds vaguely familiar, but I can’t recognize any of the songs.
This just in: PETA has announced they are spotlighting CFA’s sexploitation of female bovines.
[Perhaps it has escaped your notice that there are no CFA ‘bulls’, not even ‘steers’.]
Just one more example of sexism running rampant in the market place.
Addendum: the few people in line with me, from what I could infer, were also having their first time with Chick-fil-A. Each of them, it seemed. So the whole August 1 thing was not the whole story by any stretch. Publicity is publicity. I’d bet they see a permanent bump — though I can’t imagine it would be dramatic.
Americans just don’t like government telling us who’s a “permissible” business, and what values we’re obliged to hold as denizens of whatever fair city (Chicago, a “fair city” LOL) they rule as petite despots. The crowds were far, far less about gay marriage than about tea party values, frankly — “Don’t tread on me.” That libertarian-minded folk fled to support a business who opposes another libertarian notion (gay marriage), is telling. Government efforts to control are loathed above private parties’ viewpoints. And this is right and good. Private companies may earn or lose business of those who find their beliefs objectionable. But government indeed has the power to coerce. The latter power is more odious in its abuse than the mere existence of a business with whom some may disagree. Given a choice between government control and free markets, libertarians will side with CFA.
“Fast food is disgusting.”
Not as disgusting as 2 men having sex with each other.
I will have a quarter pounder with cheese (biggie size) in Jacks honor..
Awww, thank you, Jasper sweetie. *blows kiss*
“Not as disgusting as 2 men having sex with each other.”
If it’s so disgusting, why did you bring it up?
If it’s so disgusting why did you bring it up?
Um, probably because “it” is the thing Mr. Cathey opposes, and this has (surprise, surprise), drawn fire from Chicago’s left bank.
I totally support CFA’s stand on this, and stopped by in sympathy, though it was later in the week.
I do wonder about the Sunday closure thing, since the only day of the week set apart by God for rest and generally refraining from commerce is the seventh day of the week, which works out to Saturday, not the first day of the week. Seems if it didn’t matter, He wouldn’t have been so specific. Same thing about His remarks on sexual expression. I think Cathey’s heart is in the right place; just needs to close on Saturdays instead of Sundays, as his intent is clearly to honor God and the Sabbath.
jtm,
Ooo boy. I’m problably the only one here who agrees with you about the Sabbath. Although I repect Mr. Cathy, and Eric Lidell, who was central in Chariots of Fire for not wanting to compete on a Sunday for the 1924 Olypics. He was portrayed, ironically enough for this topic, by Ian Charleson, who soon after died of AIDS.
(*sitting up*) Wait… Alexandra, you’re on Facebook?
:) If you’d ever be game to befriend a fellow with whom you’ve had a few tangles and chats, you’ll be very welcome! Several people on this blog know how to reach me (and to discover my [insert dramatic music, here] secret identity)…
…and on the off-chance that you’re already my FB friend, and I’ve temporarily spaced out on that fact, I will repent on my knees, in dust and ashes, ahead of time…
(*facepalm*)
Jasper, for the love of all that’s holy: would it kill you to make your points without dressing them up in foul, insulting, baggage-ridden invective?
(!!) Oh, mercy… Alexandra, I just read the account of your friend who died; I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope this doesn’t offend, but: I’ll be praying for him, and for you!
Paladin, have we had any tangles? Haha I can’t think of any. I’d love to be your FB friend! I am the Alexandra that Bobby Bambino and Carla are friends with, wearing a red hat (I dressed up as Carmen Sandiego for Halloween, I don’t just wear red hats willy-nilly); if you can’t or don’t find me I will try to find you!
Thank you for your condolences. It doesn’t offend me at all if you pray for him. He was an extraordinarily successful lighting designer and video programmer in my industry – that’s how we became friends – and for nearly three years I watched him do amazingly complex things like map 30′ high moving video walls down to every minute pixel – he would literally track one pixel on its entire trajectory from start to finish, and do it for thousands of them in turn, and adjust all of their individual colors and saturations and everything. (So very much work goes into creating something for no other reason than that audiences may enjoy it!) One night a couple weeks ago I looked up at the stars and was suddenly struck by how much they looked like…pixels. Individual little pixels creating such a vast, immense image for all the world to see. So much work, just for people to enjoy it. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, imagining him up there designing, having the time of his…afterlife.
I wish it were true.
:) Well… if perhaps not, unless you count the embarrassing episode where I completely mis-read one of your comments, and proceeded to pontificate about something utterly detached from reality…
I think I know what you mean, re: stars/lights, as well (beautiful story and image, by the way!); a dear friend of mine was killed in a car accident, a bit over a year ago… and she was an exquisite painter. Sometimes, when I pass by paintings of a particular style (or of high quality), I get a “pang of sad beauty”, if you know what I mean…
“If it’s so disgusting why did you bring it up?
Um, probably because “it” is the thing Mr. Cathey opposes, and this has (surprise, surprise), drawn fire from Chicago’s left bank.”
Uh, not quite. that issue at hand is legal recognition of same sex marriages, not sexual activities. Honestly, they would probably have about the same amount of sex whether we let them get married or not. Jasper probably brought up the sex aspect just because it seems gross to many people. Honestly, this is how middle school kids would debate the issue. Eww, two men having sex with each other is like, so gross. We must not give them marriage rights because I’m so grossed out. (Of course, an actual middle school kid would throw some slurs in there at some point).
“Jasper probably brought up the sex aspect just because it seems gross to many people. Honestly, this is how middle school kids would debate the issue. Eww, two men having sex with each other is like, so gross. We must not give them marriage rights because I’m so grossed out”
Haha! :D Truth. It seriously is the dumbest argument out there. I find the thought of a lot of straight couples getting it on fairly stomach turning, can I make them not get married too? Lol.
Alexandra, I am so sorry to hear about your friend. I offer my deepest condolences. I am also sorry that I manged to comment on much more trivial matters on this thread before offering said condolences. I thought I had said something after reading your initial comment, but I have since discovered that I did not.