In the Christian circles I hang out in, Chick-fil-A is a bit of an icon. Whether it’s grabbing a bite to eat or even working there, Chick-fil-A is wound into the social fabric. Known for being closed on Sundays and the founder’s strong Christian faith—not to mention the popularity of its food, clean restaurants, and friendly staff—it’s a well-loved chain.
Beyond just my own observations, the franchise is the third-largest fast-food chain in America, and on a per restaurant basis, Chick-fil-A locations vastly outperform everyone else in the industry.
Over the years, Christians have also appreciated that the company and its owners have generally stood for Christian values. For instance, several years ago, the company’s previous CEO stood up for the biblical position on marriage (one man and one woman). Predictably, he faced backlash in the media, but the company has clearly remained successful despite this.
However, amidst the Bud Light and Target boycotts, it’s been revealed that Chick-fil-A promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on their website with a page dedicated to DEI.
While some sections of this page sound laudable—they note that their “Corporate Purpose is ‘To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A’”—other sections sound like left-wing talking points:
“One of our core values at Chick-fil-A, Inc. is that we are better together. When we combine our unique backgrounds and experiences with a culture of belonging, we can discover new ways to strengthen the quality of care we deliver: to customers, to the communities we serve and to the world. We understand that getting Better at Together means we learn better, care better, grow better and serve better.
Chick-fil-A, Inc.’s commitment to being Better at Together means embedding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in everything we do.” [Emphasis original]
The page tries to mix Christian values with DEI, but as Not the Bee reported, “You can slap some Bible verses in your DEI statement, you can couch it in the friendliest language possible, as Chick-Fil-A does in their statement, but that doesn’t change the nature of DEI.”
And when DEI means forcing Christians to ascent to LGBT ideology in the name of inclusion or implementing race-based employment or admissions qualifications, Chick-fil-A’s embrace of this ideology feels like a slap in the face to many people who have patronized the restaurants for years.
Some people have said that such behavior from Chick-fil-A is nothing new, and in the past, some Christians and conservatives have been disappointed in changes in the company’s charitable donations as well as the previous CEO’s statements from 2020 when the BLM movement was gaining steam.
Maybe Chick-fil-A truly supports these ideas, or maybe they are simply adopting the ideas that so many other corporations have. We may never know exactly why they have chosen to promote this ideology. However, it’s clear that even Christian companies are susceptible to embracing DEI and other culturally popular ideologies.
If nothing else, this should serve as a warning of what happens when we simply go along with whatever the current mainstream or socially acceptable perspective is.
Right now, DEI seems to be the default, “approved” ideology—as evidenced by how entrenched it has become in academia and corporate America. That doesn’t mean it’s a morally—or even factually—correct position, but it does mean that not adopting such ideas can make one a pariah. It’s certainly easier to promote DEI, and when everyone else holds a given view, it’s easy to also espouse that default position.
However, when we fall into this trap by not carefully considering a given perspective, we can end up believing things without understanding them or believing things that don’t match up with the rest of our worldview. It’s a sort of groupthink that can lead us to say (or do) things that we would otherwise object to.
As Christians say, we can be in the world but not of it. We exist on this earth, but that doesn’t mean that we should conform to all the ways of this world.
I’ll end this article with a piece of art that Intellectual Takeout recently posted on social media. It came to mind as I was writing this article, and in times like these, it’s certainly food for thought.
#art of the week: Against the Flow
Credit: @Aelthemplaer • https://t.co/rA5gNtF6g4 pic.twitter.com/GjXhdNASd5— Intellectual Takeout (@intellectualTO) May 22, 2023
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Image credit: Reddit
