A Chick-fil-A franchise in Stuart, Fla., was packed with patrons on Aug. 1, 2012. (WND photo / Joe Kovacs)
At the center of the battle over marriage, the popular Christian-owned restaurant chain Chick-fil-A is once again a target of criticism, this time over a $1.65 million donation to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to support summer camps for inner-city Atlanta youth.
The LGBTQ blog Outsports called attention to the donation, saying the company’s charitable arm “has been continually criticized for its donations to organizations classified as anti-LGBTQ.”
Chick-fil-A Foundation Executive Director Rodney Bullard told Business Insider the foundation has a “much higher calling than any political or cultural war.”
“The calling for us is to ensure that we’re relevant and impactful in the community, and that we are helping children and that we’re helping them to be everything that they can be,” Bullard said.
Outsports complained that “the continued association with an organization that is rooted in a specific religious belief to the point that it literally has Christian in its name undercuts that inclusive mission.”
But Outsports real problem with FCA is that it requires its leaders “to agree to a ‘sexual purity policy’ that forbids them from participating in ‘heterosexual sex outside of marriage nor any homosexual act.’ It further defines such acts as not ‘[constituting] an alternative lifestyle acceptable to God.'”
BizPacReview noted that summer camp participants are not required to sign the purity policy.
But Outsports said merely being around leaders who did sign it could “cause adverse effects” for youth who identify as LGBTQ.