Chick-fil-A: Supporters, protesters plan dueling demonstrations

Chick-fil-A supporters will eat in the company's restaurants Wednesday for national 'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.' Meanwhile, those outraged over Chick-fil-A's stance on gay marriage have plans of their own.

|
John Walker/AP
A Chick-fil-A is seen in north Fresno, Calif last week. Supporters of the fried chicken restaurant will hold a national 'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,' Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012.

Supporters of Chick-fil-A were planning to eat at restaurants in the chicken chain as the company continues to be criticized for an executive's comments about marriage.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, declared Wednesday national "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day."

Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press last month that the Atlanta-based company was "guilty as charged" for backing "the biblical definition of a family." That unleashed a torrent of criticism from gay rights groups and others, who have called for boycotts and efforts to block the chain from opening new stores.

Opponents of the company's stance are planning "Kiss Mor Chiks" for Friday, when they are encouraging people of the same sex to show up at Chick-fil-A stores around the country and kiss each other.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Chick-fil-A: Supporters, protesters plan dueling demonstrations
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0801/Chick-fil-A-Supporters-protesters-plan-dueling-demonstrations
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe