Earlier this month, Chick-fil-A announced that it would stop donating to three Christian organizations that have long been attacked as anti-LGBT “hate groups” by left-wing pressure groups, leaving the restaurant chain’s conservative allies feeling betrayed.
While Chick-fil-A claimed in a statement that it was simply restructuring its philanthropy—not caving in to political correctness—it was not lost on conservatives that all three groups—The Salvation Army, Paul Anderson Youth Home and Fellowship of Christian Athletes— all have traditional views on human sexuality and have been characterized as “anti-LGBT” by gay rights groups.
Now, one of Chick-fil-A’s biggest supporters—the Family Research Council (FRC)—has a special reason to feel the sting of betrayal.
In 2017, the Chick-fil-A Foundation gave a generous donation to the anti-Christian Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which several years ago inspired a potentially deadly domestic terrorist attack on the pro-family Christian organization.
The gunman, Floyd Corkins, stormed FRC headquarters in 2012 “armed with a semi-automatic pistol, 100 rounds of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches,” after he had seen the SPLC’s “hate” map online.
A massacre was averted when Leo Johnson, the building’s manager, managed to tackle the rampaging gunman.
Corkins had entered the FRC’s Washington offices, lying about seeking a role as an intern and Johnson, who was at the security desk, asked to see some identification.
Corkins bent down to ruffle through his backpack. Leo, sensing trouble, stepped out from behind the desk. Corkins pulled out a pistol and Leo, unarmed, advanced toward his would-be killer. Corkins shot Leo in the forearm, but seriously wounded, Leo grappled with him, and took Corkins’s gun away. Soon, Randy Burt and Charles Foster, both FRC staffers, rushed to Leo’s aid. Corkins was subdued and held until Metropolitan Police arrived.
“I wanted to kill the people in the building and then smear a Chick-fil-A sandwich in their face,” Corkins would later tell the FBI.
The gunman had been enraged by the nationwide Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, which was organized by conservative activists who wanted to show their support for the restaurant when it was under attack by LGBT activists and their supporters in the corporate media, as well as the Democrat Party.
Corkins later pleaded guilty to three charges, including committing an act of domestic terrorism while armed.
In spite of all that, the SPLC still lists FRC— previously one of Chick-fil-A’s most vocal defenders—as a “hate group.” The restaurant paid FRC back by donating to one of its worst enemies.
Conservative website TownHall.com on Tuesday published an IRS 990 form that shows the Chick-fil-A Foundation—incredibly!— contributed $2,500 to the SPLC in 2017.
FRC reacted to the stunning news on Twitter, describing the ACLU as “one of the most extreme anti-Christian groups in America.”
Tax reports have now exposed Chick-fil-A for funding the anti-Christian Southern Poverty Law Center; an organization linked in federal court to domestic terrorism. @townhallcom https://t.co/dOT4fGehQv
— Family Research Council (@FRCdc) November 27, 2019
In addition to the SPLC, Chick-fil-A has proven its “woke” bonafides by funding a number of other liberal groups, Townhall found.
Chick-fil-A funds the deeply political YWCA, a radically pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQ organization that repeatedly partners with Planned Parenthood.
Chick-fil-A also funds the DC-based New Leaders Council that identifies as a “hub of progressive millennial thought leadership” which exists to “support one another along their individual path to a more progressive political and cultural landscape.”
Chick-fil-A has given a sizable donation ($50k) to The Pace Center for Girls, yet another pro-abortion organization. The education and advocacy group featured radical pro-abortion feminist Gloria Steinem (the “I Had An Abortion” activist who declared that birthing children is the “fundamental cause of climate change”) as their keynote speaker for their most recent girls’ Summit.
Chick-fil-A also gives tens of thousands to Chris 180 ($27,500 in 2017, $25k in 2019), a pro-LGBT behavioral health and child welfare service agency. The organization boasts of being awarded the “Leader in Supporting and Serving LGBT Families and Youth from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC).” Nothing promotes human degradation quite like the pro-abortion HRC—the multi-million dollar LGBT powerhouse that recently pushed for the legalization of prostitution in D.C.
You can always love and serve the broken without affirming the brokenness.
And then there’s Junior Achievement (JA), which inarguably does some phenomenal work with education and entrepreneurship. They’re the recipients of hundreds of thousands a year from Chick-fil-A. In 2016, though, JA joined a coalition (Georgia Prospers) of pro-LGBT organizations in their “Too Busy to Hate” campaign to politically oppose religious liberty legislation (specifically the First Amendment Defense Act) from passing in Georgia.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins expressed his disappointment in Chick-Fil-A on the Todd Starnes Radio Show.
“It’s time for Christians to find a fast food alternative to Chick-fil-A,” he said.
“Tax reports have now exposed Chick-fil-A for funding the anti-Christian Southern Poverty Law Center; an organization linked in federal court to domestic terrorism after their smear campaign of Christian organizations resulted in a shooting in which the gunman planned to smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in the faces of his victims,” Perkins said.
Perkins then shared a shocking detail about what happened in the aftermath of the 2012 attack.
“Dan Cathy, nor anyone with Chick-fil-A inquired about the well-being of Mr. Johnson or any of the FRC team members, but they made a donation to the SPLC which was linked in federal court to this act of domestic terrorism,” Perkins said. “Chick-fil-A has seriously lost their way.”
He added: “Not only has Chick-fil-A abandoned donations to Christian groups including the Salvation Army, it has donated to one of the most extreme anti-Christian groups in America. Anyone who opposes the SPLC, including many Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and traditional conservatives, is slandered and slapped with the ‘extremist’ label or even worse, their ‘hate group’ designation.”