Franklin Graham says CEO told him Chick-fil-A didn’t ‘cave’ to LGBTQ protests
North Carolina-based evangelist Franklin Graham told his 8 million Facebook followers that LGBTQ protests played no role in Chick-fil-A’s decision to pull financial support of The Salvation Army and other Christian-based organizations.
“Has Chick-fil-A caved?” Graham posted on Thursday. “Some are saying they’ve rolled over, that they’ve conceded to the LGBTQ protests ...”
Protests involved the chicken chain’s financial support of organizations “with a history of anti-LGBTQ discrimination,” CBS News reported.
Graham was curious whether the chain gave in to protesters, so he said he called Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy to find out.
“Dan was very clear that they have not bowed down to anyone’s demands, including the LGBTQ community,” Graham posted. “They will continue to support whoever they want to support. They haven’t changed who they are or what they believe. Chick-fil-A remains committed to Christian values.”
Graham inserted his own two cents on the issue: “In my opinion, the gay movement wouldn’t ever be happy with Chick-fil-A unless they were open on Sunday, gave all of their charitable donations to LGBTQ organizations, and flew the rainbow flag over their stores!”
His post has drawn 177,000 thumbs up, heart and sad face emojis, 20,000 comments and 61,000 shares.
While most supported Graham’s stance, some expressed dismay over his comments.
“Franklin you really go hard on the gay community, when there is so much more that is truly wrong,” a woman posted.
“Imagine, increasing tolerance as Jesus would,” another woman said.
This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 5:50 AM.