Chick-fil-A Board Bows the Knee to LGBT

Chick-fil-A board bows the knee to LGBT. That is a topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Worldview radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Thank you for joining us today here on the Christian Worldview radio program as we discuss the Chick-fil-A board bowing the knee to the LGBT. Since 2012, when then president of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, dared speak up for biblical marriage, homosexual groups and a complicit media, a cheering media, have made sure Chick-fil-A is relentlessly tagged as an anti-LGBTQ company. The smears didn't seem to affect customers, however, as Chick-fil-A is the third most profitable fast food chain in America after McDonald's and Starbucks. But in a surprise to many this week, for the company that is known for being closed on the Lord's Day, Chick-fil-A's president announced it would no longer be donating to organizations like Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which require biblical morality amongst their leadership. And so today on the Christian Worldview, Tim Wildman, president of American Family Association and American Family Radio, another organization deemed anti-LGBTQ in quotes, and a quote hate group by someone like an organization like the Southern Poverty Law Center, is going to join us in the third segment to explain what it's like to be in the LGBTQ's totalitarian crosshairs and how to stand strong in them with biblical convictions. But before Tim comes on the program today, I want to read a number of news reports about this story that I think shocked, it certainly shocked me when I heard this report come out earlier this week that Chick-fil-A board.

And I want to be specific about that. This is not necessarily having to do with each of the Chick-fil-A franchise in your hometown. This is a decision from their board and charitable wing of the company. So it's not an implication of every single person within Chick-fil-A, but the board made this decision. I'm going to read some articles about this from sort of the very superficial like there's nothing to see here type perspective to a much deeper perspective on who Chick-fil-A has actually been donating to.

So the first article comes from Relevant Magazine. This is a quote unquote Christian magazine and the title of their story on this topic is, here's what's actually going on with the Chick-fil-A charitable giving and they put controversy in quotes like it really shouldn't be a controversy. Again, Relevant Magazine, a purported Christian magazine, starts up by saying, on Monday, red sirens went out across the internet when it was reported that America's favorite dispenser of fried chicken, Chick-fil-A, would no longer be donating money to the Salvation Army or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. These two groups who've raked in millions of Chick-fil-A over the years, you can see the loaded terms raked in is always like a kind of a negative spin there to it, have internal policies that rankled members of the LGBT community and their allies. Activists have long called for Chick-fil-A to donate money elsewhere, while others have praised the fast food chain for sticking to its guns.

The latter felt betrayed. Christians weren't shy about saying so. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee accused Chick-fil-A of quote betrayal. And conservative commenter Rod Dreher unleashed the full fury of his blogdom saying the company was guilty of quote nothing but gutless surrender unquote. Telling readers that this was a reminder that quote the LGBT lobby and their progressive allies will never ever leave you alone.

Never unquote. Awfully strong words, the article says, for a move that, once you get past the headlines, doesn't seem like nearly as big of a shift as it's being made out to be. The organization itself denies any such accusations of caving and insists that faith-based charities aren't being excluded from donations.

We'll find out more about that later. As Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassipulos told BizNow, which was the company, the online media outlet that actually broke the story, the company had initiated multi-year charitable giving contracts with the FCA and Salvation Army a number of years ago. Those contracts expired this year, meaning Chick-fil-A was not contractually obligated to donate money to either organization for the first time in years. Chick-fil-A used this opportunity to restructure their charitable giving model, instead focusing on local nonprofits and individual communities, moving away from multi-year commitments. Starting next year, Chick-fil-A intends to donate $9 million to Junior Achievement USA, which supports local education, and Covenant House International to combat homelessness. He leaves out what Covenant House is about.

We'll get into that later. In addition, Chick-fil-A will donate $25,000 to a local food bank every time it opens a new location. And then the article closes like this, it's definitely possible that Chick-fil-A chose to shift its donations in part because of pressure from LGBT groups and their allies, but money is still flowing to causes and potentially being channeled even more effectively at the local level.

As long as that's the case, cries of betrayal seem a bit unfounded. That is from Relevant Magazine, and they're basically saying that there's nothing for you to see here, just keep moving along. Don't get so uptight about these culture war issues. There's maybe kind of a myth here that Christians get so up in arms when they see a company they thought had Christian values caving into the LGBT demands.

So just kind of move along, don't read this. And just as an aside, Relevant Magazine describes itself as the leading platform reaching Christian 20 and 30-somethings covering faith, culture, and intentional living. The stories we tell are at the intersection of where a Christ-centered life is really lived. We try to publish ideas that break stereotypes, challenge the status quo, and spur a generation to know God more and change the world while they're at it.

We believe God is alive and speaking both inside and outside the four walls of the church. And just to go on to say they're focused on social justice and giving voice to what God is doing through our generation. That's Relevant Magazine's take on the Chick-fil-A thing.

Now, the second level down was Franklin Graham, of course, of Samaritan Purse, the son of Billy Graham, a well-known Christian in our society today. He wrote a Facebook post this week on this issue of Chick-fil-A. He said, some are saying they've, Chick-fil-A has rolled over, that they've conceded to the LGBTQ protest because they released a statement about their charitable giving.

I picked up the phone, this is on his Facebook page, and called Dan Cathy, the president of, oh, the chairman of the board, excuse me, of Chick-fil-A. Dan was very clear that they have not bowed to anyone's demands, including the LGBTQ community. 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.

Dan Cathy assured me that this isn't going to change. I hope all those who jumped to the wrong conclusion about Chick-fil-A read this. OK, so there's Relevant Magazine.

There's Franklin Graham. Let's go down to the next report, because this has been layer after layer of revelation, so to speak, of what has taken place behind this decision by Chick-fil-A. Now, let's get back to the original news report. This is by a media outlet called BizNow, and they had an exclusive report on November 18th saying Chick-fil-A to stop donations to charities with anti-LGBT views. And I won't read this whole one, but I'm going to read some of the quotes of the COO, the president, the current president, Tim Tasso-Pulos.

Hope I'm pronouncing that right. He said, There's no question we know that. This is a quote. There's no question we know that as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are, he said in an interview with BizNow. Quote, There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message, unquote. Story goes on to say the new initiative will no longer include donating to organizations like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Paul Anderson Youth Home, Chick-fil-A says, all of which sparked criticism in the past from the LGBT community due to the organizations, those organizations stances on homosexuality. The move comes after several U.S. airports rejected Chick-fil-A from concessions deals earlier this year. More recently, the landlord of the first Chick-fil-A in the UK announced eight days into its lease that the pop-up venue would not be welcome to extend all because of the company's perceived anti-LGBT stance. The company is also months from opening its first location in Boston, where the late Mayor Thomas Menino pledged to ban the company from opening within city limits after Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy voiced his opposition to gay marriage in 2012.

Tasso Poulos, the current president and chief operating officer said, quote, this provides more focus and more clarity. We think education, hunger, and homelessness are critical issues in communities where we do business in the U.S. While the philanthropic shift is an acknowledgment that past giving has hurt the company's brand, it certainly hasn't negatively impacted sales.

Now, just read that sentence again. While the philanthropic shift is an acknowledgment that past giving has hurt the company's brand, in other words, the perception of Chick-fil-A as a company, it hasn't negatively impacted sales. Chick-fil-A surpassed $1 billion in sales in 2001 and eclipsed the $5 billion mark in 2013, the year following Dan Cathy's statement on gay marriage. The chicken chain became the third largest U.S. fast food chain this year with $10.5 billion in sales.

According to nation's restaurant news data, only McDonald's and Starbucks bring in more revenue among fast food chains. But after years of quote unquote taking it on the chin as a Chick-fil-A executive told BizNow, the latest rounds of headlines was impossible to ignore. This time it was impeding the company's growth. Skipping to the end of the article here from BizNow, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, this is the charitable arm of Chick-fil-A, donated $115,000 to the Salvation Army and $1.65 million to the FCA in 2018.

You think they're feeling the pinch after not getting that contract renewed from Chick-fil-A? According to a tax form filed with the IRS, the LGBT community took issue with the organizations in the past due to FCA's employment purity statement, which speaks out against same-sex marriage and homosexual acts. The Salvation Army has been accused of LGBT discrimination in the past. So basically, for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to work for them, because it's a Christian organization, you can't be violating biblical standards of morality.

You can't be committing adultery, you can't be living, I'm sure, with someone outside of marriage, and you can't be in a so-called same-sex quote unquote marriage. That's typical for Christian ministries to do. After all, they are Christian. Looking ahead, the article concludes, Chick-fil-A leaders told BizNow that the mission of the company is to serve all members of its communities, but the company also recognizes that changes are needed, especially if some communities don't want to see a Chick-fil-A sign go up in their backyard. Last quote by the current president and chief operating officer. When there is attention, he says, we want to make sure we're being clear. We think this is going to be helpful. It's just the right thing to do to be clear, caring and supportive, and do it in the community. Still think that there's nothing to see here, just keep moving along like Relevant Magazine said?

Or is there something going wrong on the board of Chick-fil-A? We'll come back and talk more after this first break of the day on The Christian Real View. I'm David Wheaton. David Wheaton here to tell you about my boy Ben, a story of love, loss and grace.

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Just clearly leave your name and mailing address and we'll get you on that mailing list for our end-of-the-year newsletter. All right, back to our topic of the day, which is Chick-fil-A board bows the knee to LGBT and Tim Wildman, the president of American Family Association and American Family Radio is coming up in the next segment to discuss this. Before we get to him, though, we're giving some background and some various news reports on this particular story. It's a very shocking story. I remember when someone emailed me about this earlier in the week, I thought, no, no way. Chick-fil-A has been stalwart in our culture, standing up for not being open on Sundays and biblical values and marriage. Remember what former President Dan Cathy said?

He's now the chairman of the board. And as we read in the first column by a relevant magazine, a Christian magazine for millennials are saying, yeah, there's nothing really to this. This is people shouldn't feel betrayed. This is nothing really to see here.

Just keep walking along, you know, don't go focus on something else. And then we heard from Franklin Graham saying he had actually spoken to Dan Cathy, the current chairman of the board, and Franklin assured us that there was really nothing changing within our company at all. We're still going to give to who we want to give to. And then we read the actual media outlet, BizNow, who actually first reported this story that they were stopping donations to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army. And then they had quotes in there from the current president and COO with this typical double speak, which really we can interpret that very easily to mean that we've had enough of this pressure and we feel like this is going to hurt business in the future.

And so we're going to not give to companies or organizations, charities anymore that cause us problems. And so now let's get a little deeper. A couple more reports that I think shed a lot more light on what is really going on with Chick-fil-A board behind the scenes. This is from Matt Staver. He's the director of the Liberty Council, and he wrote a column this week about this. And he says in response to Franklin Graham's post on Facebook, Matt Staver says, Franklin, you have done a huge disservice by not doing more investigation into Chick-fil-A's betrayal and capitulation to the LGBT agenda. While Dan Cathy may say the company has the same values, the company's statements and actions tell a different story.

Now, I just want to pause there in a second and say that's very important. What he just said, when you or I am looking into an issue, we need to not look at people's interpretation of what's going on, but we need to actually look at their statements and even more importantly, look at their actions, because that's really the bottom line. What are the statements?

That's most of the way there, because people can say one thing and do another, but what are their actions? And he says, Matt Staver says they tell a different story. The president and chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A, Tim Tasopulos, continues to serve as an advisor to the Atlanta Boy Scouts. This alone should raise a red flag, considering the Boy Scouts have also capitulated to the LGBT agenda. In 2014's Staver Rights, Chick-fil-A decided to stop funding the Paul Anderson Youth Home because it was accused of being quote, anti-LGBT. But it still had funding commitments with the Salvation Army and the FCA, both of which are also falsely accused of being anti-LGBT because they have biblical policies on marriage and sex outside of marriage. Instead, Tasopulos, the current president, states Chick-fil-A will now fund Covenant House International, which is much smaller than the Salvation Army. It's only in 31 cities, and Covenant House is also, listen to this, an LGBTQ activist. Tasopulos, speaking of funding Covenant House states, this provides more focus and more clarity.

At least he is correct, and this clarity reveals the betrayal. The founder of Covenant House, this new charity that is going to be funded by Chick-fil-A, the founder of Covenant House, a Catholic priest pedophile, was sued for allegedly sexually abusing the youth who were seeking shelter and food. Covenant House proudly promotes LGBTQ on its website.

I went there, I saw it myself. Referring to, quote, LGBTQ inclusion initiatives, unquote, and even doing, quote, an inclusion assessment at every one of its facilities. Covenant House, this new beneficiary of Chick-fil-A, its charitable foundation, also proudly supports the New York City Gay Pride Parade with its own float, banners, T-shirts, and hashtag COVUnity. Covenant House is also recognized as a national funder of LGBTQ causes. Chick-fil-A, Matt Staver goes on to write, dumps the Salvation Army because it wants to expand into new markets, and now shuns organizations the LGBT activists falsely call anti-LGBT. Maybe we should kind of turn that around someday and say they're anti-biblical morality or anti-God or something.

Why are we always being the recipients of the false labels? Covenant House does not stop at LGBTQ activism. It also takes girls to abortion clinics. This is Covenant House, a new beneficiary of Chick-fil-A's board's charitable foundation. To save its own corporate skin, Matt Staver of Liberty Council writes, Chick-fil-A has thrown good biblical organizations under the bus and legitimized the false narrative of the LGBT activists. But Chick-fil-A's betrayal of the Christian community will not satisfy the LGBT activists.

These groups are calling for more, including employment benefits. Chick-fil-A voluntarily surrendered to gain entrance into more liberal communities. In doing so, the company has caused incredible damage to the greater Christian community.

That's from Matt Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Council and chairman of Liberty Council Action. So now we're getting a much deeper picture of what is taking place here amongst the board and the charitable foundation at Chick-fil-A. There has obviously been a change of worldview on this board. They obviously don't want all the negative press. They feel like they're missing opportunities to expand. They don't want the negative publicity. And they've chosen to go in a completely different way with who they donate their money to. And by the way, they're free to donate whoever they want.

They're not obligated to, you know, us or the church itself. This isn't a, quote unquote, Christian organization. But it is a big change from the way the organization used to be led by their founder, Truett Cathy, who Tim Wildman is going to talk about in just a few minutes on the program. And what Dan Cathy, its former president, current chairman of the board, said back in 2012, a big shift has taken place here.

It is undeniable. Now, we just have a few minutes here before our next break. So I want people to get into this whole front page magazine take on this situation where they actually go into the charitable giving of big corporations in this country, including Chick-fil-A, and where they actually go. They actually went into, I'm guessing, the IRS forms for Chick-fil-A and saw where the donations actually went. So I'll just get into a few minutes of it.

Then we'll bring Tim Wildman on. Maybe I have a chance at the end of the program to get more into this. But this is really, truly troubling how not just Chick-fil-A and their leadership, where their money is going, but where all the major corporations. It's basically a pipeline, a fundraising pipeline to leftist causes amongst the corporate America today. You probably could have guessed this when you hear things from corporations like Target and Amazon and Apple and other places.

It's not too surprising. But with Chick-fil-A, it is surprising because there was a perception out there that kind of Chick-fil-A was standing up for some of the convictions that the Christian community held in this country. So front page magazine writes that the donations that Chick-fil-A was making were coming out of the Chick-fil-A foundation.

Again, there's a corporate office and then within that, these corporations typically have a foundation, a nonprofit from which they try to give charitably in their communities and across the country. The executive director of the Chick-fil-A foundation, his name is Rodney Bullard. He's a former White House fellow and assistant U.S. attorney.

Some may have mistaken him for a conservative because he was a fellow in the George Bush administration. But he was an Obama donor and more recently had donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign while at Chick-fil-A. So the person who's in charge of Chick-fil-A's charitable foundation is an Obama and Hillary Clinton donor. Like many corporations, Chick-fil-A branded its charitable giving as a form of social responsibility. Bullard, the head of it, became its vice president of corporate social responsibility.

Unlike charity, corporate social responsibility is a leftist endeavor to transform corporations into the political arms of radical causes. Like other formerly conservative corporations, Chick-fil-A have made the fundamental error of adopting the language and the infrastructure of its leftist peers in corporate America. And that made what has happened here at Chick-fil-A entirely inevitable. The Chick-fil-A Foundation and the Christian groups it supported were so entangled that Bullard, again the head of the foundation for Chick-fil-A, serves on the Salvation Army's National Advisory Board and was on the National Board of Trustees of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. So this guy running the Chick-fil-A Foundation is also on the advisory board for the Salvation Army and on the National Board of Trustees for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. But Bullard's vision was not that of charity, but of corporate social responsibility.

And those two things are fundamentally different. Hopefully we have time to get more into how those are different coming up later in the program. But next, Tim Wildman, the president of American Family Association and American Family Radio joins us to talk about this Chick-fil-A decision and what it's like to be under this scrutiny. Be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your worldview. The first is the Christian Worldview Weekly Email, which comes to your inbox each Friday. It contains a preview of the upcoming radio program along with need-to-read articles, featured resources, special events, and audio of the previous program. The second is the Christian Worldview Annual Print Letter, which is delivered to your mailbox in November. It contains a year-end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items, including DVDs, books, children's materials, and more. You can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233.

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We'll make a great gift coming up here at Christmas as well. Now, we're talking today on the program about the Chick-fil-A board bowing the knee to LGBT. I mentioned that we're going to be hearing from Tim Wildman. He is the president of American Family Association and American Family Radio, another group that's been relentlessly attacked by homosexual groups. Let's get to the first segment of the interview with Tim Wildman. From your talking about this and looking into it, what do you think the reason is that Chick-fil-A decided to end donations, stop supporting Fellowship for Christian Athletes and Salvation Army?

Well, they did it because they got tired of being harangued by the gay lobby since 2012. The company was founded on Christian principles. I remember hearing Truett Cathy speak 20 years ago at a prayer breakfast I went to in my hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi. I was very impressed with him and his commitment to Christ and what he was building his company on.

Of course, they weren't near as big as they are even now. I think this is Chick-fil-A trying to get away from that image that's unfair, but it's a public image they have among the LGBT community and many on the left. You said that Dan Cathy was, at that time, he made the statements. I believe he was president and CEO of the organization. Now he's the chairman of the board, so obviously this was a board decision. So do you know anything about, was it him changing his convictions or did he just get outvoted on the board? There's a new CEO. I have his name somewhere in my papers in front of me. This is where it gets confusing. You've got to really sift through this, okay?

They have a president. He's the one that did the interview with a business news site the other day, a few days back. Yeah, his name is Tim Tassa-Palouse.

Tassa-Palouse is my best guess. Yeah. Okay, he's the one that said they're getting away from the way they used to do, what they've always done their giving, and I'm paraphrasing now, that he was aware of their image problem and they needed to be clear on who they are, because that's kind of an ambiguous statement, but he's saying what I said without saying it, okay? That's the reason they cited a couple of new charities that they were going to give to. One of them is the Covenant House, which is an organization that deals with young people and a lot of runaways and drug addicts and things like that. I'm sure they do some outstanding work, but they're not an explicitly Christian organization, and also they are an LGBT affirming organization. So Chick-fil-A names them as one of their benefactors, one of their recipients, and then talks about that their relationship with the Salvation Army and the FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, is done as of 2018. They fulfill their commitments.

So it's clear what they're doing here. They're moving away from any Christian ministries that don't embrace homosexuality. Dan Cathy, the chairman, as I mentioned his name earlier, the son of the founder, he told Franklin Graham, which Franklin Graham tweeted about, that they weren't moving away from their biblical principles that they've always had. Dan Cathy's right, or the president of the company is right. And the actions say that the president of the company is right, and that Dan Cathy is, I don't know the right word to use... Denial? ...is in denial, or either. He doesn't want to admit the problem that they have, and that this is something that they're doing in public.

They wanted the world to know that they were doing this, making this change. Now obviously Dan Cathy is a Christian brother. I don't want to call him a liar.

But at the same time, what he's saying is just not so. Tim Wildman again with us today on the Christian Real View. The president of American Family Association and American Family Radio. Before I start talking about what it's like for an organization like yours to be under this relentless pressure from the homosexual lobby, what do you think the ramifications for Chick-fil-A for this decision will be? They've built up a tremendous amount of goodwill amongst the Christian community for the stands they've taken, the way they do their business with excellence and so forth. What are the ramifications, do you think, going forward for them?

Let me just say this as well. I feel bad for the franchise owners for Chick-fil-A because they're kind of caught in the middle here. They didn't make this decision. I talked to one of them today. They have a voice, but they don't make the ultimate decisions on what the Chick-fil-A Foundation does. And a lot of these franchise owners do a lot of great work in their own communities.

I just want to make sure I'm being fair here on the whole issue. I don't know how to prognosticate the future. I will say I think temporarily at least for a few months, maybe longer, there will be a lot of people who have been loyal Chick-fil-A customers who just won't go because they're so disappointed, unless Chick-fil-A clears us up in the next few days. There's no time to do that. We've called for them to reverse their decision, to make some kind of public statement in support of the Salvation Army and the Fellowship for Christian Athletes.

We'll see if that happens or not right now. Chick-fil-A, corporate, they're being silent on this issue. I think they're hoping a storm will pass. There's probably no more emotion, more difficult to get over than betrayal, right? We all know this as human beings, and I think there is a sense of betrayal on the part of millions of Christians who stood by Chick-fil-A when they were attacked by the left, by the homosexual groups, and now Chick-fil-A's decided to go over to the other side to play for the team. You know what I'm saying?

And for a lot of people, that's going to be hard to overcome, at least as I say temporarily. Tim Wildman with us today here on the Christian Real View talking about the Chick-fil-A situation. So, Tim, with American Family Association, you, your organization that you lead, has been deemed anti-LGBTQ, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is mentioned with such respect in the news outlets and so forth. They're the foundation for truth, calls you a quote-unquote hate group. Just give people an idea because Chick-fil-A has been under this assault, so has the American Family Association. What is it like, maybe some examples too, to be the target of the LGBTQ lobby? Of course, we're not susceptible to their attacks from a support like Chick-fil-A would be, for example. However, yeah, we've been, you know, labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is discredited, by the way.

In many ways, we could do a whole show on that, and maybe you have. There's not many of us left on this hill, all right? And I'm talking about even in the Christian community. And by the hill, I mean the hill that we stand on the scripture that says that homosexuality is a sin. The Bible says it's unnatural, immoral, and unhealthy. It's sin against God. But there's a lot of other sins mentioned in the Bible too. Any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman is sin. But nobody has a lobby out there for adulterers, all right? Or fornicators or people who, you know, are involved in sexual addiction or things of that nature, which God can forgive and restore people from those problems.

But you can't look at the Bible and read it and say anything other than what the church has said for 2,000 years, and that is that this homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. So that's where we stand. That position alone is deemed unacceptable, and by the popular culture today, and not just the LGBT activist groups, but the whole entertainment industry, the news media, society at large will view what we do as promoting, they would say we promote bigotry against LGBT people. Which of course you don't. No we don't. We don't hate anybody. A Christian organization cannot promote hate and be a Christian organization.

We don't promote hate of anybody. We call everybody to repentance, like the Bible does, sin. We just define sin the same way the Bible does, and that's unacceptable in popular society, popular culture today.

There's fewer of us out here. Most Christian churches and pastors do not want to talk about this issue, even if they agree that it's sin in the Bible. They don't want to preach on it, they don't want to teach on it, they don't want to speak on it. They don't want to draw criticism from maybe people in their congregation or outside groups who may show up at their churches with picket signs or something like that.

They don't want to get into any kind of controversy. Certainly Christian celebrities don't. I just wrote a column on this I hadn't released yet, and I listed like ten Christian celebrities that everybody would know who folded on this issue when they were put to the test. What's happening, David, is if we don't stand up, I mean we in the Christian community, as I said before, you don't go looking for a fight on this issue, but it will come to you. And when it comes to you, you can't back down from what the scripture teaches.

And what the scripture says, if you do, you're compromising the Bible. Very strong and very accurate statements there by Tim Wildman, the president of American Family Association and American Family Radio. We have a few more minutes with him after this final break of the day on the Christian Realities. We talk about the Chick-fil-A's board decision to bow the knee to LGBT.

Coming back after this. David Wheaton here to tell you about my boy Ben, a story of love, loss and grace. Ben was a yellow lab and inseparable companion at a stage in my life when I was single and competing on the professional tennis tour. I invite you to enter into the story and its tapestry of relationships with Ben, my aging parents, with a childhood friend I would finally marry and ultimately with God, who caused all things, even the hard things to work together for good. Order the book for your friend who needs to hear about God's grace and the gospel, or the one who has gone through a difficult trial or loss or just the dog lover in your life. Signed and personalized copies are only available at my boy Ben dot com or by calling 1-888-646-2233.

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You can also order by calling our office toll free at 1-888-646-2233. That's 1-888-646-2233 or visit the Christian worldview dot org. Final segment of the day here on the Christian worldview radio program.

I'm David Wheaton, the host. Our Web site is the Christian worldview dot org. If you are considering doing something outside giving beyond your own local church at this end of the year time, we'd love to be part of the discussion in your family to support the mission of the Christian worldview radio program, to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

That's what we try to do every week in our every topic we cover. We're trying to impact people with the message of the gospel, of course, for salvation to those who are non-believers, who are unsaved, but also sharpen or deepen the biblical worldview of Christians to look into issues like what's going on with Chick-fil-A, the board right now, and bowing the knee to LGBT and not take the view of relevant magazine that we started out with today saying, here's what's actually going on with the Chick-fil-A charitable giving, quote, unquote, controversy, as they call it. Totally either misunderstand what's going on, didn't look into it, or don't want to know, or actually are in agreement with it. I think the social justice causes of where Chick-fil-A's foundation gives their money is actually a good thing. It doesn't matter if it's an LGBT affirming organization or there's no gospel in the charitable side of it.

It's just local causes, so it's a good thing. So we appreciate your support of the Christian worldview. So let's get back to the final few minutes of Tim Wildman, the president of American Family Association.

Let's hear the final few minutes from him, and then we'll have some follow up comments after that. You don't go looking for a fight on this issue, but it will come to you. And when it comes to you, you can't back down from what the scripture teaches and what the scripture says.

If you do, you're compromising the Bible. We have to stand firm on this issue, and we are losing the battle in many ways. Now, will we maintain religious liberty like Jack Phillips did with the Supreme Court decision, where Christian businesses and Christian individuals have a right to not engage in same-sex marriages, for example? So far, we've held off that in many ways.

We'll see. That's a big Supreme Court decision coming up that they're hearing right now out of Michigan. You may have heard about that, where a funeral home owned by a Christian businessman, they had a guy come in who worked for them, and then he wanted to dress as a woman. He said he changed.

As he was an employee, he said he was a woman, wanted to wear a dress and so forth. And they said, no, you can't represent our company this way. And so that's going to the Supreme Court to see if they have the religious freedom to set their own standards with regard to their businesses. So that's a big court decision that'll be made next year. The Equality Act is another thing we have to watch out for. It's failed so far in the United States Congress, the House of Representatives.

They could pass it there because there's enough Democrats, but the Senate would block it. The Equality Act basically would criminalize Christianity. That's the sad thing, is when we see our Christians and brothers and sisters fold on this issue, they don't understand that this is leading to outlawing speech. This is where this is going to lead, just like we have in Canada.

I know Christian ministries have to edit programs that air in Canada because the Canadian government will not allow speech regarding homosexuality. It's anything critical of it. That's where we're headed for if things don't change. And we've got to stand firm on this.

You mentioned a phrase several times in an answer. You said, we need to stand firm. And 1 Corinthians 16, 13, and 14 says, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men. In other words, not like children, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Tim, we appreciate your coming on the Christian Real View today, but even more, the organization you lead that is clearly standing on the truth, the foundation of Scripture.

Where else can we go but to that and to the Lord? So thank you, and may God's grace and strength be with you as you lead this organization to continue to have that voice in our culture today. Thank you again. All right, David, thank you so much. Okay, that was Tim Wildman of American Family Association and American Family Radio. And you can find out more about them at their website, afa.net and afr.net.

Anyway, very strong and good comments by Tim Wildman today here on the program. And so I'm not going to have time to get into that front page magazine article, but I'd encourage you just to go to a piece that gets into specifics of where the Chick-fil-A Foundation is donating their money under the leadership of their executive director of the Chick-fil-A Foundation, Rodney Bullard. He worked in the White House formerly under President Bush, but he was an Obama donor and a Hillary Clinton campaign donor while at Chick-fil-A. And he said in this article, the front page magazine, and Bullard's vision was not that of charity but of corporate social responsibility, and the two things are fundamentally different. He says charity helps people, corporate social responsibility is virtue signaling by capitalists to anti-capitalists. Unlike charity, corporate social responsibility isn't about helping people, but ticking off ideological and identity politics boxes like diversity in the environment.

If people accidentally get helped in the process of helping a corporation, signal its membership in the politically correct creed, that can't be helped. And then he goes on to say all the different leftist, just bad organizations that the Chick-fil-A Foundation supports. I just encourage you to read the article for yourself. Front page magazine, Chick-fil-A is the title of the article. Chick-fil-A put an Obama and Hillary supporter in charge but dumped Christians. That's from front page magazine.

So let's just conclude thoughts on this. No matter how one tries to spin this, going back to the very beginning at Relevant magazine or what Franklin Graham and Respect Franklin Graham, of course, try to say, this is a major policy change that maybe didn't just take place this week. That's when it became public, but something has been going on with the leadership again, not the local Chick-fil-A franchise with the man who runs it who goes to your church.

Don't blame him for this. This is a right at the top policy change from Chick-fil-A. And it contradicts, by the way, what Dan Cathy said to Franklin Graham and what he once said about biblical marriage back in 2012. But you can see you need to get your news from multiple sources. And you have to, like Matt Staver was saying, not only read people's statements but look into their actions, not just someone else's interpretations of their actions that Relevant magazine tried to spin in this article on this news story. I mean, we can pretty much conclude, I believe, that Chick-fil-A leadership is going the way of the current politically correct social justice path.

But you know what? Doing that kind of charity without the gospel, yes, it helps some people physically, but that kind of charity is merely human good and has no eternal value. It is good to help people who are homeless and so forth. But it's not good to affirm them in their sin.

And it certainly doesn't have any eternal value if it doesn't include the gospel. The leadership of Chick-fil-A once took a stand and something clearly has changed. And that doesn't bode well. They might do better financially because of this. They're going to a broader road. But I think their leadership has lost their soul. So let's pray they can change course and get different people in charge of that corporation.

We don't need Chick-fil-A. The Church is the institution that the Lord promises to bless, not corporations. But it certainly is a better thing, a good thing in society when we have allies who are speaking the same things that biblical Christians are. We live in a changing and challenging world. That's for sure. But there is one thing above all that we can count on and trust in.

It's not a corporation. Jesus Christ and His word, they are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Till next time, think biblically and live accordingly. 1 hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian Worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.