Chick-fil-A has faced a constant stream of criticism that the company has an anti-LGBT stance.
But the company has offered a simple response: helping others takes precedence over partisan attacks or political ideologies and the company won’t allow itself to be deterred in this mission.
In a recent interview with Business Insider, Rodney Bullard, who heads Chick-fil-A’s charitable foundation and is the company’s vice-president of corporate social responsibility, clarified the company’s stance in the face of left-wing backlash.
The Blaze quoted Bullard, who was a White House fellow during Obama’s administration, as saying, “There’s a calling to help people, and I think at times that has been confused with a calling, somehow, to exclude. And that’s not the case. The focus, the phrase ‘every child’ — we’re very intentional about that. We do have programs and we look for programs that are inclusive as well to help every child.”
Chick-fil-A has been criticized for donating to Christian organizations such as the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, organizations that the far-left media has denounced as anti-LGBT because of their views on same-sex marriage.
Bullard emphasized that the Chick-fil-A Foundation “works with more than 300 partners, primarily focusing on lower-income and under-served youth.” The report noted that “he also said he believes reporting on the Chick-fil-A Foundation’s donations has failed to dig into what the funds have gone towards,” including children in need without regard to religious affiliation.
Business Insider reported: “Under Bullard, Chick-fil-A has focused on low-income youth and economic inequality. Bullard said a child born into poverty in Atlanta has just a 4% chance of achieving self-sufficient wealth.”
Bullard explained, “Regardless of where you may find yourself on any particular issue, this is our collective problem and that we all can be a part of the solution. At the end of the day, the calling for us is to ensure that we are relevant and impactful in the community, and that we’re helping children and that we’re helping them to be everything that they can be.”
And despite the unfair nature of the criticism, Bullard made it clear that they will not be deterred in their charitable mission.
He emphasized, “For us, that’s a much higher calling than any political or cultural war that’s being waged. This is really about an authentic problem that is on the ground, that is present and ever-present in the lives of many children who can’t help themselves.”
Bullard added that Chick-fil-A has “to do more of telling the story of our need, and we have to do more of doing the work. Because, at the end of the day, this is about the work. It can’t be about me personally and it can’t be about anything other than doing the work for these kids.”
“That’s why I’m here,” he said. “That’s why we’re all here, and I love that about Chick-fil-A. There really is sincerity in our employee base, a sincerity that comes from the top down, that it really is about the mission.”
One thing that drives Chick-fil-A’s confidence is the fact that the left-wing backlash hasn’t affected business at all. On the contrary, the restaurant chain became the third-largest in the country and tripled sales over the past decade.
Recommended Video!
“Heart-touching Moment-a Two-year-old Girl Helped Her Mother Hand Out Breakfast Burritos To Firefighters”