"We made multiyear commitments to both organizations, and we fulfilled those obligations in 2018. Moving forward you will see that the Chick-fil-A Foundation will support the three specific initiatives of homelessness, hunger and education," the representative said in a statement to Business Insider.

Chick-fil-A had previously worked with the groups to fund specific programs -- such as summer camps -- that work directly with underprivileged children.

I despise the LGBT bullies, but I'm not letting Chick-fil-A's leadership off the hook. Here's what cowards Chick-fil-A's leadership are. In the same story, we read that Chick-fil-A stopped donations to some Christian-oriented charities in 2012, after it came under fire from LGBT activists:

However, the company continued its relationships with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army.

Rodney Bullard, the head of the Chick-fil-A Foundation, defended the donations in an interview with Business Insider earlier this year, saying they were "relevant and impactful in the community."

"For us, that's a much higher calling than any political or cultural war that's being waged," Bullard said.

Chick-fil-A has expanded significantly in recent years. By the end of 2018, Chick-fil-A was the third-largest chain in the US by sales, growing revenue by 16.7% in 2018 to reach nearly $10.5 billion, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Only McDonald's and Starbucks brought in more money in the US last year, and with vastly more restaurants.

So, let me get this straight: Chick-fil-A has managed to become the third-biggest fast-food chain in the US, despite earning so much progressive hatred for honoring what its leadership once claimed was fidelity to "a much higher calling." But now, in 2019, as it sits near the summit of business success, Chick-fil-A suddenly finds that it can no longer afford to follow that "higher calling," and is cutting the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes off.

I love Chick-fil-A, but it's going to be a while before I go there again. This is nothing but gutless surrender.

And it's a lesson to all of us. The LGBT lobby, and their progressive allies, will never, ever leave you alone. Never. You watch: within five years, Chick-fil-A will be embracing woke advertising campaigns. Just this morning, I was looking across the breakfast table at my kids' cereal box, saw this rainbow, and wondered why Honey Nut Cheerios had gone gay.

Then I thought, "Wow, Pride has been so successful that I thought simply having a rainbow meant endorsing LGBT." But then, I looked closer. See the lower right hand side? It's the logo for the LGBT rights lobby Human Rights Campaign. It's one of three charities to which General Mills encourages donations via Snapchat. Think about it: a charity to feed the hungry, a charity to care for abused animals, and a political organization fighting for gay rights. One of these things is not like the other. And hey, looking at this rainbow-bright cereal box, is there any doubt as to which charity General Mills prefers its Cheerios-eater donations to go?

Speaking of Woke Capitalism, you surely saw this Sprite commercial from Argentina, yes? You need to watch it:

There is something moving in this world, profound evil is at work, but I do feel that something is stirring in the young, from their pain, their hurt, and their frustration at the adult world. Just pray that God uses it for good.

I'm so glad that reader identified the barrier of the "easy answers" culture that keeps so many Christian parents blind to the realities of the challenges facing us. I think that is the main obstacle to getting American Christians to take the Benedict Option seriously: because it says flat-out that there are no easy answers, and that in fact what we have all been doing for the past 30 years doesn't work. That if we keep doing it, it's guaranteed disaster.

I get lots of letters -- I can't even answer them all, so please forgive me if you've written, but I haven't responded. I heard last week from a Catholic mom who told me that she and her husband put their kids into their local classical Christian school, which is non-denominational, because they saw more authentically Catholic content in that school's curriculum than in the Catholic school where their kids had been going. She told me too that she was so discouraged by the culture within the diocesan school, in which parents behaved as if all they had to do was to send their kids to a Catholic school and keep writing that tuition check, and they had done their part.

She said that the student culture within that Catholic school was no different than you would see anywhere else. It was just as vulgar, sex-oriented, and smartphone-centered as at any other school. She and her husband asked themselves what kind of Catholic kids they could expect if they trusted their children to this factory. So, she said, they did the hard thing, and pulled them out of the diocesan schools, and put them into their local classical Christian school. She said they have been happy.

Think about that: these parents pulled their children out of a Catholic school, and put them into a non-denominational Christian school, for Catholic reasons. These are the times we live in. As someone whose kids are educated at a classical Christian school, and whose wife teaches there, let me be the first to say that there are no panaceas. But it's possible to do better by our kids. The thing is, we've got to try. Look at what is arrayed against them -- especially by popular and commercial culture. When not even a company as rich and powerful as Chick-fil-A finds the backbone to stand up to the beast, and to stick by its friends in the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes -- you know we are tiny Davids facing a mammoth Goliath.

But what else is there? Are you going to submit to these people? Are you going to let Woke Capitalists defeat you? If not, then you had better prepare to be a rebel.

Anyway, shame on you, Chick-fil-A. You had no reason to capitulate. You have successfully resisted the mob for years, and built a booming business in spite of it! But capitulate you did. I am reminded of the late Australian poet Les Murray's lines against demonstrations. Murray was bullied badly in school, and never forgot it. Here, he's not focusing on a specific cause; he's just saying that he will not join any demonstration, at all, because having been the victim of a mob, he radically distrusts it:

Whatever class is your screen
I'm from several lower,
To your rigged fashions, I'm pariah.
Nothing a mob does is clean,

not at first, not when slowed to a media,
not when police. The first demos I saw,
before placards, were against me,
alone, for two years, with chants,

every day, with half-conciliatory
needling in between, and aloof
moral cowardice holding skirts away.
I learned your world order then.

Chick-fil-A's surrender today reveals the true order of this world, and who holds the power in it, and who are the pariahs.

*****

The Salvation Army urges the public to stop spreading 'misinformation' after Chick-fil-A cuts funding

By Áine Cain
www.businessinsider.com
Nov 19, 2019

The Salvation Army is returning fire after Chick-fil-A dropped the Christian church and organization from its list of donees.

The religious group, known for running homeless shelters and charitable thrift shops, released a statement saying it was "saddened" by Chick-fil-A's decision to "divert funding to other hunger, education and homelessness organizations."

Chick-fil-A cut both the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes from its philanthropic giving. For years, the fast-food chain has faced criticism from LGBTQ advocates for its donations to certain Christian charities.

But the Salvation Army is arguing that it supports the LGBTQ community through its philanthropic actions.

"We serve more than 23 million individuals a year, including those in the LGBTQ+ community," a Salvation Army spokesperson said in a statement. "In fact, we believe we are the largest provider of poverty relief to the LGBTQ+ population."

The Salvation Army's statement went on to call upon the public to avoid spreading "misinformation" about the church's stance on LGBTQ issues.

"When misinformation is perpetuated without fact, our ability to serve those in need, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or any other factor, is at risk," a Salvation Army spokesperson said in a statement. "We urge the public to seek the truth before rushing to ill-informed judgment and greatly appreciate those partners and donors who ensure that anyone who needs our help feels safe and comfortable to come through our doors."

Chick-fil-A didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's most recent request for comment, but it did provide a statement on Monday.

"We made multiyear commitments to both organizations, and we fulfilled those obligations in 2018. Moving forward you will see that the Chick-fil-A Foundation will support the three specific initiatives of homelessness, hunger and education," a Chick-fil-A representative said on Monday.

The Salvation Army does have a history of controversy when it comes to LGBTQ issues. In November 2013, HuffPost reported that the church's website included links to organizations that promised to "cure" sexual orientation through conversion therapy. Before 2011, the church's website contained a statement telling homosexual Christians to "embrace celibacy," according to the Chicago Tribune.

In recent years, however, the Salvation Army has become increasingly intent on clarifying its position regarding LGBTQ matters.

On its website, the church currently urges readers to take its position on LGBTQ issues -- namely, that "Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex" -- in context. The website notes that the same statement also includes the edict that "there is no scriptural support for demeaning or mistreating anyone for reason of his or her sexual orientation."

The church's website also features a statement announcing its anti-discrimination policy.

"A diverse range of views on homosexuality exist within The Salvation Army -- as among the wider Christian (and non-Christian) community," the statement reads. "But no matter where individual Salvationists stand on this matter, The Salvation Army does not permit discrimination on the basis of sexual identity in the delivery of its services or in its employment practices."

Read the Salvation Army's full statement here:

"We're saddened to learn that a corporate partner has felt it necessary to divert funding to other hunger, education and homelessness organizations -- areas in which The Salvation Army, as the largest social services provider in the world, is already fully committed. We serve more than 23 million individuals a year, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, we believe we are the largest provider of poverty relief to the LGBTQ+ population. When misinformation is perpetuated without fact, our ability to serve those in need, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or any other factor, is at risk. We urge the public to seek the truth before rushing to ill-informed judgment and greatly appreciate those partners and donors who ensure that anyone who needs our help feels safe and comfortable to come through our doors."