Chick-Fil-A, the Atlanta-based fast food chicken restaurant that specializes in Christianity, has used its more than 1600 outlets to fuel its zest for stopping same-sex marriage, spending $5 million between 2003 and 2010 on anti-gay organizations and hate groups, including $2 million in 2010 alone.

[…]

. . . Chick-fil-A founder and chairman S. Truett Cathy . . . a devout Southern Baptist; his religious beliefs have a major impact on the company. The company’s official statement of corporate purpose says that the business exists “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” Cathy’s beliefs are also responsible for one of the chain’s distinctive features: All Chick-fil-A locations (company-owned and franchised, whether in a mall or freestanding) are closed on Sundays, as well as on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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h/t: Planet Atheism

Prejudice With A Side Of Fries: Chick-Fil-A Reportedly Donates $2 Million To Anti-Gay Groups In 2010 (huffingtonpost.com)
Chick-fil-A Gave $2 Million To Anti-Gay Groups In 2010 (thinkprogress.org)
Chicken or the Gays: Make a Choice About Eating Chick-fil-A (gawker.com)
Before You Head to Chick-Fil-A… (patheos.com)

CHRISTIAN BIGOTRY: Lawrence M. Krauss / Does Religious Liberty Equal Freedom to Discriminate?

Posted on 05.30.2012 by AlwaysQuestionAuthority

[…]

. . . [T]he right to marry, . . . is a secular legal issue. Even if the state were to recognize same-sex marriages, churches, mosques or synagogues or other places of worship would not be required to hold wedding ceremonies within them or sanction such marriages because the no legal standing is attributed to such ceremonies or sanctions. Where is the attack on liberty?

[…]

. . . [T]he banner of ‘religious liberty’ is effectively more akin to the ‘right to discriminate.’ For the state to treat organized religious groups differently than it does other organizations implies special rights for these groups to behave differently than others. But this requires such religious groups to determine who is in the “in’ group, and who is in the ‘out’ group, and because religious doctrine guides moral behavior, it provides an opportunity for members of the group to condemn the behavior of those not in the group.

[…]

. . . [W]hen organized religious groups gain power of any form, power over the state, power over women, or power over children, the results inevitably lead to restrictions on liberty based on discrimination [bigotry].

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Related articles

Catholic Bishops: ‘Religious Liberty’ Includes Right To Discriminate Against Gay People, Impose Values (thinkprogress.org)

Anti-Gay Rhode Island Catholic Bishop Shows Narrow View Of Religious Liberty (thinkprogress.org)

CATHOLICISM: Catholic Cardinal Says Church Is Willing To Let Poor People Starve In Protest Of Contraception Mandate (MUST WATCH VIDEO)

Posted on 05.25.2012 by AlwaysQuestionAuthority

Cardinal Timothy Dolan has made it very clear that he doesn’t like President Obama’s contraception mandate. And apparently, he and the Catholic Church are prepared to let poor people starve to death if President Obama doesn’t give in to their demands.

In an appearance on Martin Bashir on MSNBC on Tuesday, Dolan said that the Church would abandon Jesus’ effort to help the sick and feed the poor in protest of the contraception mandate that only applies to insurance companies and not the Church itself.

“If these mandates kick in, we’re going to find ourselves faced with a terribly difficult decision as to whether or not we can continue to operate,” Dolan said. “As part of our religion — it’s part of our faith that we feed the hungry, that we educate the kids, that we take care of the sick. We’d have to give it up, because we’re unable to fit the description and the definition of a church given by — guess who — the federal government.”

Bashir then pointed out that the Catholic Church had taken a staggering $2.9 billion from the federal government to pay for the charitable efforts the Church provides. “They don’t seem to bristle at the hand of government when it comes to money, do they,” Bashir commented.

Continue reading, and watch video . . .

Fascist America: Have We Finally Turned The Corner?

Posted on 05.01.2012 by AlwaysQuestionAuthority

The author offers one of her periodic assessments of America’s potential to go fascist. And the news is better than it’s been in years.

Political Research Associates estimates that, at any given time in our history, roughly 10-12 percent of the country’s population has been bred-in-the-bone right-wing authoritarians — the people who are hard-wired to think in terms of fascist control and order. Our latter-day Christian Dominionists, sexual fundamentalists and white nationalists are the descendants — sometimes, the literal blood descendants — of the same people who joined the KKK in the 1920s, followed Father Coughlin in the 1930s, backed Joe McCarthy in the early ’50s, joined the John Birch society in the ’60s, and signed up for the Moral Majority in the 1970s and the Christian Coalition in the 1990s.

[…]

The conservatives know that the demographic trends are not on their side, and that whatever limited advantages they enjoy now are receding with every election cycle that passes. Right-wing America is old, white, rural, and religious — a cohort that’s shrinking with every passing year, and is even now in the process of being swamped by a tide of voters who are younger, urban, ethnically diverse, and largely non-churchgoing.

Read more . . .