Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy has entered the gay marriage debate again, almost a year after making comments that created a firestorm of protest for the Atlanta-based company.
On Wednesday, Cathy tweeted: “Sad day for our nation; founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. to abandon wisdom of the ages re: cornerstone of strong societies.”
The comments came after the U.S. Supreme Court move Wednesday declining to review a lower court’s decision on Proposition 8, which made gay marriage illegal in California. The lower court ruled that the ballot measure was unconstitutional, which cleared the way for gay marriages to resume in the nation’s most populous state.
The court also on Wednesday declared a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, unconstitutional.
Cathy’s tweet was later deleted but not before screenshots were taken.
In a statement regarding the tweet, Chick-fil-A said: “Dan Cathy, like everyone in this country, has his own views. However, Chick-fil-A is focused on providing great tasting food and genuine hospitality to everyone.”
On why the tweet was deleted, the company said, “He (Cathy) realized his views didn’t necessarily represent the views of all customers, restaurant owners and employees and didn’t want to distract them from providing a great restaurant experience.”
Chick-fil-A became the center of the culture wars last year after Cathy - son of company founder Truett Cathy - told an online religious magazine in early July that he was “guilty as charged” in his opposition to gay marriage. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” he said.
Harder edged comments, in which he said “we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,” also surfaced.
