Chick-Fil-A's New Testament

Boycotted for years by liberals - and now by conservatives, too - a christian-driven brand is trying to walk the narrow path toward growth. What happens next could be enlightening for businesses everywhere.

- By Clint Rainey. Ilustrations by Matt Chase

"Are we boycotting chick-fil-a over this?" A podcaster named Joey Mannarino asked his followers on Twitter last May, accusing the fried-chicken chain of pushing what he saw as an offensive political agenda. Of the more than 110,000 people who responded to the poll he'd attached, almost half clicked "Yes, boycott."

Being shunned is familiar territory for Chick-fil-A. The company has found itself in this spot repeatedly since 2012, when then-CEO Dan Cathy, a vocal Southern Baptist and son of Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy, stepped into the heat of the gay marriage debate - on the "against" side. LGBTQ activists called for a boycott. When news spread that Cathy and his family had donated millions to anti-LGBTQ Christian groups, protesters dug in further.

Last May, though, things were different. Mannarino is a conservative political media strategist who listed his pronouns as "Shut/Up," and his outrage stemmed from the fact that Chick-fil-A now has a vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. His supporters had also discovered another red flag on the company website: a policy endorsing "valuing differences," "ensuring equal access," and "creating a culture of belonging."