So, some of you might have heard of this restaurant called Chick-Fil-A? Apparently they make a mean chicken sandwich that's seasoned with a sprinkling of lies and a heaping helping of Evangelical Christianity.
Some of you reading this have known me long enough to know that I worked for Chick-Fil-A in some capacity from 2001 to 2007. This period covered my late adolescence into my early adulthood (age 16 to age 22). I spend around half of that time period as a part of the management team at a store.
It's without saying that many of the sometimes strange, sometimes sickening, sometimes funny, and always entertaining stories I have from my time there involve it's almost uniformly Evangelical Christian staff and general ethos. I've decided to do my best to recount some of the more emblematic Chick-Fil-A moments that show what set it apart as not just a Christian-owned business, but as a holistically-Evangelical way of living for many.
It's not my intention to use this as a slam blog. I'm not going to name names and expose deep, dark secrets (well, maybe some secrets about the food, since it has no feelings). I think a lot of people out there just want to know more about what exactly goes on in the bowels of a thoroughly Evangelical Christian business that leads to them being able to release how anti-gay they are and yet go on operating as if it's no big deal (though hostility to homosexuality is just the beginning of it).
This post ended up sounding a lot more serious than I originally imagined, but I think it's important that I start by laying out where I'm coming from on this and that I'm not trying to simply rip them to shreds, as if I'm a disgruntled former employee. I promise this thing will get juicier and funnier. Just keep watching.
