ATLANTA: The business was doing OK, but at a price. Jack Hayes of Cuyahoga Falls was tired of operating his massage-therapy clinic seven days a week, juggling employees’ and clients’ schedules, missing his wife.
In late 2008, Hayes asked for help. He composed an email to another businessman who had managed to make ends meet with a six-day work week. Hayes’ request was simple: Should he close on Sunday, too?
Two days later, Hayes got a response. In an email, Dan Cathy, president and chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A, cited the Bible verse Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
On the first Sunday of January 2009, a sign on the door of Connecting Touch Therapy & Wellness Center Inc. of Cuyahoga Falls announced that the business no longer would operate on Sunday.
“At that point, Mr. Cathy and I were on the same level,” Hayes said. “I would rather be open six days a week with the Lord on my side than seven days without it.”
It would be easy to say the Lord is on Dan Cathy’s side; Chick-fil-A, a Georgia-based business with more than $4 billion in annual sales at 1,600 locations, is one of the nation’s largest family-owned restaurant chains.
A more appropriate assessment: Cathy is on the Lord’s side. Those who know Cathy say he’s a businessman who believes the real business of life comes from following the Bible, even if it angers others.
Cathy’s beliefs have recently put him to the test. On a national radio show, he said advocates of same-sex marriage are “inviting God’s judgment.” In another interview, he affirmed his belief that marriage should be between a man and woman.
Cathy’s statements set off a debate that’s played out in talk shows, on opinion pages, in blogs and in Chick-fil-A restaurants everywhere. On Aug. 1, thousands of people crowded Chick-fil-As across the country in a show of support for Cathy. Two days later, supporters of same-sex marriage held “kiss-ins” at Chick-fil-A restaurants nationwide.
The controversy echoed another that was sparked a year ago when critics attacked donations from WinShape Foundation Inc., Chick-fil-A’s charity, to organizations that critics say promote hatred of gays.
Some business experts questioned Cathy’s judgment, saying it was pointless for a high-profile executive to embroil his entire business and well-developed brand in the middle of national dispute.
The recent uproar appears to have caught Chick-fil-A by surprise. Cathy, 59, declined several interview requests through Chick-fil-A’s public relations division, and has been nearly silent in the past few weeks.
Others aren’t as quiet.
“He’s one of the finest human beings I’ve ever known,” said Ken Bernhardt, a Georgia State University marketing professor and adviser to the chain.
Bernhardt remembers a colleague who called Cathy, asking if it was OK if the university used the image of a statue commissioned by Chick-fil-A to adorn T-shirts that would be distributed at an impending conference. Cathy said sure — then offered to buy them.
Of course, Cathy can afford to buy a mountain of T-shirts, Bernhardt said. But that’s not the issue.
“Dan didn’t make the person ask for that,” said Bernhardt.
Such personal accounts of Cathy don’t resonate with everyone.
Marci Alt would like to share her story with Cathy. She’s married to a woman, has two children and recently started an online petition inviting his family to dine with hers. “I’ll even make matzo ball soup for him, like a good Jewish girl.”
Alt said she supports Cathy’s right to speak his mind, but is opposed to the chain’s WinShape Foundation funding groups that she termed anti-gay.
“It angers me that he’s so close-minded that all he can see is himself,” the Decatur, Ga., resident said. “Aren’t we all God’s children?”
Cathy, said Bernhardt, came up the traditional way. The oldest son of Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy, he got started in the family business with a broom, sweeping the Dwarf House, the chain’s first restaurant. A 1975 business graduate of Georgia Southern University, he oversaw an array of operations, opening restaurants all over the country. In 2001, he became the president and chief operating officer.
He leads by example, said Stephen Briggs, president of Berry College, where Cathy is on the board of trustees. The chain’s WinShape Foundation also funds 30 scholarships for incoming students each year.
“He’ll see a piece of trash lying on the sidewalk and without breaking stride, he’ll pick it up and put it in his pocket,” said Briggs. Before long, he said, others are picking up trash, too.
“Once,” said Briggs, “I saw him do it in a McDonald’s parking lot.”