Why do you suppose Pastor Rick Warren deleted his Chick-fil-A smoochy-tweet?

You know Chick-fil-A: It's the bizarrely named chikin chicken brought to you by, er, emaciated dairy cows with poor spelling skills.

by Ken

There could be a perfectly innocent explanation as to how this tweet Pastor Rick sent out yesterday, reporting with apparent pleasure the good news from his pal, superhomophobe Dan Cathy of Chick-fil-A fame, has come to disappear a day later from the pastor's Twitte "time line" (as I gather they call it), as recounted this evening by my colleague Leah McElrath ("human rights activist, political commentator, and managing partner of Renna Communications") in a HuffPost Gay Voices blogpost (see below).

Yesterday it was being furiously retweeted, and today it's vanished! What a difference a day makes!

Yesterday, of course, was the day ordained by no less an authority on gluttony and right-wing spirituality than former-fatty Minister Mike "When You Hate, Try to Hate with a Smile" Hucksterbee, the celebrated right-wing fitness guru, as "Let's All Wolf Down Piles o' Fried Chicken Like Real American Haters" Day, in support of the Chick-fil-A chicken empire's jihad against equal rights for LGBT people-- by no means limited to marriage-equality rights, by the way. (See Howie's post from last Friday.)

Although the Cathy family and their hordes of roly-poly right-wing-jihadist supporters have succeeded in framing the fracas as a First Amendment issue, it isn't. (HuffPost Gay Voices editor Noah Michelson has a nice post on this very subject.) The First Amendment is just an increasingly popular stratagem among the more ferocious far-right culture warriors: making believe that their rights to free speech are under assault when the reality is that their lunatic screeching is so pervasive throughout the land that it's all but impossible to escape.

Of course the Cathys have the right to free speech, and of course they have the right to their own political views, but non-psychotic Americans also have a right to know hhow much cash is being funneled each year from their chicken money to the Cathys' WinShape Foundation and on to hard-core-right-wing homo-hating causes.

FACTCHECK
Chick-Fil-A Donated Nearly $2 Million To Anti-Gay Groups In 2010
July 02, 2012 9:26 am ET

In early 2011, Chick-fil-A came under fire for its donations and political ties to a number of anti-gay groups. Though Chick-fil-A continues to deny supporting an anti-gay agenda, the company has donated over $3 million to organizations like the Family Research Council and Exodus International between 2003 and 2009. And in 2010 alone, Chick-fil-A donated over $1.9 million to anti-gay causes, more than any other year for which public records are available.

Chick-Fil-A's Charitable Arm Gave Nearly $2 Million To Anti-Gay Groups In 2010

WinShape Is Chick-Fil-A's Charitable Arm. The WinShape Foundation is Chick-fil-A's charitable arm, created by Chick-fil-A founder and chairman S. Truett Cathy in 1984. WinShape has received a substantial amount of funding from Chick-fil-A: in 2010 alone, WinShape received $8,067,161 from Chick-fil-A Inc. [WinShape 2010, Publicly Available IRS 990 Form via Foundation Center, accessed 6/27/12]

WinShape Gave Over $1.9 Million To Anti-Gay Groups. In 2010, WinShape donated $1,974,380 to a number of anti-gay groups:

* Marriage & Family Foundation: $1,188,380
* Fellowship Of Christian Athletes: $480,000
* National Christian Foundation: $247,500
* New Mexico Christian Foundation: $54,000
* Exodus International: $1,000
* Family Research Council: $1,000
* Georgia Family Council: $2,500
[Winshape 2010 Publicly Available IRS 990 Form via Foundation Center, accessed 6/27/12]

ANYWAY, TO GET BACK TO OUR STORY . . .

You have to wonder what to make of Pastor Rick's disappeared tweet. A lot of us are wondering if the pastor didn't find himself on the unfortunate side of a right-wing hate crusade he's suddenly not so sure he wants to be repping. In which connection I might voice my suspicion that for all the Hate Right's apparent triumph yesterday with its hefty turnout for the Right-Wing Fat Pigs' Chicken-Fressing Extravaganza yesterday, Chick-fil-A in the slightly longer term has, altogether appropriately, found itself rebranded as the Chicken Trough for Patriotic Right-Wing Homo-Hating Gluttons. Colleagues have pointed out that it could be similar to what happened with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure when the supposed cancer-fighting foundation's extreme-right-wing upper hierarchy flexed its muscle. Not only did its credibilty take a major hit nationwide, but it opened the field for all sorts of serious questions about how its highly dubious charitable performance.

There are already surveys reporting a sharp turndown in Chick-fil-A's public perception. (See, for example, the BrandIndex.com report "Chick-Fil-A takes a hit with fast food eaters.")

This chart measures YouGov BrandIndex consumer ratings of Chick-fil-A as compared with the Top National QSR (quick-service restaurants) Sector over the period from June 1 to July 25.

And while this is so far only anecdotal, I am hearing stories from all over of people, and not especially political people, who have been startled enough by the disclosures about the company's right-wing activities and responded with some version of "I had no idea" and a vow to rethink their chicken-scarfing priorities. Is it possible that Pastor Rick and his people suddenly, er, got religion, and by today were no longer quite so sure that they wanted the pastor positioned quite so squarely as the Spiritual Pastor for Hate Chicken?

Anyway, here's Leah's post. There are lots of links in the onsite version.

Pastor Rick Warren Deletes Tweet Supporting Chick-Fil-A Action
Posted: 08/02/2012 5:20 pm

On Wednesday, August 1st, Pastor Rick Warren tweeted out a report about a conversation he says he had with Chick-Fil-A owner Dan Cathy in which it's claimed that the fast food chain "set a world record" during the day. His tweet was referring to actions by right-wing religious communities who called upon their congregations to buy food from Chick-Fil-A to show their support for his comments against equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

During an interview with the Ken Coleman Show, Mr. Cathy reportedly said those advocating for same-sex marriage will in turn bring "God's judgment" upon the United States. He has also defended the millions of dollars his corporations has donated to so-called "family ministries" that fight against the legal recognition of same-sex marriages.

However, on Thursday, August 2nd, a review of Pastor Warren's Twitter timeline revealed that he appears to have deleted the tweet referenced above. Ironically, the tweet immediately following where the Chick-Fil-A related tweet should be is one that says: "Your past is past. It can't hurt you unless you let it." If this is the case, one must wonder why Pastor Warren felt the need to delete the tweet supporting the politicized, anti-equality stance of Chick-Fil-A and its owner.

Warren Tweets About a Conversation with Chick-Fil-A Owner Dan Cathy

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In this tweet on August 1, 2012 at 8:23pm, Rick Warren reports a conversation with Chick-Fil-A owner Dan Cathy. Implicit in the tweet is Warren's support for Cathy's and Chick-Fil-A's political stance against civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. He is reporting what he claims are the results of calls from right-wing mega-churches to their congregations to buy food from Chick-Fil-A today. This action came in response to calls from within the lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender (LGBT) community and their allies to boycott the fast food outlet.

[Click to enlarge]

Although the previous referenced tweet shows up as the most RTed tweet under #ChickFilA on Twitter, it appears Rick Warren deleted the tweet from his timeline. You can see all his tweets from August 1, 2012, and the previous tweet is not among them. Ironically, the tweet immediately following what had been his tweet in support of Chick-Fil-A says: "Your past is past. It can't hurt you any more unless you let it." If that's the case, one has to wonder why he deleted the politicized tweet supporting the anti-equality stance of the Chick-Fil-A corporation.

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