With an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, Mr. Truett Cathy has done quite well with his chicken business. He’s also put on a few extra pounds along the way. “Eat more chikin’—gain more weight.”

As a former resident of Atlanta, I know all about Mr. S. Truett Cathy and how he built his company, Chick-fil-A on biblical principles. But not all biblical principles; just the ones that suited him. For example, I wonder what Jesus would say about how we treat hundreds of millions of sentient beings every day so that we may eat their flesh.

But now, Mr. Cathy’s son has stirred up some real trouble. Lately, he’s been talking about “biblical injunctions” against homosexuality. Now the story is on all the news and is triggering a nationwide controversy. A YouTube video of Jackson Pearce challenging the selective biblical principles embraced by the Cathy family has drawn over 600,000 viewers in just one week. And people are talking about this topic everywhere.

In a 8-1-12 New York Times article (See link below), there was this quote by one of Mr. Cathy’s faithful customers from the religious right:

“If you are serious about your relationship with Jesus Christ, you just can’t be for same-sex marriage,” said Corliss Carter, 44, who ate lunch at a Marietta, Ga., restaurant. “Chick-fil-A has always been a family-oriented business. We’re just showing our support for them.”

I doubt that Mr. Carter (quoted here) knows much about what goes on behind the scenes to produce the $4.1 billion in annual sales for Chick-fil-A. From a “big picture” perspective, in just the United States, we torture and kill some nine billion chickens every single year. And that’s not counting the laying hens who produce our eggs, or the “brothers” of those hens who are nonchalantly tossed into a macerator shortly after their birth.

In the USA, we consume an average of thirty chickens per year for every man, woman and child.

Want a bigger picture? In a world full of seven billion people, we’re now torturing and killing approximately one billion chickens every single week—so that we can have chicken sandwiches, nuggets and fried chicken. I wonder what the average Chick-fil-A customer would think about their “relationship with Jesus Christ” if they spent a few days living in a chicken factory farm.

But back to the hullabaloo of the day which triggered an Op-Ed piece (see link below) by the dean of the business school at Georgia Tech. In his 8-2-12 piece he took the debate to a new level:

Predictably, Mr. Cathy’s comments drew a strong response from opponents and supporters alike. In protest, the Jim Henson Company said it would no longer make toys for Chick-fil-A; in support, the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, now a television host, declared a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.

But less predictable — and troubling — was that officials in a number of cities expressed not only their ire but also their desire to keep Chick-fil-A out of their towns.

Those towns included Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. No doubt the west coast will be weighing in soon, but this story is moving fast and they’re a few hours behind.

The Bottom Line. Aside from Mr. Cathy’s politically incorrect and insensitive  position on the gay rights issues…

This happens about one million times per hour in the United States—24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

…we should also use this story to stop and consider the barbaric practice of seven billion of one species—torturing and killing fifty billion of another species every year. Not only is that practice cruel, it’s also harmful, inefficient and grossly unsustainable.

While Mr. Cathy is working on his strategy going forward, I would suggest he pay attention to some other biblical references as to what we should be eating. Genesis 1:29, for example.

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

Notice that God didn’t mention anything about 50 billion chickens.

• Source article in NY Times. A Day for Chicken Sandwiches in a Cultural Debate
• Related Op-Ed piece by the dean of the business school at Georgia Tech (8-2-12)

I bet you fifty bucks that Mr. Cathy hasn’t read The China Study or seen Forks Over Knives. If he did, he might have trouble justifying his biblically-based  $4.1 business— which is a big part of what is driving our health care crisis.

This just in. On CNN, two hours before posting this blog.

• Gay rights activists plan ‘kiss day’ at Chick-fil-A restaurants
• And 29 minutes ago. Iowa: Chick-fil-A supporters have had their fill of liberal bullies

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

• The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation