Christian Values And Discrimination Paper

Assumptions
Christian Values and Discrimination
We commend CFA for running their business under Christian values, however, their decisions on hiring and funding organizations that rebel against the LGBT community is discrimination to all those who are not Christians. COO, Dan Cathy stated “ You don’t have to be a Christian to work at Chick-Fil-A, but we ask you to base your business on biblical principles because they work” (Schmall, 2016). Megan Pearson, writer from the International Journal of Law, explained types of discrimination such as direct discrimination and indirect discrimination (Pearson, 2016). CFA is indirectly discriminating against people who are not of the Christian religion. Though CFA claims to hire non-christians, they
are implying that one must comply to biblical principles while working at CFA. Cathy’s statement claims that they hire non-christians.
However, by asking employees to “base their work on biblical values” aren’t they are indirectly discriminating non-christians by stating that they must comply to these standards? Consider a person of a different religion; a Buddhist, a Muslim, or a Jew. These people have their own religions and they most likely do not believe in the bible, therefore, they wouldn’t want to comply to biblical standards. This statement alone discriminates to people of other religions because working at CFA would cause them to go against their own religious beliefs. People of another religion would feel infuriated and would not feel they have an employment opportunity at CFA. CFA is also in violation of Title XII of Civil Rights Act 1964 employers do not have the right to discriminate one for their race, gender, or religion. CFA limits job opportunities for Americans and indirectly discriminates by claiming they hire non-christians but limiting opportunities by stating that they
must comply their business with biblical principles.
Acts of Discrimination
Cathy also made a statement in 2012 that triggered controversial issues that caused the LGBT community to rebel from CFA. CFA funded almost 2 million dollars in organizations such as Focus on the Family and Family Research Council that riot and boycott against the LGBT community (Chick-Fil-A: Bird of a Different Feather, page 12). In 2014, CFA also distributed $4.3 to nonprofit organizations. Having $1,017,610 of that donation going to Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). Dan Cathy, chose to fund these organization using his business entity. Affiliating CFA with organizations such as Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and FCA is what caused people to rebel against CFA. CFA has the right to running their business under biblical principles but we strongly believe that their act of affiliating their business with their personal beliefs is what caused the uproar with the LGBT community.
Solution to End Discrimination at CFA
In order for CFA to resolve these issues with discrimination we believe that CFA should not affiliate their personal values with their business in the future. Having specific preference while hiring for employees limits job opportunities for non-christians. These preferences does not correlate to the performing tasks of the job and therefore is considered unnecessary. CFA should be more open on hire non-christians and not forcing their employees to follow biblical principles. Also, if COO Dan Cathy would like to fund organizations in the future, he should fund them with this personal earnings and not affiliate his funding with his business.
Support Resources
Heilman’s (2015) lack of fit model offers the theoretical understanding of the impact of minority group stereotypes in organizational contexts, particularly as they relate to gender.
According to the lack of fit model, gender stereotypes are not necessarily “invariantly problematic” (Heilman, 2015, p. 116). Instead, they are problematic in instances where the stereotypes link with a particular gender do not match or fit with the stereotypes or characteristics thought to be associated with a particular job (Heilman, 2015).
In the CFA case, if we change the gender condition to religion, the model still works. In the CFA case, hiring only Christian employees doesn’t make the business better. CFA has the right to run their organization on their religious beliefs. However it is important to separate business and personal beliefs.The hiring process should only associated with candidate's’ personality, experience or their professional skills (know how to make chicken sandwich). Religion is not one of the require skill so that they can finish their
jobs.