“Closed on Sunday”, a track off Kanye West's new album Jesus is King, praises the anti-LGBTQ restaurant chain Chick-fil-A for its pious policy of respecting Jesus Christ by being closed on Sunday. The track, which has leaked online, also urges people to reject popular culture in favor of religion.
Sings West on the track: “Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A. Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A. Hold the selfies, put the [Insta]'Gram away. Get your family, y'all hold hands and pray. When you got daughters, always keep 'em safe. Watch out for vipers, don't let them indoctrinate. Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A. This ain't game day, get your house in shape. Train your sons, raise them in the faith. To temptations, make sure they're wide awake. Follow Jesus, listen and obey. No more livin' for the culture, we nobody's slave.”
Chick-fil-A CEO has written that “Closing our business on Sunday, the Lord's Day, is our way of honoring God and showing our loyalty to Him.”
Said Dana White, a board member of Collective Action for Safe Spaces, noted the connection between Kanye and Trump: “We're clear on where Chic-fil-A stands and where they put their money when it comes to the human and civil rights of LGBTQ+ folks. We're clear that the Trump Administration is currently targeting LGBTQ+ folks. Kanye's lyrics here are an anti-LGBTQ stance with strategic timing.”
Kanye, of course, has said his MAGA hat makes him feel like Superman.
He has also said that McDonald's is his favorite restaurant.
Kim Kardashian West told View co-hosts last month: “Kanye started this to really heal himself and it was a really personal thing, and it was just friends and family. He has had an amazing evolution of being born again and being saved by Christ.”
Despite a pledge to change a few years back due to nationwide bad publicity, the restaurant chain has not stopped its giving to anti-LGBTQ groups and a report published earlier this year showed it has actually increased.
Think Progress reports that it gave $1.8 million in 2017 to three groups that actively work against LGBTQ people: ‘The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a religious organization that seeks to spread an anti-LGBTQ message to college athletes and requires a strict “sexual purity” policy for its employees that bars any “homosexual acts.” Paul Anderson Youth Home, a “Christian residential home for trouble youth,” teaches boys that homosexuality is wrong and that same-sex marriage is “rage against Jesus Christ and His values. The Salvation Army has a long record of opposing legal protections for LGBTQ Americans and at the time of the donations had a written policy of merely complying with local “relevant employment laws.” The organization's website has since changed to indicate a national policy of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.'
CEO Dan Cathy said in early 2011 that the company “would not champion any political agendas on marriage and family,” but in that same year the group's anti-gay giving doubled.
In 2012 after Chick Fil-A executives promised to stop supporting anti-gay organizations, Cathy continued to show his support to anti-gay groups, and later stated that the company had never agreed to end its anti-gay funding at all.
Cathy also remained a vocal opponent of marriage equality. Most infamously in June of 2012, Cathy said the company was guilty as charged in its support of so-called pro-family and pro-marriage (re: anti-gay) organizations. A month later he told the Baptist Press, “We are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say ‘we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.'”
