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Japanese No. Chick-fil-A is not owned by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a family business. Its founder, S. Truett Cathy, was a Southern Baptist, and for more than 50 years he taught Sunday school at First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Georgia.
Cathy’s faith is easiest to see on a Sunday. On that day he taught a class of 13-year-old boys, and from the day he opened his first restaurant in 1946 he kept it closed on Sundays, so that he and his employees could rest, be with their families, or worship if they chose. Chick-fil-A still closes every Sunday.
Who owns Chick-fil-A?
The Cathy family. Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill, with his brother Ben in Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946, and perfected the recipe for the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich there. He opened the first restaurant under the Chick-fil-A name in Atlanta in 1967. The company describes itself as “still a family business,” with Truett’s grandson Andrew as chief executive and “several second and third generation Cathy family members” carrying on the work.
What was Truett Cathy’s religion?
Baptist News Global’s obituary, published on September 8, 2014, the day he died at 93, described him as “a devout Southern Baptist layman known for building his business empire on principles of his Christian faith.” For more than half a century he taught 13-year-old boys in Sunday school at First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, and his funeral was held in that church. The family’s Baptist ties go further: in 1983 his daughter, Trudy, and her husband, John White, were appointed Southern Baptist missionaries to Brazil.
Why is Chick-fil-A closed on Sunday?
Cathy made the decision in 1946, when he opened the Hapeville restaurant. The company explains that he had worked seven days a week in restaurants open 24 hours, and saw the importance of closing on Sundays “so that he and his employees could set aside one day to rest, enjoy time with their families and loved ones or worship if they choose, a practice we uphold today.” According to the Baptist News Global obituary, Cathy told Baptist Press in 1992 that the policy helped the business by drawing employees who want to go to church and be with their families on the Lord’s Day.
Southern Baptists hold that Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Their confession of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, states: “The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private.” Among the passages it cites are Acts 20:7, which records that “upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them,” and Revelation 1:10, where John writes, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”
Is Chick-fil-A a Christian company?
Its stated purpose is Christian without naming a church. The company says that “from the beginning, Truett based his business on Biblical principles that he believed were also good business principles,” and that since 1982 it has followed this Corporate Purpose: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”
The plainest sign of that purpose is a locked door. Every Sunday the restaurants stay closed, as Cathy decided in 1946, on the day John called “the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10).
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