The Air Force Academy has had its share of completely inappropriate speakers over the years, most notably its 2008 choice of the widely discredited “3 ex-terrorists,” a trio of Islamophobic evangelical Christians posing as former Muslim terrorists, to speak at a conference on terrorism. And this year they’ve done it again, inviting Chick-fil-A’s Rodney Bullard to speak at the Academy’s annual National Character & Leadership Symposium (NCLS), an event described as “the United States Air Force Academy’s flagship event on character and leadership.” Who better to deliver a lesson on character and leadership to our future Air Force leaders than a representative of a company that openly denigrates a whole segment of our country’s — and our military’s — population, right?
While Chick-fil-A has claimed to have distanced itself from the anti-LGBTQ cause, its tax returns tell a different story. Although its WinShape Foundation no longer funnels millions of dollars to overtly anti-LGBTQ organizations, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, of which Rodney Bullard is executive director, is still bankrolling other, not so obvious, anti-LGBTQ organizations.
According to its most recent available tax return (2016), more than $1.5 million, or nearly 19 percent, of the foundation’s over $8 million in charitable giving went to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an organization that openly discriminates against LGBTQ athletes, with its student leader application, for example, including a “Sexual Purity Statement” which states:
“God desires His children to lead pure lives of holiness. The Bible is clear in teaching on sexual sin including sex outside of marriage and homosexual acts. Neither heterosexual sex outside of marriage nor any homosexual act constitute an alternative lifestyle acceptable to God.”
It also funded the Paul Anderson Youth Home Inc., a “Christian residential home for troubled youth,” to the tune of $132,000. According to the Paul Anderson Youth Home’s website at the time of the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”:
“Today we are on the verge of declaring that homo-erotic behavior, an outright denial of the Divine creation order of God, is somehow moral (calling evil good), and to be encouraged and protected in the nation’s armed forces.”
Then there are all the Christian schools to which the Chick-fil-A Foundation donates — schools like the College of the Ozarks, which devotes an entire page of its student handbook to its “Lifestyle/Sexuality Policy.” According to that policy, a student can be subject to disciplinary dismissal for engaging in or even encouraging: Gender expression inconsistent with sex assigned at birth, Gender transition, Sexual relations with a person of the same sex, Touching, caressing, and other physical conduct of a sexual nature with a person of the same sex. Other Christian schools funded by the Chick-fil-A Foundation have similar policies.
And yet, in the wake of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) demanding that his invitation to speak at the NCLS be rescinded, Rodney Bullard told the Associated Press that the Chick-fil-A Foundation does not fund anti-gay programs, creating another reason that he shouldn’t be permitted to speak at the symposium — he’s a liar.