For a lot of us, Chick-fil-A’s quiet, cheerful resistance was a model of how to hold on to your Christian values, in spite of progressive spite, and still succeed. Quality work and a good product will always win out, even over left-wing prejudice. It was possible to look at Chick-fil-A and draw that conclusion … until today.

It is no doubt true that Chick-fil-A’s stance, however unfairly characterized by LGBT activists and their allies, was hurting its ability to expand into the European market, and into more liberal markets in the US. But good grief, how much money does Chick-fil-A need to make, anyway? Last year, it took almost four KFC stores to make as much money as a single Chick-fil-A outlet. If Chick-fil-A was suffering from a decline in business because of its corporate charitable giving, their move could be understandable. But this is a fabulously successful chain!

Only the company’s top decision-makers know why they did what they did, but I would bet money that this was not about markets, but about its executive leadership class getting tired of them and their spouses being stink-eyed by fellow rich and upper middle class peers at social gatherings.