“Thou shalt not use the Lord’s name in vain.”

We learned this week that there’s an exception in the Bible for profiteers who use the Lord’s name in vain to sell fried chicken.

(Oh, wait, did we hear incorrectly?)

We also learned that Americans love to talk about Christian values, marriage, and a majority’s presumed monopoly on free speech.

But what about dollar amounts donated to human rights violators? And what about a lawsuit by one woman who was allegedly fired because she was a working mom?

Thus far, most Americans haven’t heard, or don’t want to hear.

Many of the people who stood in long lines at Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day never got the message that, through annual donations to the Family Research Council and Exodus International, Chick-Fil-A and its WinShape philanthropy unit subsidize efforts to imprison, sexually and mentally abuse, and execute gay people. Nor did they hear about a gender-discrimination lawsuit that was initiated in February and recently publicized by GLAAD.

What people did hear was a mediagenic, CNN-friendly sob story about a couple of evil mayors who acted on their own — without support from major LGBT organizations — to punish a wholesome Christian company.

Many of you have probably been chatting online with friends and now-former friends about Chick-Fil-A. And some of you are wondering how your viewpoints came to be misrepresented and misunderstood by the news media and the online chatter.

If you need links to substantiate your claims, please feel free to copy and paste the following. Help restore balance and fact to the national conversation.

Chick-Fil-A and its corporate affiliates donated millions from 2003 to 2010 to a company-controlled charity, WinShape, which launders and funnels customer money to some violent hate groups and anti-marriage organizations. Here’s the 2010 donation data:

  • http://tinyurl.com/cx34kkm

The hate groups include:

Family Research Council, which supports the imprisonment of U.S. gays and the execution of foreign gays. For more information:

  • 2009: http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2009/06/3141/
  • 2010: http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2010/02/6613/
  • 2011: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/frc-outraged-us-opposes-criminalization-homosexuality
  • 2011: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/frc-pray-criminalization-homosexuality
  • 2012: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-defends-criminalization-homosexuality-judgment-paganization

Exodus International, which has a long history of abusing and molesting Christian clients and alienating families. For more information:

  • http://www.truthwinsout.org/category/videos/scandals/

Chick-Fil-A also is accused of discriminating against working mothers, even when one’s husband is unemployed.

  • http://www.glaad.org/blog/chick-fil-sued-gender-discrimination