Millionaire Christian businessman walks his talk

A merciful act by the multi-millionaire founder of Chick-fil-A during the processing of a legal case against three juveniles, who vandalised his home, caught the attention of the media and millions of Americans recently. But unknown to many, is that it was the continuation of years of work and mentoring that Truett Cathy has put into young people.

The three juvenile girls, managed to avoid institutional time because of an agreement, suggested by Cathy, which instead requires a 1,000-sentence writing assignment, restriction from TV and video games for six months, reading of good books, and other terms that will be overseen by their parents.

The 87-year-old entrepreneur says the court system wouldn't have been able to help them reform, and that it was obvious the influence that broken or single-parent homes had on the girls' behavior and obvious they weren't going to be able to pay back an estimated 30-thousand dollars in damage. So he preferred not have the matter on their permanent record.

"It was mercy on my part, but I never thought about having those little kids jailed, says Cathy. The courts weren't the place for them ... that would just take them downstream even further. It would be better, hopefully, to put these restrictions on them and see if they carry through (with) this."

He says his viewpoint is not to let any young person off the hook for their behavior, but teach them that it's a 'do-it-yourself world': rewards or consequences for the decisions you make. Cathy hopes that's what this form of punishment will do for the three juvenile girls.

He also said, "To help them realise that they know the difference between right and wrong, and if they make good decisions they get good results, and if they make bad decisions, they get bad results."

What do you think of this article? Do you think what Truett Cathy did for the girls that ruined his home was right? Should he allow the courts to handle it and allow then to be punished in the usual ways? Have your say in the forum now.

Released on Wednesday 23rd April 2008

Picture source - www.betweendreamsmag.com