“If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine,” said Chick-fil-A to the LGBT activist community. It didn’t listen, and Chick-fil-A did indeed become a fast-food powerhouse.

The Christian chicken sandwich chain has been in the LGBT activist community’s crosshairs since 2011, ever since its leadership said it believes in traditional marriage. Massive protests and boycotts were called then, and even now, activists and politicians work to impede the advancement of the restaurants to no avail.

According to the Daily Wire, Chick-fil-A’s sales have doubled since 2011 bringing it to 3rd place in terms of most popular fast-food chain, and it has added hundreds of restaurants since, as well:

“Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,” reports Christian Headlines. “In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, sales totaled $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales totaled $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.”

On top of the sales bumps, the chain has added 700 new restaurants in the span of those seven years. Journal & Courier noted that in 2018 alone, Chick-fil-A saw a sales increase more than four times that of Starbucks at 16.7%.

According to Kalinowski Equity Research founder Mark Kalinowski, if it keeps this momentum up it will also pass Starbucks.

“Can they reach $30 billion? I think that’s also a realistic goal if you give them enough time, and that should put them ahead of Starbucks,” he said according to Business Insider.

How did Chick-fil-A achieve this? It’s a happy mixture of things.

For one, Chick-fil-A enjoys a kind of presence that very few organizations share, such as the NRA. As it goes with the gun rights organization, Chick-fil-A is one of the few presences in our society that only gets shinier the more pressure is applied to it. People begin to flock to its defense in order to spite those who would attack it.

This is in no small part thanks to the attacks themselves, which unfairly target the chain for being bigoted when it’s clearly not. Chick-fil-A has made it very clear that everyone is welcome within their stores and will be served with respect, but due to their Christian philosophies, they’ve become instant enemies of left-leaning activists.

It’s entirely possible, and maybe even likely, that many of Chick-fil-A’s customers see themselves being attacked when Chick-fil-A is, and protest this unfair labeling through their patronage.

As the Daily Wire quoted Glenn T. Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family, this activist community is loud, but it’s incredibly small. Meanwhile, those who believe in traditional marriage outnumber them by the millions:

“The only ones who seem to have any kind of beef with the wildly popular chicken restaurant are a minivan-size group of squeaky extremists on the far left,” said Stanton. “They’ve concluded that Chick-fil-A is bigoted without the slightest bit of evidence – only that their founders believe in natural marriage. Their position sits very well with the rest of us.”

But it goes beyond even that. Their food is superb, and their service is even better. Walking into a Chick-fil-A isn’t an iffy experience as it is with other fast-food chains like McDonald’s or KFC, where you might come across an employee who doesn’t really care about good service and the state of the restaurant reflects it.

The truth is, Chick-fil-A is successful because it’s a restaurant that reflects the values of the American majority. What’s more, it’s a strong reminder to America of its own identity, and left-leaning activists can’t tolerate the idea of an America still believing in its own values. As far as the activists are concerned, they need you to believe that the majority is leaning their way.

The numbers don’t lie, though.