I’d like to peck Fortune for a funny error in a story trying to be cute about chicken companies and Christ.

After reporting that a prayer session led Mississippi poultry producer Sanderson Farms to make a fortuitous business move, Fortune says this:

That decision, along with a $300 million credit line the Laurel, Miss.-based company took out last May, helped it avoid the fate of its more secular competitor, Pilgrim’s Pride, which filed for Chapter 11 last fall.

(Cue sounds of needle scratching vinyl, brakes squealing, etc.)

“More secular”? Pilgrim’s Pride has a statue of its founder Bo Pilgrim reading the Bible to a chicken!


And Mr. Pilgrim apparently doesn’t just read the Good Book to fowl. He’s also gotten a lifetime achievement award from the American Bible Society for “25 Years of Workplace Evangelism.”

What a bunch of heathens!

(Thanks to Roadside America for the photo.)

Ryan Chittum , a former Wall Street Journal reporter, is deputy editor of The Audit, CJR's business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu.