Add Home Depot to the American Family Association's Boycott List
Bill Berkowitz printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 03:32:34 PM EST
The conservative Christian organization is demanding that companies `remain neutral in the culture war'

Imagine if some fifty years ago, a religious-based organization demanded that corporations across the country stay "neutral" in the battle over civil rights. What could be more simple? All the company would have to do is stay out of the way, and not comment one way or another on the fight for racial justice and equality. Had that organization existed, it would surely have been viewed as a vicious and bigoted group.

These days, there is an organization that is demanding neutrality of corporations. Only this time it is neutrality in the culture wars. The American Family Association is continuing to play the "just stay neutral" card in its persistent attempts to deny the human and civil rights of America's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens.
Ginning up the HD boycott

In a recent OneNewsNow article titled "Patriotism, out! Homosexuality, in!", reporter Charlie Butts tried to gin up the AFA's anti-gay boycott of Home Depot by citing a case of a young man fired from the company nearly ten months ago. Butts reported that "Home Depot fired Christian employee Trevor Keezor who wore a[n American flag] button reading `One Nation Under God' to support his country and his 27-year-old brother who is serving in the military in Iraq.

American Family Association (AFA) spokesperson Randy Sharp told OneNewsNow (a news service of the AFA) that: "If you're a Christian or a patriot and you want to wear a patriotic button, that violates the corporate policy -- but if you're a homosexual and you want to wear an apron with pro-gay buttons and homosexual messages, and wear them in pride parades and gay and lesbian film festivals, those are approved by the Home Depot."

A Home Depot spokesman said Keezer, who claims he was fired on October 23 of last year, was fired because he violated the company's dress code. "This associate chose to wear a button that expressed his religious beliefs. The issue is not whether or not we agree with the message on the button," Craig Fishel said. "That's not our place to say, which is exactly why we have a blanket policy, which is long-standing and well-communicated to our associates, that only company-provided pins and badges can be worn on our aprons."

(According to several news reports, Kara Skorupa, Trevor Keezer's lawyer has filed suit against Home Depot over their treatment of Keezer.  Skorupa explained: "There are federal and state laws that protect against religious discrimination.  It's not like he was out in the aisles preaching to people." Skorupa noted that the slogan on Keezer's pin is "part of our country and historical fabric.")

The American Family Association claimed that "Dozens of homosexual employees participated in Home Depot-sponsored gay pride parades and festivals. Many employees wore numerous buttons on their aprons promoting homosexuality. The Home Depot defended them by saying homosexual employees will not be prohibited "in any way" when it comes to what they do and wear."

HD supports 'open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America's towns' the AFA charges

On July 21, the AFA launched a boycott of Home Depot, maintaining that "For several years, The Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America's towns. And, it says it will continue to do so!."

"The worst offense is that Home Depot has set up kids' workshops at these gay-pride festivals," the AFA's director of special projects told WorldNetDaily's Chelsea Shilling in late June. "These are events that have loud, boisterous homosexual activists making their voices heard - and Home Depot is putting money behind setting up kids' booths at these kinds of events."

The AFA's Randy Sharp pointed out that the AFA is "asking people to boycott Home Depot, [first] because they have an unfair policy, ... [and secondly] because they support homosexuality on 'Main Street America.' They support the homosexual agenda and the promotion of this dangerous and unhealthy lifestyle."

At the AFA website, under the headline "The Home Depot promotes the homosexual agenda," the organization lays out its reasoning:

"For several years, The Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America's towns.

"Rather than remain neutral in the culture war, The Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is The Home Depot's deliberately exposing small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events.

"Judge for yourself by reviewing the photos below, taken during recent homosexual events sponsored by The Home Depot. Should The Home Depot be helping advance the homosexual agenda? And more importantly, will you choose to boycott The Home Depot?

"The goal of every homosexual organization supported by The Home Depot is to get homosexual marriage legalized. The information below provides just a glimpse of how broad The Home Depot's support for the homosexual movement is."

The AFA also claims that "The Home Depot ... [has a] track record of support for the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage and exposing young children to gay celebrations in public." According to the AFA, "In June 2010, The Home Depot set up a `Kids Workshop' as a vendor at the Southern Maine Pride Festival and parade"; "In 2009, The Home Depot gave over $5,000 to be a major sponsor of the Nashville Gay Pride Festival. It also sponsored parades in Atlanta, Kansas City, Portland and San Diego"; "The Home DepotThe Home Depot sponsored the Durham Pride Weekend with a kid's workshop and parade march. The events include `massages for couples' and `Drag Shows'"; "As early as 2005, The Home Depot placed a full-page ad in the Out & Equal homosexual workplace conference program guide." offers insurance benefits that cover sex-changes operations for employees. That insurance also extends to same-sex partners of homosexual employees, proving The Home Depot considers gay couples as `married.'"


Tim Wildmon, president of the AFA, is urging supporters to take the following actions:

  1. Sign the Boycott Pledge at BoycottTheHomeDepot.com.

  2. Call your local store manager. Let him know that you will not be shopping in his store until the company stops supporting the homosexual agenda. You can find his number here. (click "Store Finder").

  3. Print the paper petition and distribute it at Sunday School and church.

  4. Extremely important! Post this alert to your facebook page (link above) and encourage others to join the boycott!

It is doubtful that the AFA's boycott of The Home Depot, and/or its recently announced boycott of Sears, will be successful. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch Project, "Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck Combs Communications, which specializes in marketing to gay consumers, said most anti-gay organizations have abandoned consumer boycotts as a strategy for a simple reason: They haven't worked. Few other religious-right or anti-gay organizations have joined AFA's call."

"To the best of my knowledge, no corporation has evidenced any drop or loss of revenue from boycotts of this sort," Witeck told Hatewatch. Hatewatch noted that "the extent they are still used, the primary goal seems to be assuring the boycotting organization's base that their contributions are making a difference, he said. `You take a cause, you do it, then you declare victory and then everyone believes their money was well-invested.'"

The real effect of anti-gay boycotts, is like listening to "one hand clapping," said Witeck. "They really don't change corporate behaviors."



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Add Home Depot to the American Family Association's Boycott List | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 hidden)
What irony! (5.00 / 2)
So the irony of this is that AFA is advertising David Barton's revisionist history of slavery and civil rights on their website.  In his narrative right wing Christians are supposedly the great heroes and advocates for civil rights and evil leftist liberals were blocking them at every turn. (See part on American Heritage Series in my last article.)  And AFA is advertising their website all over Orangeburg, S.C.  Not only are they rewriting history, but they are claiming credit for activism supporting people they now want to recruit so they can organize them to resist providing civil rights to another group.

Talk about moral relativity!

by Rachel Tabachnick on Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 04:01:32 PM EST


I'm curious (5.00 / 2)
I'd like to hear what others say about the guy who was fired.  We've heard so many stories like this- "Oh horrors horrors!  A CHRISTIAN is being discriminated against because he wore a religious item", and only after we hear the rest of the story do we learn that said "Christian" was proselytizing and forcing his or her beliefs on others (so common an occurrence that it threatens to become a stereotype).

I'd bet that there was some of this sort of activity going on behind the scenes... there always is.  People don't do things in a vacuum.

In fact, I'd almost bet that he was also actively discriminating against GLBT people.


by ArchaeoBob on Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 04:28:54 PM EST

I hope you're right. (5.00 / 1)
If all he did is wear a pin that said "one nation under God", it shouldn't have been a big enough deal for him to lose his job. After all, the phrase is in our Pledge Of Allegiance, even though I think it shouldn't be. And while I abhor the AFA and everything it stands for, I can't help but wonder if some of my fellow liberals would be calling for a boycott against a corporation that openly supported religious right political positions.

by Dave on Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 10:55:10 PM EST
Parent
Happens all the time without boycotts (5.00 / 1)
I can think of a large number of corporations that support religious right political positions without a peep from anyone.

Most of the corporations around here are openly hostile to unions and affirmative action, and very politically active about it.  They support things like lowering taxes for the rich and "Get a Job!!!" for the poor.  They advocate eliminating any support services that don't benefit them directly.  They openly call for smaller government and less regulation.  I could go on and on.  No boycotts or protests, although I wish there were.

Several businesses I can think of off the top of my head openly are dominionist themselves... and use their business for proselytizing and support of their church and their politics.  When I had my business, I was regularly pressured to go to FGBMI meetings, Promise Keepers rallies, attend "seminars" (which turned out to be on the order of "how to destroy unions" or "how to deny employment to minorities and not get caught"), and so on.  All by business owners- and in their front offices.

 

by ArchaeoBob on Fri Aug 13, 2010 at 09:44:49 AM EST
Parent

Oh... (5.00 / 1)
By the way, the local Wal-Mart allows it's employees to wear overtly dominionist pins all the time.  I've even seen employees wear t-shirts under their vests (and sometimes an outer shirt) with overt dominionist messages.  I don't know how much political support they give, but I have been offended a couple of times by what employees were wearing- and one Sunday most of them (I'd estimate 3/4) were wearing one of those "cross-flag" pins- with a "Christian" cross on an American Flag design.

I'd also suggest looking into Chic-fil-a.  They are owned by a dominionist church, and their actions are questionable at best.  Dogemperor and others have written about them- they if anyone should be boycotted.

by ArchaeoBob on Fri Aug 13, 2010 at 09:55:05 AM EST
Parent

Chic-fil-A (5.00 / 1)
Chick-fil-A is owned by S. Truett Cathy, long time Southern Baptist from my neck of the woods.  He (and his children) are major players in the SBC.

I did my undergrad work at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, a college on a magnificently beautiful campus.  It was built by Martha Berry as an independent liberal arts school, founded on Christian ethics, to serve poor children from the mountain area of the state.  The property is huge (almost 30,000 acres) and several miles behind the college campus was the academy.  The academy closed in 1984 and the facilities were taken over (I believe leased) by Truett Cathy's Winshape program from which students on scholarship may then attend the college.  Since that time Cathy has become a major funder of the college and I have been disturbed by reports of its changing nature. Last year there was a widely publicized controversy over an exorcism by one of the Winshape program students which opened discussion on the college's increasingly fundamentalist reputation.

The fundamentalist takeover of the SBC also resulted in numerous controversies in the colleges which received funding from the SBC, like Shorter College, also in Rome.

by Rachel Tabachnick on Fri Aug 13, 2010 at 11:29:42 AM EST
Parent

Thanks for the correction. (5.00 / 1)
I'd been under the misunderstanding that the Assemblies of God owned Chick-Fil-A, but found out shortly after posting that I was wrong as to what dominionist connections existed with that company.

I'm surprised at the reports of decent treatment of employees by Chick-Fil-A, as usually dominionist-owned businesses tend to be harsh and uncompromising with employees, and make unreasonable demands on them (personal experience and reports I've had/read from other people).  I would be really surprised if they paid anything more than the minimum they can get away with, or offered any sorts of benefits.  I am not surprised at the reports of a homophobic atmosphere.

by ArchaeoBob on Mon Aug 16, 2010 at 11:38:34 AM EST
Parent

As we say in the South... (5.00 / 1)
... you catch more flies with honey.  If Christian dominionism looked like such a monster, it would never succeed.  

Dominionism is being marketed as something holy and wonderful - a way to battle evils in society like poverty, sickness, crime, corruption, and even environmental degradation. It sounds great on the surface, as utopian visions do.  It is the eventual agenda once they have eradicated separation of church and state and aspire for uniformity which is the problem. And we don't have to guess what this means, because their leadership has already made it crystal clear.

Assemblies of God has been a major player in promoting the break down of separation of church and state in faith-based charities, etc., but they are far from the only player.  I would argue that the post-denominational leaders like those in NAR are currently playing a larger political role because they are not limited by denominational guidelines, divides, loyalties, labeling, etc.

by Rachel Tabachnick on Mon Aug 16, 2010 at 12:32:49 PM EST
Parent

I know people separate them out, but... (5.00 / 1)
I don't see any difference between the Assemblies of God and the NAR.  The local Assemblies tend to lean that way, and the NAR leadership around here come straight out of the Assemblies (e.g. Strader and relatives).

I tend to look at the damage they do to people and their goals, and when you look at them from that perspective, they all look pretty much the same.  Yeah, they have different ideologies, but I think that those will only really come into play if they ever win (and cause a civil war).  

I know the Assemblies have denounced the NAR, but IMO that's just a smokescreen.  I might add that some of the Assemblies churches around here are rebranding, and it could be because of the "catching more flies with honey".

by ArchaeoBob on Mon Aug 16, 2010 at 01:52:01 PM EST
Parent

There is a difference. (5.00 / 1)
I think there is much the NAR can do precisely because they are nondenominational.  For instance, I think that is why they are still flying under the radar.  Also it allows them to appeal to much larger audiences.  The AOG would have never gained direct access with their ideology into Episcopal and Presbyterian churches for instance, in the way that C. Peter Wagner and George Otis, Jr. have been able to do.

by Rachel Tabachnick on Mon Aug 16, 2010 at 06:15:37 PM EST
Parent






You're absolutely right, (5.00 / 1)
But most of these positions can be explained by simple greed, which corporate types have in abundance. There are definitely businesses genuinely commited to theocracy, but I think most businesses who support these conservative religious groups do so more because they find it politically useful than because they truly want a religious state. They're like a lot of Republican politicians who use these groups to get elected, not realizing or caring how crazy and dangerous they are. And of course, no one likes to feel as if he's doing something bad. So if you can cover over your greed and contempt for poor and working people with religion, well, you might actually convince yourself what you're doing not only isn't wrong, it's downright holy.

by Dave on Fri Aug 13, 2010 at 08:26:09 PM EST
Parent
True, but... (5.00 / 1)
Simple greed doesn't explain the overt proselytizing, or the (much more common) hatred for GLBT people.

I've seen a lot of the local corporations discriminating against minorities (racial/ethnic as well as sexual), although I cannot prove it (my word vs theirs, and the courts ALWAYS favor the rich unless what they've done is too obvious).  It's actually stupid, but they'd rather have lower-quality employees and loose some money than have minority employees.  It's even less logical when you think about the fact that they could be caught discriminating and be sued or shut down.

Based upon my observations, it is my opinion that most of the businesses (in this area at least) are already in the Dominionist/Religious Right camp, or are on their way... and that the motivation for what they support comes as much from Religious Right ideology as from simple greed (and I can argue that they both are strongly connected).  It is important to remember that groups such as the NAR have targeted business for conversion.  I might add that racial and ethnic discrimination has been connected time and time again to the various flavors of Dominionism/Religious Right/whatever you call them, so the discrimination I observed falls right in with their thinking.

This move on the part of those types is obviously one to stifle support for the people they hate.


by ArchaeoBob on Mon Aug 16, 2010 at 11:31:17 AM EST
Parent






another irony (5.00 / 2)
Last Sunday I volunteered as a Silent Witness at the NEPA Pridefest outside of Wilkes-Barre, PA. I spent most of my two hour shift escorting festival-goers past the two street preachers who had set up near the entrance, which also happened to be next to the children's play area. One of the preachers went on at great length and in excruciating detail about gay sex and why it is contrary to the will of God. We tried our best to protect the children, but the preacher was using a bull horn to blare out his catalogue of body parts and what he thinks gays do with them. It was a lot more lascivious (and disgusting) than anything I saw from the festival participants. But I guess the AFA would say that was okay because he was on their side.

by MLouise on Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 09:17:50 PM EST
Martin Ssempa (5.00 / 2)
This is like Martin Ssempa in Uganda showing gay pornography at his church as part of his anti-gay crusade.

The worst pornographic material that I've ever read was from anti-gay preachers.  Some of these people are really obsessed with other peoples' sex lives.  I've talked to a number of people over the years who actually left their churches because they were sick of their families being exposed to graphic  sermons on abortions and "aberrant" sex.

by Rachel Tabachnick on Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 09:55:11 PM EST
Parent


Sounds like... (5.00 / 1)
the preachers who come to our campus.   They get that way... and usually are very offensive and not very entertaining.

It could be that they're from the same group- there is an organization that sends really offensive street preachers to different venues... like college campuses, street festivals, and so on.

by ArchaeoBob on Fri Aug 13, 2010 at 01:21:31 PM EST
Parent



Chick-fil-A work environment (5.00 / 1)
I've also heard it is a good and well-managed work environment.  On the other hand I know people who have quit because they could not tolerate the gay-bashing.  

by Rachel Tabachnick on Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 07:55:53 PM EST

Makes me wish... (none / 0)
...that I had a good reason to start a major home renovation project here at the parsonage so I could support Home Depot!

As to Chik-Fil-A, which is my favorite fast food, I've had a number of friends who worked at various of them over the years. To a person, they have said it was one of the best places they've ever worked. Corporate policy promoted fairness, good workers were recognized regularly, and Sundays were never work days. A Jewish friend who worked there for many, many years never had a problem getting Friday nights and Saturdays off to observe Sabbath and she said she never once heard any proselytizing from local, regional, or national parts of the organization. She only left because she was offered a regional executive management position with another chain, but she's said she'll go back to CFA in a heartbeat part-time when she retires.

That said, it saddens me when I hear that colleges and other institutions are encouraging or even demanding bigotry and hatred.

by RevRuthUCC on Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 02:10:36 PM EST
Info on Chic-Fil-A (5.00 / 1)
can be found at: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/8/23/142836/277 .

by ArchaeoBob on Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 03:33:28 PM EST
Parent


Add Home Depot to the American Family Association's Boycott List | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 hidden)

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