…But You Can’t Please All of the Christians All of the Time

Earlier this week, we noted that Wal-Mart had responded to pressure from the Religious Right by dropping it’s “happy holidays” customer greetings in favor of the evangelical-favored “Merry Christmas.” But the goodwill garnered by the company from Christian Conservatives has proved to be short lived.

Now comes word that evangelical political groups like the American Family Association and Operation Save America have called for boycotts of Wal-Mart and prayer protests at its stores during the all-important post-Thanksgiving weekend because the company did WHAT?

A. Said it would greet Jewish-looking customers with “Happy Chanukah”
B. Began to stock the Plan B “morning after pill” contraceptive
C. Became a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
D. Advertised “The DiVinci Code” as a “Price-Saver Christmas Stocking Stuffers” in its recent catalogue
E. Doesn’t carry the “talking Jesus” doll made famous by the recent Toys for Tots controversy


ANSWER
C: Wal-Mart became a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce this summer, and also donated some $60,000 to Out and Equal, a gay rights in the workplace advocacy group — moves that the Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America charges is capitulating to the “radical homosexual agenda.”


“This has been Christian families’ favorite store,” Benham said, “and now they’re giving in, sliding down the slippery slope so many other corporations have gone down…They’re all being extorted by the radical homosexual agenda.”

Responded Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar, “We take pride that we treat every customer, every supplier, every member of our communities fairly. We do not have a position of same-sex marriage. What we do have is a strong commitment to diversity. We’re against discrimination everywhere.”

We at Holier Than Thou, meanwhile, just want to wish all our readers a Happy Thanksgiving! We’ll be back on Monday November 27.