Charles C.  Boycott and America's Christian Right
 

June 6 2005
Counterbias.com
Mel Seesholtz
 

What do the Walt Disney Company, Proctor and Gamble, Kraft Foods, and the Ford Motor Company have in common?

Answer: England’s Charles C. Boycott and America’s evangelical Christian Right.

Charles C. Boycott was a British soldier before becoming an estate agent for the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. The earl was one of the absentee English landowners who owned most of the property in Ireland. The vast majority of the Irish were renters in their own country.

In the fall of 1880, Home Rule advocate Charles Stewart Parnell chose Boycott to, well… boycott. Any absentee landlord who refused to lower rents so the native Irish people could actually afford them was “targeted.”

Being a faithful servant of his master, Boycott refused to lower rents. But he went further. He evicted his Irish tenants. The Earl’s properties were boycotted, and Mr. Boycott soon found himself isolated from the community, without servants and farmhands, unable to buy food and clothing in stores, or receive mail delivery.

The “evangelical Christian Right” refers to a collection of like-minded groups. While they always support each other’s activities, each group seems to have a specialty. Boycotts seem to be the forte of Don Wildmon’s Mississippi-based American Family Association, which claims 2.2 million members and is one of the most financed groups in the evangelical Christian Right’s campaign against gay and lesbian Americans.

For the last nine years AFA has been boycotting Disney. Why? Because Disney was too “gay friendly” and supported the equality of all Americans. Or, as Don Wildmon’s son and AFA president Tim Wildmon said, “Disney’s attitude, arrogance and embrace of the homosexual lifestyle gave us no choice but to advocate a boycott of the company.” (Embracing the so-called “homosexual lifestyle” means treating gays and lesbians equally.)

AFA’s was offended by some of the films with which Disney was involved, particularly after teaming up with Miramax, the film producing company Disney bought in 1993. The 1994 film Priest – which AFA deemed “gay-themed” – was one of the boycott’s triggers. Ironically, Catholic “priests” have become synonymous with pedophilia. The 1999 religious comedy Dogma intensified AFA’s resolve to punish Disney.

In late May 2005, AFA announced the end of the Disney boycott, but with reservations since Disneyland and Disney World still have “Gays Days.” As Mr. Wildmon put it, “So I guess one could say that, as far as we’re concerned, Disney is on probation.” In announcing the end of the boycott, Wildmon said “Boycotts have always been a last resort for us at AFA.” But the record shows AFA has chosen the “last resort” first.

In the summer of 2004, AFA began a boycott of Procter and Gamble. Why? Because P&G was too “gay friendly” and supported the equality of all Americans. AFA’s laundry list of charges against P&G was extensive: recruiting the best workers (even if they’re gay), helping repeal a Cincinnati city charter ordinance that prevented the city council from enacting any laws that would recognize gays and lesbians and, thereby, help P&G recruit and retain the best employees. P&G’s other transgressions included sponsoring floats in gay pride parades, placing ads in gay magazines, sponsoring tolerance and diversity conferences and “gay friendly” television shows. As Randy Sharp, an AFA spokesman put it, Christians must oppose the use of their money going to “promote the homosexual lifestyle.”

Not to be outdone in raw homophobia, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family joined in the P&G boycott and lent their support to Sharp’s words: “[This] issue was about a major American corporation … becoming involved in a political and social agenda outside of their company.”

P&G is indeed a “major American corporation” and as such is inherently involved in “political and social” agendas. American Family Association and Focus on the Family are also “corporations.” They’re just less interested in America’s political vision of equality and the American corporate ideal of being judged on one’s merit and performance. Their main interest is in damning others and judging everyone – personally and professionally – by their own perverted form of “Christianity.”

Mr. Sharp objected to Christians’ money going to support “the homosexual lifestyle.” What about Americans who object to their tax money going to support faith-based initiatives that promote the “Christian lifestyle” of bigotry and lies marketed by groups like the American Family Association and Focus on the Family? A classic example is the federal tax money (almost $900 million since George W. Bush took office) going to support faith-based “abstinence-only” sex education programs in the nation’s public schools despite accumulating evidence that such programs don’t work and are, in fact, counterproductive and dangerous.

Evidence of those dangers recently came from Yale and Columbia University researchers in an article entitled “After the promise: The STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges” in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. The research of Dr. Hannah Brückner and Dr. Peter Bearman was also the subject of an Associated Press story: “Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are more likely to take chances with other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, a study of 12,000 adolescents suggests.”

Earlier evidence of tax payer money supporting faith-based lies came in December 2004, when the office of Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) issued a scathing report on the failure and dangers of “abstinence-only” sex education programs. From Doreen Brandt’s 365Gay.com report on the report:

The Waxman staff report found that two thirds of the abstinence programs in use in schools distort the facts on the use of condoms.

 

It also found that the program is teaching teens that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half of the gay male teenagers in the U.S. have tested positive for HIV, and that touching a person's genitals can result in pregnancy. … (italics mine)

“Abortion can lead to sterility and suicide” (italics mine). Like any OB/GYN surgically invasive procedure an abortion “can” lead to complications that “can” sometimes lead to sterility. But when performed by a licensed physician in an appropriate medical setting, such cases are extremely rare. Simply saying that abortions “can” – without the necessary explanations, qualifications and supporting information – seems little more than a scare tactic.

“Half of the gay male teenagers in the U.S. have tested positive for HIV.” When were all the gay teenagers (in and out of the closet) in America tested? Was this a national event – a “Day of Testing” – completely missed by the liberal, mainstream, conservative, and evangelical media? How does one respond to such a ludicrous assertion?

“Touching a person’s genitals can result in pregnancy.” But that’s not the only lie the Bush administration and the Christian Right call “sex education.” In a “Crossfire” program broadcast on CNN in December 2004, Genevieve Wood of the Family Research Council repeatedly refused – five times, according to the transcript – to disown, qualify, explain, or document her claim that masturbation can cause pregnancy.

All the groups within the evangelical Christian Right continue their rabid support for these abstinence-only “sex education” programs – as well as other federally funded faith-based initiatives – but the AFA boycott of Procter and Gamble was suspended in mid-April 2005, with Wildmon claiming victory. Just a few weeks later, AFA was at it again.

In early May 2005, they launched a boycott of Kraft Foods. Why? Because Kraft was too “gay friendly” and supported the equality of all Americans. This time that friendly support came in the form of sponsorship of the Gay Games that will take place this July in Chicago. The Games will involve over 12,000 athletes from more than 100 countries competing in 30 sports ranging from softball to dancesport, swimming to tennis. Chicago’s merchants, vendors, hotels and restaurants, as well as the city’s tax collector are glad the Games are coming. But the Illinois Family Institute isn’t. They joined AFA in boycotting Kraft for its sponsorship of the Gay Games, which IFI called “dysfunctional diversity” and a “grave public heath hazard.” AFA’s and IFI’s notion of “grave public health hazard” seems akin to FRC’s Genevieve Wood’s dysfunctional notion about masturbation and pregnancy.

Kraft’s response was straight to the point: “Diversity is more than a word many people like to say. At Kraft we truly respect all kinds of differences. And diversity is not a selective concept. By definition, it's nothing if not inclusive. We respect diversity of ethnicity, gender, experience, background, personal style and yes, sexual orientation and gender identity. Recognizing, respecting and valuing these differences help us be a more successful business and a workplace where all employees can realize their full potential.”

May was a busy month for AFA. On May 31, 2005, they launched yet another boycott. This one against the Ford Motor Company. Why? Because Ford was too “gay friendly” and supported the equality of all Americans. Having had lots of “last resort” practice, AFA’s rhetoric was hot-button honed. Its call-to-boycott call was a cornucopia of homophobic hysteria:

If one looks for the company which has done the most to affirm and promote the homosexual lifestyle, he would be hard-pressed to find a company which has done more than Ford Motor Company. … From redefining family to include homosexual marriage, to giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to [send] managers to attend diversity training … Ford supports homosexual publications with ads …

Unable to resist an opportunity to attack gay and lesbian Americans, Louis Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition added its voice to the Ford boycott. James Lafferty, spokesman for the Traditional Values Coalition, said “The typical family which buys a Ford SUV or Ford car is not going to be excited about the sort of groups that Ford is sponsoring.” And what are these heinous groups? One of them is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Since AFA and TVC are purveyors of “defamation” against gay and lesbian Americans, it’s not surprising they’re upset with Ford for supporting a group that fights defamation.

Ford’s response was straight to the point: “Ford values all people - regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and cultural or physical differences. And we are glad to see that this spirit of inclusion is evident in the practices of other automakers who do business in this country as well. It is one of the things that makes us proud to be part of the auto industry.”

The common theme in all AFA boycotts – and Focus on the Family’s and Traditional Values Coalition’s mission – can be easily summarized: gay and lesbian Americans don’t count, at all. Damn them, demean them, make sure they don’t have civil equality or are able to earn an honest living and, after doing that, pat yourself on the back for being a “good Christian.”

“Boycott” began as a means to encourage fairness on the way to equality. But the leaders of the evangelical Christian Right have devolved it into a means to treat certain people as unfairly as possible and work toward negating equality for them and all the other “undesirables” that must inevitably follow.

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