Sacrificing Kirby In The Retail Culture War

by digby

In all this talk of boycotting Target today, I am reminded of this little gem from over the week-end. Wal-Mart supposedly beat back a boycott threat from the Catholic League by firing an employee who failed to properly toe the conservative Christian line:

Boycott Is Called Off After Retailer’s Apology

A Roman Catholic civil rights group[wha?—ed.] called off a boycott of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Friday after the world’s largest retailer apologized for an employee’s e-mail that called Christmas a mix of world religions.

“This is a sweet victory for the Catholic League, Christians in general and people of all faiths,” said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, in a statement on the group’s website.

Wal-Mart said Thursday that a customer service employee named Kirby had written an inappropriate e-mail to a woman who complained that the retailer had replaced a “Merry Christmas” greeting with “happy holidays.” The company, based in Bentonville, Ark., also said Kirby no longer worked for Wal-Mart.

Kirby wrote that Christmas resulted from traditions such as Siberian shamanism and Visigoth calendars.

“Santa is also borrowed from the [Caucasus], mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world,” Kirby wrote.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said the e-mail — sent without review by other employees — did not represent Wal-Mart’s policies.

He said employees would continue to wish people “happy holidays” because the greeting was more inclusive.

Donohue of the Catholic League said the practice, although “dumb,” was never part of his group’s complaint.

“We only trigger boycotts when we’ve been grossly offended,” he said.

We don’t know the whole story, of course, but what Kirby said was the truth. Are they going to argue that Santa was one of the three wise men? Is the Christmas tree an old middle eastern phallic symbol celebrating the virgin birth? What do they tell their kids when they ask about this stuff, that it’s all in a lost book in the Bible? What nonsense. What the Irish cretin twins (Big Bills Donohue and O’Reilly) are so exercised about is the “Happy Holidays” thing. And WalMart didn’t budge on that. They just sacrificed Poor Kirby — and Donohue was magically no longer “grossly offended” (by the facts.) Sure.

Everybody just keep in mind when the radical Christian right start bellyaching about “Happy Holidays” this season that their favorite retailer doesn’t give a shit.

The truth is that their little boycott threat was nothing more than kabuki in the first place. It turns out that Wal-mart and the churches are much more entwined than I realized. (I have long joked that shopping is America’s true religion, but this is ridiculous.) And anti-Wal-Mart forces are on to them and are fighting fire with fire.

We have entered a new era in the culture war. It’s no longer just church and state. Religion and retail is the new front:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and its critics have been fighting for the hearts and minds of the American public, through advertising, media outreach, worker testimonials and public debate. Now the two sides are fighting for souls.

The world’s largest retailer and its adversaries are hoping to sway religious leaders to their respective causes, seeking to use the clergy’s powerful influence to reach flocks that may not respond to mere public relations or media-driven pitches.

Wal-Mart has quietly reached out to church officials with invitations to visit its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., to serve on leadership committees and to open a dialogue with the company.

Across the aisle, one of the company’s chief foes, Wal-Mart Watch, this weekend is launching seven days of anti-Wal-Mart consciousness-raising at more than 200 churches, synagogues and mosques in 100 cities, where leaders have agreed to sermonize about what they see as moral problems with the company.

“They are each probing for weaknesses behind enemy lines,” said Nelson Lichtenstein, professor of history at UC Santa Barbara and editor of the forthcoming book “Wal-Mart: The Face of 21st Century Capitalism.” “The liberals are trying to go into the churches even in conservative Republican neighborhoods. And then Wal-Mart goes into black churches and poor neighborhoods and says, ‘Look, on this question, you should be with us because we provide jobs.’ “

Wal-Mart Watch’s religious efforts are part of the group’s Higher Expectations Week, a series of nationwide events at churches, clubs, colleges and other organizations that highlight criticism of the retailer. The activities include free screenings of Robert Greenwald’s recently released documentary, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,” a critical look at how the company, the largest private employer in the U.S., treats workers.

Wal-Mart declined to comment on its outreach to clergy. But church leaders from around the country said the retailer had contacted them to encourage their support — or to respond to their criticism — of the company.

The Rev. Ron Stief, director of the Washington office of the United Church of Christ, said a Wal-Mart representative telephoned him about six weeks ago after he criticized the company in a church newspaper article about Greenwald’s documentary. After years of writing letters to the company to complain about Wal-Mart’s conduct, Stief said, he finally received an invitation to Bentonville.

“They wanted me to come see their side of it,” he said. Stief said he hoped to take the retailer up on the offer after he and other church members see the film.

The Rev. Clarence Pemberton Jr., pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia, said a Wal-Mart representative attended Tuesday’s regular meeting of about 75 Baptist ministers in that city.

“It appeared that what he was trying to do was to influence us or put us in opposition to this film that is coming out and will be in the churches,” Pemberton said, referring to the documentary. “It was implied very strongly that it was about some sort of cash rewards for people who would become partners with Wal-Mart and what they were trying to do.”

Bishop Edward L. Brown, a regional leader of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, said a Wal-Mart representative attended a CME bishops meeting last spring in Memphis, Tenn.

[…]

Wal-Mart Watch, in reaching out to churches, has opened a new front in its campaign, hoping to win converts among those who are not natural allies of labor and environmental activists, the mainstays of the group’s support.

“In order to make the impact we wish to make, we need to have breadth and depth of supporters, and we’ve been discovering that one way of developing that is with communities of faith,” said Wal-Mart Watch spokeswoman Tracy Sefl. “The notion of justice, fairness and opportunity is a message that is powerful from the pulpit and is a message that really transcends simply talking about the stores in familiar ways.”

[…]

The Rev. Frank Alton of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Koreatown said he could not recall ever sermonizing about a specific company in his 10 1/2 years in his pulpit. But asking his 250 members to consider the ethical implications of Wal-Mart, he said, was worth making an exception.

“They are a leader, and they are multiplying around the world — they have a responsibility as a leader and an innovator and pioneer to set a standard since others are following them,” Alton said. “They are destroying community, which is a value of Jesus; they are exercising greed, which is against the values of Jesus; and they are promoting a culture of greed and extending a culture of poverty, which are against the values of Jesus.

I don’t know quite what to think about all this. I’m so determinedly secular that it’s beyond my ken. But, if Wal-mart is passing out currency to conservative churches, I think it’s only right that the liberal churches get in on the act by at least making the very logical argument that exploitation of the poor for obscene profit isn’t exactly Christian. (But, can someone tell me on what basis Wal-Mart can make an explicitly Christian argument in its favor? Where in the Bible is selling cheap Chinese crap for Jesus mentioned?)

This looks to be a real red state blue state battle shaping up. These companies must grow or die. The blue states are where the people are. We can make a difference here by keeping Wal-Mart out (or atl east contained) and Target in line. We can reward companies like Costco that treat their workers like human beings.

If the culture war is going retail, we libs have some serious clout There isn’t some stupid structural impediment involved in this battle — an electoral college or federalist system that dilutes our influence. This one’s all about the numbers.

Target needs to understand that this latest is not a battle over the morning after pill, it is about birth control in general, and that the majority isn’t going to stand for it. Here’s a handy list of articles that explains the position of these “pharmacists of conscience” and what is their real agenda. Here’s one:

There are mainly three types of drugs that are causing me to feel a tremendous amount of guilt after I have dispensed them. These three are misoprostol, birth control pills, and “morning after pills.”

A little education might go a long way with the corporate cowards at Target. They may not unbderstand entirely what they are getting into by allowing themselves to start picking and choosing among different religions and personal beliefs. If they fail to get it, then boycott ’em. This is the new front in the culture war and we’ve got the advantage this time if we choose to use it.

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