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Companies Cave in to Online Porn Campaign, Cut Ties to Christian Web Business 6/8/2001 Companies Cave in to Online Porn Campaign, Cut Ties to Christian Web Business Retail merchants J.C. Penney, Nordstrom, and CVS Pharmacy have ended their association with the Christian on-line shopping mall KingdomBuy.com, following a smear campaign organized by online sex clubs. The retailers were among these being targeted by members of Yahoo! sex clubs in retaliation for the recent victory of pro-family groups. The groups successfully challenged Yahoo! to remove child pornography and obscenity from its servers. Yahoo! also discontinued the distribution of adult sex merchandise. “I am shocked that reputable merchants such as J.C. Penney and Nordstrom would be persuaded by a small group of pornographers,” said Gary Sutton, President of KingdomBuy.com. “It sounds like you have some conclusions that … from our perspective at least would be erroneous,” Jeanine Connelly public relations director for JCPenney.com told C&F Report, when asked to respond to Sutton’s statement. Connelly added that the decision by JCPenney.com to disassociate itself with KingdomBuy.com was unrelated to any organized e-mail campaign, but instead was based on “sound business grounds.” At the time of publication, there had been no response from J.C. Penney to a consumer e-mail complaining about the change and supporting KingdomBuy.com. However, one of many postings on the 11,500-member Yahoo! sex club encouraged members to contact retailers associated with KingdomBuy.com, with the message: “It has come to our attention that your company is associated with the American Family Association’s on-line shopping Web site entitled ‘KingdomBuy.com.’ This organization, while claiming to be ‘pro-family,’ is actually in effect pro-censorship. …’” [message #3983]. The American Family Association (AFA) is one of about 9,000 churches and ministries supported by the online Christian mall. Within a week of the first messages, four major retailers, including JCPenney.com, ended their relationship with KingdomBuy.com, most without explanation. “They aren’t even calling us back,” Sutton told C&F Report. “Corporate values are being turned on their head when it comes to family values,” said David Miller, AFA’s National Field Director, when asked why mainstream merchants would side with viewers of pornography over families. The only merchant to provide KindomBuy.com with an explanation was Nordstrom. “They told us they couldn’t do business with us because we were a Christian organization,” Sutton said. ShaSha Richardson, public relations director for Nordstrom, confirmed that reason in an interview with the American Family Association Journal, saying “Our customers have so many diverse faiths … that, to honor that diversity, as a business we need to apply [our policy] consistently across the board.” But Sutton adds that Nordstrom knew from the beginning of its 10-month relationship with KingdomBuy.com that it was dealing with a Christian business. Miller told C&F Report that the situation smacks of religious bigotry and hypocrisy, “Nordstrom’s participates with iGive.com, providing money to homosexual organizations, Buddhists and many others.” He also wonders if merchants are aware the campaign is being led by the pornography industry. “We’ve communicated with our other affiliated retailers and informed them of the e-mail campaign,” says Sutton. Miller is encouraging pro-family Christians to support that effort by thanking the retailers still onboard with KingdomBuy.com, and expressing their concern to those businesses that have ended their relationship. Such action may have led to Avon reinstating its relationship with KingdomBuy.com. Avon was one of the original four retailers that ended its relationship with the online mall just days after the start of the pornographers’ e-mail campaign. KingdomBuy.com markets a host of secular businesses to Christians by returning a portion of a shopper’s invoice total to the church or ministry of their choice. Participating merchants include Dell Computer, Hickory Farms, Wal-Mart, and Office Max. KingdomBuy.com was originally formed to support Christian mission work. It has grown to include local churches, para-church ministries, and ministries that also do family advocacy work like the American Family Association and Jerry Falwell Ministries. All of the 9,000 or more ministries must agree with a Biblical statement of faith. “The shopper can choose any ministry they wish to support, or if they prefer, non-supporters can take that amount as a discount off of their bill, so I don’t see how we discriminate against anybody,” Sutton said. While J.C. Penney representatives have returned calls to the press on this issue, at press time they still had not contacted KingdomBuy.com President Gary Sutton. Contact information: J.C. Penney Company, Inc. You may also contact the office of J.C.Penney.com: Jeanine Connelly, Public Relations Director for JCPenney.com You can also thank Avon: AVON You can also support the ministry of your choice by visiting www.kingdombuy.com. |
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