Please, no "I'm loving it" jokes

McDonald's serious about promoting homosexual agenda

Hatchet
By Lucas Roebuck

I get all sorts of e-mail from a wide spectrum of conservative and religious advocacy groups telling me of the latest outrage in the American culture war. Usually, most of these messages end up on the lethal end of my delete key for two reasons. First, even though I am sympathetic to the causes of many of these groups, I am weary of the intentional omissions, out-of-context quotes, and other appeals to ignorance that activist groups of all political stripes often rely on.

Secondly, almost always the important news is accompanied by an appeal for money. The science of knowing which catchphrases to use to get your constituency to write a check — or these days click a PayPal link — is advancing faster than most of our income levels. Personally, I avoid giving money to advocacy groups that solicit me. Instead, I think groups that let their work speak for themselves should be the ones that draw the funds.

I’m ambivalent about the American Family Association. While I agree with most of its positions, sometimes the group seems too concerned with partisan issues than with pro-family issues. One of their “Action Alert” e-mails earlier this month caught my eye. The subject line read: McDonald’s chooses to support homosexual agenda.

What irked the AFA? First was that the American icon that has served billions and billions decided to lend its logo and give $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to become a “ Corporate Partner and Organizational Ally ” The second was that Richard Ellis, McDonald’s vice president of communications, was given a seat on the board of the NGLCC as a part of the transaction.

The AFA apparently communicated its displeasure to Mickey Dees, which promptly told the AFA where it could stick a few double-quarter pounders with cheese. Pat Harris, McDonald’s global chief diversity officer, wrote a letter back to the AFA, saying, among other things, that McDonald’s is “ associated with countless local and national affinity groups here in the United States. We have a well-established and proud heritage of associating with individuals and organizations that share in the belief that every person has the right to live and work in their community free of discrimination. ”

Harris’ letter did not specifically mention anything gay or lesbian. In turn, AFA says, that’s all well and good, we don’t want you to discriminate against gays, just quit supporting gay activist groups. AFA then called for a boycott of McDonald’s.

“The NGLCC lobbies Congress on a wide range of issues including the promotion of homosexual marriage,” wrote AFA founder Donald Wildmon. “This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals, or homosexuals eating at McDonald’s, or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald’s, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their corporation behind promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.”

So I visited the NGLCC of Web site, which promotes the organization as one that is encouraging the economic growth of homosexually-owned businesses. No harm there. However, digging deeper into the Web site, I found all sorts of evidence that the NGLCC is working as part of the larger movement to force homosexuality as a social norm on America by minimizing those of us who believe that homosexuality is unnatural and a detriment to a healthy society.

For example, the site called James Dobson’s Focus on the Family (a good barometer of mainstream Evangelical Christian thought ) merely a purveyor of a “ Fringe Conservative Political Agenda. ” Focus on the Family banked at Wells Fargo, then decided to withdraw its deposits after Wells Fargo became a corporate partner with NGLCC, according the Web site.

NGLCC is also working to create a special class of protection for homosexuals that is not afforded to the rest of us in its promotion of “ hate crimes” legislation. Threats of violence and committed violence against anyone should be prosecuted, no matter what the motivation. Apparently, if you are violent against homosexuals, then you deserve a more severe punishment than if you were violent, against say, a vegetarian.

What surprised me more was how many corporations, like McDonald’s and Wells Fargo, had signed onto the NGLCC bandwagon. Here are a few: IBM, Intel, American Express, Motorola, American Airlines, Kodak, Marriott, Citi Bank, AT & T, UPS, Coors, Albertson's, Burger King, Office Max, Bank of America, Capital One, Johnson and Johnson; and Xerox. I do business with at least a half-dozen of these companies — so theoretically, I am helping to fund people who disparage people like Dobson who support traditional family structures. You can find the whole list at www.nglcc.org/corporate/partners. If you are interested in the McDonald’s boycott, you can find more information at boycottmcdonalds.com

I don’t know why the AFA is only picking on McDonald’s. The number and variety of companies sponsoring the homosexual agenda is growing. While conservatives have won victories at the ballot box and in state legislatures across America in fighting against the normalization of homosexually-based families and same-sex marriage, the homosexual community has lined up the corporate elite alongside the judicial elite and media elite to support its agenda. These are powerful institutions.

I don’t know if I could boycott all those companies. But I hate the fact that my support of those companies is indirectly supporting an organization that considers my evangelical Christian views “fringe.” I have been a good customer of McDonald’s for decades, and I have the waistline to prove it.

Maybe it’s better all around if conservatives cut McDonald’s out of our diets.

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