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(Cape Girardeau, Missouri) The Missouri Baptist
Convention has issued a stern warning to Wal-Mart - drop your ties with an LGBT
business group for face a boycott.
The message was approved this week at the the
group's annual convention after a heated debate in which many delegates demanded
an immediate boycott.
There are 600,000 Southern Baptists in Missouri.
Leaders of the national Southern Baptist Convention said the Missouri Baptists
were the first to threaten Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart earlier this year expanded its LGBT
diversity program in a deal with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of
Commerce. (story)
Since then it has faced growing opposition from
conservative Christian groups.
Last week a small Tennessee church became the
first to officially boycott the retailer. (story)
Trinity Family Church's 150 members voted to take their business elsewhere.
The church said that in addition to supporting
the gay chamber of commerce the company supports same-sex marriage. A
proposed state constitutional ban on gay marriage is on the November ballot in
Tennessee.
Last month the American Family Association told
its members to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart but stopped short of calling for a
full boycott. (story)
In an email alert to its members this week the
AFA says that the company is retailing hundreds of products with
"pro-homosexual leanings".
The AFA email called "on Christian consumers
to spend their dollars elsewhere as a sign of their displeasure with Wal-Mart's
pro-homosexual leanings."
A Wal-Mart spokesman says the retailer is
"reaching out to a number of groups" and will "welcome and serve
all customers with respect and without discrimination."
The AFA already is involved in a boycott of Ford
Motor Company over the automaker's support for LGBT causes. (story)
The AFA said it has collected 500,000 Internet pledges to boycott Ford vehicles.
In 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention called for a boycott
of the Walt Disney Co. for offering benefits to partners of gay employees.
Disney never changed its policy, and the convention ended the boycott eight
years later.
©365Gay.com 2006
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