A friend from Church has latched on to this national (though hardly nationwide) reactionary move against Lowe's home improvement stores. Have you heard about it?
The whole thing apparently started when Lowe's decided to pull its advertising from some new Muslim "reality" show, after being contacted by some fundamentalist Christian group down south (where else?). The Christians were upset that Lowe's would support such programming which they say voices a lot of un-American sentiment, while at the same time, promoting radical Muslim ideals. They say.
So, my friend wishes to circulate a petition around the Church which will be sent to Lowe's home office intending to condemn their action to pull their advertising, calling it cowardly and in favor of one group over another. Apparently Lowe's gets no credit for advertising with the Muslims in the first place!
Now, I have not seen this TV show and have no desire to ever see it. I'm not anti-Muslim (but I am anti-reality show). I don't know or care who the Christian crazies are in this whole controversy, nor have I read their original complaint. I haven't read the petition and don't know, or care, who sponsored it, (although I wouldn't be surprised if it originated at the national office of the Episcopal Church). I haven't done any of this stuff because I don't need to, in order to ask my friend these few questions:
1. Do you have any other options besides Lowe's to buy hardware or home improvement products in your neighborhood?
2. Do you believe that a privately owned entity has a right to spend their advertising dollar when and where they want, or spend nothing at all?
3. Would you agree that your petition, attempting to tell Lowe's what to do and how to do it, is at least in principle, exactly what the crazy Christians were attempting with Lowe's?
If he can answer yes to any one of these questions, then I can walk away confident that he'll at least understand why I won't be signing his petition, if not questioning why he is.
