Deck the Halls with pointless boycotts . . .

We were visiting some friends of ours in Chicago when I became a part of a familiar conversation. The family was discussing the Christmas shopping they had yet to do and while reviewing the stops to be made there was an unusual consideration: No stores from the Dobson list.

"The what?", I asked.

"The Dobson list."

"Oh."

Apparently, on Nov. 26th Dr. Dobson, of Focus on the Family, put out an annual list of popular retail stores and rates them on their forwardness of the word "Christmas" in their holiday propaganda. (http://listen.family.org/daily/A000000807.cfm) There are 4 categories to fall into. 2 categories (The Bad and the Ugly) are reserved for stores that marginally or completely eliminate the word Christmas from the store and website. The "Mixed Reviews" category has stores that have recently improved their appropriate verbiage but are still on probation. And finally, the "Good" category houses stores in which to spend your holiday dollars.

I remember back in the day when I was up in arms over this "attack on Christmas-America-puppies-and-all-we-hold-sacred". If you listen to the radio show (which I hope you do), you will get a sense that you are watching a claymation adventure where the fate of Christmas depends on the getting of the "Christmas" word back into the commercialization of the holiday. Otherwise, there will be no Christmas and all the children will cry. Dobson starts with a good example where Lowes had called Christmas Trees 'Family Trees'; which I think we all can agree is ridiculous. But as I continued to listen, each instance seemed to deter farther from the initial message. Santas being trained to say "He He He" instead of "Ho Ho Ho" is somehow a threat to the religious sacredness of our time honored holiday. Who knew?

I left this encounter with Dr. Dobson and my Chicago friends feeling like maybe we were missing something. Perhaps a greater mission for us all. A greater cause that celebrates Christ and what He stood for. So I decided to do some research into Dobsons list and make a few lists of my own:

First is the "We support Human Slavery and Trafficking Store" list.

Bath and Body Works*

Disney

Eddie Bauer

JC Penny*

Kohls

L.L. Bean*

Marshalls

Home Goods*

Sears*

Lands End

Toys R Us


*All stores on Dobson's "Good" list

These stores have been accused and convicted by US courts, more than once, for dire, inhumane conditions and practices associated with their stores and manufacturing. (See footnotes for sources).

My next list is the "Discriminating Workers Rights Violators" list:

Amazon.com*

Big Lots*

Dillards*

Home Depot*

Lowes

Macys*

Bloomingdales


* All stores on Dobson's "Good" list

These stores have a history of lawsuits in which they worked to prevent unions from forming, cancelling of pensions, poor working conditions, low wages, or discriminatory practices for their own employees.

It was pretty amazing to see the rap sheet that came with some of the most "Christmas" - y retailers. On the other hand, I also found plenty of retailers doing very good things. GAP inc. (not on the "Good" list), for instance had encountered some improper, sweatshop practices in their foreign facilities in 2002 and addressed it right away (San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 12, 2002) . Since then, they have been a forward force received awards for their humanitarian efforts and practices. For instance (in brief):

- In May 2004, Gap published its first social responsibility report that outlined a variety of labor violations, as well steps it is taking to remedy the problems. Executives reported that Gap was taking “concrete, constructive steps” to remedy the most common violations, including health and safety problems, as well as instances of forced and coerced labor. The report also detailed other aspects of Gap’s social responsibility practices, including community giving and volunteerism Source: Ethical Corporation, May 14, 2004
- Starting in February 2005 hundreds of Gap employees displaced for three months by extensive Colorado store remodelings are being farmed out by the company - with pay - to volunteer at local nonprofits. Source: The Denver Post, Dec. 22, 2004
- According the the Los Angeles Times, "Gap is now viewed as a leader in the small but growing corporate movement to improve conditions for some of the world's most exploited workers." Source: Los Angeles Times, Jan 17, 2005
- In April 2004 UNITE and Gap announced that they will support an effort by displaced garment workers in El Salvador to open that country's first independent and fully unionized apparel export factory. Source: CSRwire
- The Gap has agreed to stop using leather from India, where cows are said to face cruel treatment despite their sacred status. Source: Reuters, May 31, 2000
- Gap is doubling their employees’ contributions for tsunami relief through GlobalGiving, a global internet portal acting as an 'E-Bay' for social and economic growth of developing countries that has dedicated web space for relief and reconstruction within the tsunami disaster zone. Source: CSRWire
- In September 2004, after the devastation left by Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan, the Gap Foundation pledged $50,000 to the American Red Cross to aid its disaster relief efforts. Source: CSRWire
- The Gap achieved a score of 86 on the Human Rights Campaign 2004 Corporate Equality Index. Source: Human Rights Campaign
- Gap was one of the winners of the 16th Annual Business Ethics Awards, announced on December 13, 2004 by Business Ethics magazine. Specifically, Gap received the Social Reporting Award for “unprecedented honesty in reporting on factory conditions” in their 2004 Social Responsibility Report. Source: CSRWire
- In April 2004 Gap was accepted into membership in the Ethical Trading Initiative, an UK alliance promoting the implementation of international labour standards. ETI aims to ensure conditions for workers producing goods for the U.K. market meet or exceed international labor standards. Source: Ethical Corporation

GAP inc. is the corporate owner of Old Navy and Banana Republic which also made the "Bad" list. American Eagle Outfitters, L.L. Bean ("Good" list), Barnes & Noble ("Bad" list), Staples ("Ugly" list), Borders, and Target ("Mixed Reviews") also have received applause for their humanitarian advances and achievements. {Please note also, that Dobsons list remarks on those who have kicked charities like Salvation Army off their premises during the Christmas season, and this act needs to be considered when looking at a retailers approach to charity and humanitarian giving.} I feel that no corporation is free of its white collar crimes against humanity in the name of the Almighty Dollar. However, with a little research, you can begin to see the extremes that set (or lower) the bar.

Christians should be saying "Merry Christmas" and celebrating the birth of Christ unashamedly during this season. However, in directing your (commercialized) holiday dollars, I feel that Christ would have us consider our fellow man and support, as best we can, those who are lining up more with the bigger message of Christ: Love Me and love others the same way with my love. (Matthew 22:37-40).

On the third hand, if you do not share my view of this critique and still hold to Dobson's calling for the renewal of linguistic religious favor, then consider this:

The point of a boycott is to sway corporate practice with our fiscal edge. We, the consumer, have the threat of alternate shopping venues with which to take our cash. So when you say: "Forget you, Bloomingdales and your pagan phonetics! I'm going to Macys where they uphold my religious culture on their signs and banners!", that you are actually shopping at the same company. These people will not falter one iota with your choosy consumer advocacy. This holds true equally for Marshalls ("Ugly" list) and Home Goods ("Good" list). I implore you, oh Knights of Christmas Present, do some research before spending your money in what you deem a 'responsibly Christian' manner.

So here was the kicker for me; two names on the "Good" list, Wal-Mart and Sams Club, are notorious human rights offenders. Not that I don't love Sam Walton, but somewhere along the way, his vision got lost in pile of lawsuits. I, personally, stay away from these places in regard to several pieces of Wal-Mart history. Like when a federal appeals court upheld a 2004 ruling giving a lawsuit on the discriminatory practices against female employees class action status, sanctioning claims from up to 1.5 million current and former staff. And just last year the retailer was ordered to pay at least $78m in compensation to workers after a court found it had broken the law by not paying staff for working during breaks. Wal-Mart stock was black-listed from the portfolio of a national pension fund, citing persistent human rights violations and it has also been ordered to pay $172m (£99m) in compensation to workers who were refused lunch breaks. Most recently, Wal-Mart has been hit with a class action lawsuit that claims it ignores sweatshop conditions at many of its suppliers' factories around the world. Its been filed in Los Angeles on behalf of 15 workers in Bangladesh, Swaziland, Indonesia, China and Nicaragua.Each claims they were paid less than the minimum wage and not given overtime payments. Some say they were beaten.

On the bright side, Subway has overtaken McDonald’s as Wal-Mart’s primary fast-food concessionaire across the US. Subway is now in 1,419 Wal-Marts compared with McDonald’s 1,021 outlets. As Wal-Mart struggles to cap rising health-care costs, it has singled out employee diets as a concern. This is a step in the right direction, but does it weigh much if you aren't giving your employees lunch breaks? Hmmmmmm.

I look at this and wonder if all of it is worth the price of seeing a "Merry Christmas" on display as retailers continue to use it and every other aspect of this season to commercialize a sacred Christian holiday.

But, perhaps it is an issue worth fighting for.

I think I will get around to it after I finish holding corporations accountable for their support of human slavery to support lower prices and bottom lines.

I pray that God will show us how He brought peace on earth and good will to men. I pray that we won't look for it in a slogan that we approve. I pray that we have not reduced the inclusion of Christ in our Christmas to the presence or absence of a retailers approval. I pray that we try not to be so appalled that non-religious companies lack religion any more than we would expect a non-believer to exemplify Christ. I pray that we know that we exemplify Christ, not by trying to make others like us, but by showing them their need for Christ by demonstrating how wonderful and life-changing He is.

I hope you all greet each other with Merry Christmas, but also carry Christ in your season in everything you do.

Merry Christmas, dear friends. Spend wisely.


Sources: (These are merely locations for the information I used. For a Bibliography of each location, just ask me and I will send you a copy of it and my notes on each company used in research for this blog)

http://www.knowmore.org/

http://www.labornotes.org/

www.labournet.net/
http://www.business-ethics.com/

Corp-Ethics - http://www.corp-ethics.com/

Calvert Social Index - http://www.calvert.com/sri_calvertindex.html

Ethical Corporation - http://www.ethicalcorp.com/

BKS Annual Report - http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/58840

Responsible Shopper - http://coopamerica.org/programs/rs/

Corporate Social Responsibility - http://www.csrwire.com/
Human Rights Campaign - http://www.hrc.org/
Clean Clothes Campaign, 01/08/2004 - www.cleanclothes.org/legal/04-01-08.htm
The Daily Record (Baltimore, MD), Aug. 9, 2002
Costa Times, Jun. 9, 2004
Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), 10/01/2007 - http://www.sacom.hk/html/uploads/Tianyu%20Toys%20DISNEY%20Oct2007%20SA...
Citizens for Tax Justice, 09/01/2004 - www.ctj.org/corpfed04an.pdf
United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), 08/17/2005 - http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=27
Organic Consumers Association, 09/23/2004 - www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/eddiebauer092704.cfm
San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 12, 2002
The Denver Post, Dec. 22, 2004
Los Angeles Times, Jan 17, 2005
Reuters, May 31, 2000
National Labor Committee - www.nlcnet.org/
Associated Press, 09/26/2005
New York City Comptroller Office, 02/24/2005 - http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/
Amnesty International, 10/18/2004 - www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/354639808198ab08c1256f32002...
Chicago Sun-Times, Mar. 6, 2002
The San Francisco Chronicle, Jan.4, 2004
PETA, June 19, 2003