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We Are Thankful
This past week was a time to reflect and give thanks for so much on a personal level. And we did.
We also received several email messages for which we are thankful.
This past week Wal-Mart, in an official statement, began to distance itself from organizations that support “highly controversial issues” such as same-sex marriage.
Wal-Mart had been criticized for making a $60,000 donation to Out and Equal, an organization for homosexual employees which deals with workplace issues, but also supports changing the definition of marriage. The company also had joined the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce for $25,000 a year.
The Wal-Mart executive who served as the company’s representative to the Chamber has resigned and left and Wal-Mart announced that person would not be replaced.
Wal-Mart said, “Going forward, we’ll be looking differently at organizations we donate to. There are some areas we need to get corrected and that is what we’re focused on.”
If you would like to thank Wal-Mart, you can click here.
We sent in all of the names for our Just Say Christmas campaign asking retailers to Just Say Christmas – so far we have received a response from Target assuring us they would and were already saying “Christmas” in their ads and store signage. We have not yet heard from Wal-Mart, Costco and Sears.
Also, we were pleased to see the action or “non-action” as it was by the Alaska legislature last Monday.
The Associated Press said that the state legislature decided to flaunt a court order to provide health insurance for gay partners of state employees.
Governor Frank Murkowski called law makers into a special session to grant the commissioner of administration the authority to adopt the new benefits plan. But instead, the Senate passed a house bill that prohibits the commissioner from taking action on the plan by the court deadline of January 1.
This is certainly not the end of the matter in Alaska, but it’s refreshing to see politicians take a stand on their personal convictions.
Those of us who are involved with Faith & Freedom have no reason to take the positions and the criticisms we endure, other than out of deep conviction – not hate, but a deep conviction that America is great because God has blessed it.
And America has been blessed because it has stood on biblically-based principles.
For this we are thankful.
___________________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom
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30 Comments:
While I think Wal-Mart is doing the right thing to not be in support of same sex marriage, I think FFN is WAY out of line jumping at the opportunity to thank that specific company when you consider all the really terrible crap they put their employees through. Take a better and bigger look at the whole picture FFN.
I am thankful for FFN.
1:14
You need much, MUCH more of a life.
I am thankful to be able to criticize Gary Randall for his celebration of the Alaskan legislature's move to deny people healthcare.
Jesus was big into denying the sick treatment. Christ was also a known nationalist (for a nation that did not yet exist), and encouraged everyone to open businesses in order to make money off of his teachings.
Andrew you are vile.
Healthcare is not a right.
Non-for-profits should pay for the healthcare of the poor not government.
Homosexuals can get healthcare from any employer who offers it. Why should government force employers to provide healthcare?
12:50PM Why do you put down people who want to work and not get hassled by unions? Why can;t you just let people make their own decisions on where they work?
Andrew has issues with white men in authority, most likely due to unresolved emotional issues with his own father.
I worked for Wal-mart and I was paid higher than minimum wage as unskilled worker. 12:50PM is barking up the anti-walmart tree. Don;t be a sucker for the unions.
I always hated unions. They took a lot of my money in dues, and ensured that lazy workers were rewarded over newer harder workers.
I always hated unions because they took money from my check and gave it to politicians who stand against everything I believe.
Poor Gary,
"no reason to take the positions and the criticisms we endure"
Don't drown in those crocodile tears.
You make your living hurling accusations and criticisms agianst those his disagree with you and then have the nerve to whine about criticisms you endure? What a hypocrite!
-JC
I am thankful for everyone who has seen past the religious prejudice that Gary and others preach and realize that homosexuals are just people too - that share the same goals and dreams as everyone else.
I am thankful for all of the legislative representatives and judges who realize that human rights shouldn't be decided by majority rule - otherwise we might still have slavery or racial segregation. I am thankful for them that realize how a country treats its minorities says more about that country than trying to rationalize discrimination.
"homosexuals are just people too - that share the same goals and dreams as everyone else."
No one said differently. You are made in God's image and that makes you extremely valuble and precious.
I know you hang your beliefs on APA. We don't.
I am thankful God has chosen to expose the hyprocrisy of the virulent anti-gay leadership (Foley, Haggard, etc.)
Who here would be surprised to see Mr. Randall himself outed in 2007? Anyone?
11:24AM. You speak as if homosexuality is a sport. You are a sick person.
Anon,
I don't see anyone speaking about homosexuality as sport here. Seems that you need to resort to name-calling becuase you cannot intellectually defend your position. How sad and pathetic.
-JC
Here's a little snapshot of the beliefs of "ordinary Americans":
60 percent support either "legal marriage" or "legal partnerships" for same-sex couples according to a Fox News poll from early this month.
53 percent oppose an amendment to the US Constitution that would permanently deny same-sex couples access to marriage rights opposite-sex couples already enjoy, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll from Nov 13-19
53 percent sympathize more with the "pro-choice" side of the abortion argument
89 percent believe gays should have "equal rights in terms of job opportunities" according to a Gallup Poll from May of this year
54 percent believe that homosexuality "should be considered an acceptable alternative lifestyle [sic]," according to that same Gallup poll
60 percent strongly favor or favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the miliary openly, according to a Pew Research Poll in March of this year
What one writer above proposes -- that the most homophobic among us are actually battling homosexual feelings within themselves -- has already been shown in studies.
The APA has already published research to this effect:
IS HOMOPHOBIA ASSOCIATED WITH HOMOSEXUAL AROUSAL?
The studies show that homophobic men were much more likely to be aroused by homoerotic imagery than non-homophobic men. Additionally, the homophobic men were LESS aroused by heteroerotic imagery than their non-homophobic counterparts.
These studies come as no surprise to "out" gay people who spent years or decades battling their homosexual feelings -- often through anti-gay aggression to distance themselves from their homosexuality. I am one of them. Only when I was able to love myself as god made me was I able to stop my internal and external homophobia.
We often ask on this site what drives the anti-gay obsessions of local anti-gay leaders like Randall, Fuiten, or Hutcherson. The same questions are asked about national leaders, like Dobson, Perkins, and others. I think these studies can give us answers.
Additionally, we've recently witnessed the "fall" of numerous anti-gay religious and politcal leaders who themselves have turned out to be gay. Their internal battles have led them to unscrupulous acts, such as making advances toward minors or adultery with members of the same-sex.
The Republican party is crawling with closeted self-loathing gays "battling" homosexuality as a way of asserting their masculinity. And it's no secret that the anti-gay Catholic church is a haven for homosexuals battling their own feelings and avoiding marriage pressures in secular society.
Only when homosexuals find the freedom to live openly as who they are will all this self-destruction and external homophobia end. The hundreds of thousands of healthy gay families nationwide already prove this.
Gary,
Please erase 2:02pm' link to homosexual propoganda.
Well, I don't like to shop at any business that buys merchandise from countries that use slave labor camps. This includes Wal-Mart. I find more stuff that's made in America at places like K-Mart and Dollar Tree; Wal-Mart has none. Business' such as Wal-Mart don't deserve the patronage of the Christian community, or anyone else that has their head screwed on straight.
http://www.willthomas.net/Convergence/Weekly/China.htm
Well 2:02 I am a woman, and if Gary wasn't doing what he is doing I would.
You cannot comprehend what motivates us. It is not our loins. That is not our obsession. From what I have read from homosexual survey's and reports of Gay Pride Parades--that would be your obsession.
From what I have seen on this site, anti-faith people hateful towards Gary are emotionally unhealthy and sexually damaged to the point that they cannot understand that children and teens are children and that sex is only sex. The same can be said about the gays I have known very well.
Your post is a perfect example. You view everything as sexual repression or obsession or whatever.
And don't you yet see--the APA doesn't carry a lot of weight? I can understand you putting all your eggs in that basket because they tell you what you want to here.
Anonymous,
You may be a woman, but you are certianly no lady!
You make vile accusations against those, who have the temerity to disagree with your positions. How truly hateful and vile!
-JC
While this discussion is deteriorating, I would like to address Nov. 27, 3;18 pm. Jesus really got on the synagogue leaders for not doing their job of taking care of the poor and the spiritually hungry. Notice he got on the churches about that, not the government. He didn't go take it up with Caesar, even though many Jewish people wanted him to.
Thank goodness the Alaskan legislature didn't bow to the judges. That is the beauty of our system...one branch of the government cannot order another branch of the government around.
ANOM 846 ... You are right on in my opinion .. Interesting book just released , liberals are not speaking about it too much because it shows the percentage of the givers , red states , and households conservatives who give to charities at a much larger percentage then liberal/secular households . .. And the book is so well done that the facts themselves are hard to dispute ..
But has interesting facts like western Europe is the lowest in charity giving ... But then again their socialistic style government pays for everything ...
But the debate of corporate greed is really so bogus when discussin issues if we want government taking care of us or us taking care of us .. And which is better for all of us in the long term...
Its built in the religious belief system of Othodox Jews and Christians , and much of our culture still today to help people // That is why religious people give more in my opinion , we are not nicer people , I know too many liberals that are the saints of the earth , and too many christians that just would not stop to help a person in a need .. And vica versa ...
Too bad the debate gets stopped by race baiting , homosexual rights , and side issues that stop us from talking to one another ...
Mick,
What's the name of the book? Apparently you aren't too eager to talk about it either, just trying to score whatever political points you can with your representation of it.
-JC
Sounds good Mick, what is the name of the book? I'd be interested in what sounds like a good read.
I agree that one cannot go along denominational lines on the giving. Each person who truly follows what they feel God would have them do, no matter what the denomination or part of the Judeo/Christian belief, is a better answer to the poor and hungry than any government program. They also know when to pull the relief, so that the person who is being helped will learn how to stand on their own two feet and start earning personal satisfaction with making their own way in the world.
I'm not saying anything against people who choose to work for Wal Mart. It's their corporate policies that are not good - at least not for anyone who believes in truly supporting their employees and not just their corporate profit margins.
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