Posted on 06/17/2003 7:45:44 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Pro-life moms within The Pampered Chef, a national kitchenware company, have joined forces to take on one of the abortion industry’s top financiers. And they need your help.
By Candi Cushman
A slumping economy coupled with wartime terrorism threats has left many of us feeling insecure. We’re worried about whether our children will be safe at school, whether we’ll keep our jobs, and whether, next year, we’ll be able to afford the same size house, family van and so on. If we’re honest, many of us would admit we spend more time plotting how to hold on to the things we think we need than we do praying about the things we should let go.
That’s what makes stay-at-home moms like Tara Siler so unique: After four years of winning recognition as a star sales consultant for The Pampered Chef — one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing kitchenware companies — this spring she gave up her salary, slashing her family’s income in half.
Her pro-life convictions led her to resign after she learned her company was bought last fall by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a conglomerate of corporate heavyweights including Dairy Queen, See’s Candy and Fruit of the Loom. Turns out the new owner, Warren Buffett, is — in addition to being the world’s second-wealthiest man — one of the abortion industry’s top financiers.
For years, his company has funneled profits — about $9 million a year to be exact — into The Buffett Foundation, which in turn donated at least $11 million to pro-choice and reproductive-rights groups in 2002. Headed by Buffett and his wife, Susan, the foundation bankrolls Planned Parenthood clinics worldwide. Interestingly, the $9 million received by the foundation in 2001 constituted more than half of Berkshire’s contributions under its charitable giving program that year (over $16 million).
According to Business Week, The Buffett Foundation also made a five-year, $20 million commitment to International Projects Assistance Services — the principal manufacturer of suction pumps used in abortions. “It’s the money to actually do the abortions . . . the nuts and bolts, the hard stuff that he funds,” said Steve Mosher, who, as director of the Virginia-based Population Research Institute, spoke on behalf of pro-life shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting last year.
So, despite her $5,000-a-month sales record, Siler didn’t hesitate to quit when a fellow Chef told her about that agenda. “It wasn’t a hard decision because I knew what I had to do,” the 30-year-old West Virginia mom told Citizen. “But it was a very, very difficult sacrifice. It was four years of my heart and my life.
“When I mailed my resignation letter, I didn’t want to proofread it because I was afraid if I looked at it, I would change my mind,” she said. “So I didn’t; I just threw it in the mailbox.”
She’s not alone. In the last few months, pro-life consultants in several states have resigned or verbally protested their profits going to one of the world’s biggest abortion promoters. It’s an insurrection of Chefs, so to speak.
Pro-life Chefs Unite
The Pampered Chef has benefited for years from the very clientele it’s now offending. Founded two decades ago by professing Christian and stay-at-home mom Doris Christopher, the company markets its recipes and wares around the idea of making family mealtimes more meaningful.
“When families share a meal, the bonds that hold that family together grow stronger,” says Christopher’s Web site. That focus has attracted thousands of traditional-minded mothers like Siler, who form the bulk of a 70,000-member sales force generating $700 million annually. The company’s mission statement commits to helping women “develop their God-given talents” and “enhancing the quality of family life.”
“Being a parent is a God-given responsibility,” Christopher told The Godly Business Woman magazine last August. “And as a Christian, I take that very seriously.”
When Siler quit this spring, she thought she was taking a lone stand. Then she learned about Cindy Coughlon, a 33-year-old Arizona mother of three, who in the last few months has rallied dozens of other Chefs into action.
Coughlon also resigned from The Pampered Chef after reading a Citizen Web feature exposing Buffett’s population-control politics (see "The Billionaire Bomb" By Steven W. Mosher).
“When I read that, literally there was only one thought in my head, which was, ‘I cannot sell,’ ” Coughlon told Citizen. “[The Pampered Chef ] is dedicated to promoting family life, but our money is dedicated to destroying life. That’s not consistent.” So she launched an e-mail campaign, circulating the Citizen article to other Chefs along with a petition inviting consultants and customers to ask Buffett to “consider what kind of a world you will leave where human life is so devalued that ‘excess’ humans are considered disposable.”
She’s also searching for Berkshire stockholders willing to introduce a pro-life resolution at the company’s 2004 annual meeting. The goal is twofold, Coughlon said: (1) Apply pressure to Berkshire stockholders to change their company’s giving policies; and (2) persuade Buffett his abortion philosophy is not only wrong, but also harmful to profits.
“We need to stay noticed and make sure that [shareholders] know they are losing market share because of this,” she said. “They are going to lose consultants; they are going to lose customers.” It’s worth noting that when other pro-lifers have worked together to take on corporate giants, they’ve had surprising success. More than 90 companies, including American Express, Disney and Target, have ceased giving to Planned Parenthood in recent years, according to Tom Strobhar, an investment-company owner who has written resolutions for pro-life stockholders.
“A resolution forces the company to publicly address a really unpopular issue,” he said. “That way you don’t just get a quiet, thank-you-for-your-thoughts letter.” Shareholders should demand that companies be sensitive to their employees’ moral interests, he suggested:
“Giving money to Planned Parenthood is taking the fruits of employees’ labor . . . and giving it to an organization that literally has blood on its hands.”
‘We Have a Heart’
Resignations of top-selling Chefs already are eliciting reactions from higher-ups: Pampered Chef’s senior vice president of sales, Jean Jonas, sent an e-mail to Chef directors claiming that Pampered Chef isn’t morally responsible for Buffett’s pro-choice donations because Berkshire “allows individual shareholders to decide where their money is donated.”
Christopher also sent an e-mail to thousands of Chefs in March acknowledging that “it is possible that Pampered Chef profits could benefit either pro-life or pro-choice organizations.”
As to where Buffett’s profits go, “Truly it is not my place to ask or to judge,” she wrote. “Obviously, my personal views on some issues differ from Warren Buffett’s. Despite this difference . . . he and I share a common belief . . . that each person is entitled to his or her own opinions.”
But those explanations didn’t satisfy pro-lifers like Coughlon, who pointed out that Berkshire shareholders can designate how much money goes to certain charities according to their percentage of holdings. That means Buffett, as chief shareholder, has a powerful say in where a large portion of donations go. So she e-mailed her colleagues, arguing that “such a philosophy flies in the face of . . . the reference to God in our mission statement.”
“Here is my question to Ms. Jonas and the rest of [the] management team: If you truly believe that there is a God who hears our prayers, then why do you defend a policy that denies the authority of the Lawgiver?”
Coughlon never got an answer, so Citizen asked again for her — to no avail. Neither Christopher nor Jonas responded to repeated requests for interviews. That’s left pro-life Chefs focusing on boycott efforts and finding sympathetic shareholders.
“Everyone in the business community is so excited about these moms,” said Coughlon. “Well, yeah. But we have a heart. That’s why Pampered Chef is different — because it’s not just business as usual.”
TAKE ACTION: (1) For more information about Coughlon’s petition, visit www.fightpp.org/show.cfm?page=PC (2) Write to: Mr. Warren Buffett, CEO; Berkshire Hathaway Inc., 1440 Kiewit Plaza, Omaha, NE 68131
>FOR MORE INFORMATION: See Citizen’s Web feature, "The Billionaire Bomb." By Steven W. Mosher
Oh no. Can I at least hold on to my Ice Cream scoop? (Whimper...)
The Dairy Queen connection upset me too. It makes me really angry when the bloodsucking activitists hid behind the facade of wholesomeness!
And other thing - both Pampered Chef and DQ rely on entrepruernal investment by individuals. Pampered Chef consultants and DQ Franchise owners. Ooooo. That makes me even madder.
Whew! I am kinda fond of that lasagna pan, too. (I feel so ashamed.)
This info does need to be shared with others, though. It is terrible to be used by people that actively want to destroy human life. So sad.
There's no need to feel ashamed because you use an excellent product and enjoy it. Do you also feel ashamed because you enjoy a Dairy Queen Blizzard or occasionally take the kids there for a treat? Are you ashamed to have an American Express card or have Geico Insurance? What about enjoying a piece of See's Candy every now and then?
Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns these companies and many, many more. He even owns huge amounts of stock in Coca Cola and other large corporations. berkshirehathaway.com provides a list of all their subsidiaries. You're sure to find numerous companies that you, or your employer or family, does business with.
I've been with the Pampered Chef for over ten years and have found it to be highly ethical and family centered. Mr. Buffett's weird obsession with "population control" is abhorrent to me, but hundreds of large corporations, and small companies as well, donate money to Planned Parenthood and other pro-abort causes.
I feel these articles give a very one-sided view of the issue. I am in the process of writing letters to the authors of these two articles asking them to interview consultants like me and give the other side of the story. There are thousands of Pampered Chef consultants who are Christians, like myself. Many of us have done our own research, we've prayed, and feel no conviction to give up our businesses. Please don't rush to judgment and tell me that I am not Christian enough because I choose to continue my business.
FYI, a couple of months ago Doris Christopher sent a letter to all consultants addressing this issue. Her bottom line is that in America we are all free to use our money as we see fit and donate to causes we believe in. She doesn't feel she can dictate to Mr. Buffett how he spends his money, nor can he tell her what to do with hers. Berkshire Hathaway is set up to allow their shareholders to funnel their charitable contributions to organizations of their choice. It's certain that much of that money goes to pro-life, Christian, and/or conservative causes.
I'd be happy to answer any questions about Pampered Chef and this issue.
You make a good point. Buffet's politics are atrocious, and I feel somewhat compelled to boycott DQ and his other companies. However, if we take this type of action to its logical conclusion, we would be boycotting virtually everything on the market. Although the Pampered Chef has a wholesome founder , its current owner is not. I'm sure many companies that we're not even aware of work this way also. Somewhere along the chain of business, someone, somewhere is spending the money you pay them in ways which we do not approve. Heck- the kid behind the counter at the gas station may be saving his paycheck to pay for his girlfriend's abortion.
I also try to not buy anything made in communist China, but more often than not, it's just not possible. There's no simple solution, but I still try to shop with my convictions and this woman who quit her job surely made the right choice.
Which begs the question, why in h*!! are we having to foot the bill for Planned Parenthood through our taxes?
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