Posted on 06/17/2003 7:45:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
(AgapePress) - A growing number of Christian, pro-life mothers are leaving lucrative careers with a national kitchenware company because of the new owner's support of abortion.
"The Pampered Chef" is one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing kitchenware companies. The company, founded in 1980 by professing Christian and stay-at-home mother Doris Christopher, has been driven mostly by stay-at-home moms who sell the products from home. The company boasts more than 67,000 "Kitchen Consultants" and sales of $700 million annually.
But now, according to Citizen magazine, many Christian mothers are walking away from the company because Pampered Chef's new owner, billionaire Warren Buffett, is a huge supporter of abortion. His Buffett Foundation, using company profits, has donated tens of millions of dollars to abortion-related causes.
Citizen reports that Buffett's conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. -- owners of such well-known names as Dairy Queen, See's Candy, and Fruit of the Loom -- has funneled millions of dollars to the Foundation. The Foundation, in turn, last year donated at least $11 million to pro-choice and "reproductive-rights" groups.
Among those recipients are international abortion-provider Planned Parenthood, the Population Council -- chief promoter of RU-486 in the U.S. -- and International Projects Assistance Services. IPAS, beneficiary of a five-year, $20 million commitment from the Foundation in 1999, is the principal manufacturer of the suction pumps used in abortions. According to Business Week, that financial backing permitted IPAS to double its capacity to produce and distribute "manual vacuum aspirators (MVAs)."
According to Citizen, the exodus of Pampered Chef distributors who are pro-life is gaining steam. It says resignations of top-selling distributors are catching the attention of company officials. Among those who have decided to quit the company is Tammy Gillespie of Tupelo, Mississippi. She excludes Buffett from her decision.
"It's not between me and Warren Buffet, it's between me and God," Gillespie says. "I cannot bow before the Lord when I get to heaven and have Him look me in the eye and say, 'You knew that your money was going to fund abortion.' And that's why I'm quitting the Pampered Chef."
Gillespie says the decision was not a difficult decision for her and her husband to make. "We searched God's Word and found a ton of scriptures that I believe that God led us to find and know exactly where God stands," she says.
"The Book of James it says if you know what to do and you don't do it, it's a sin. So if you know where God stands on something and you choose not to do it because of finances or because you like the product, it's sin."
She says there was never any hesitation on her part about quitting a company that helps finance the killing of innocent babies. Citizen quotes a West Virginia mom and a 33-year-old Arizona mother of three who both also have resigned from The Pampered Chef over its financial support to abortion-related cayses,
Buffett purchased The Pampered Chef in September 2002 and remained under the management of Mrs. Christopher at that time.
It is a point well taken. None of us have any control how others use the wealth that our purchases and patronage provide. Nor can they control what we do with our money.
Absolutely not, and I'm not going to throw away all my Pampered Chef utensils either. I didn't know up til now so those purchases were made with a clean conscience. But now it's out there, I'm aware of it and I won't be spending any more money on PC products and will be telling my sister and mom and friends why I won't go to another PC party if asked. You're absolutely right, everyone is entitled to their own personal opinion, and everyone is responsible to their own personal conviction, and mine tells me that if I am quite aware of an organization's donations to Planned Parenthood, I will do whatever possible in my power to refrain from contributing. That goes for the United Way, the March of Dimes...no matter how much good they have done. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
May God bless you and your family and may He guide all your decisions.
Mark 8:36, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
The money that Pampered Chef gets doesn't go straight into the pockets of abortionists. If those dispicable programs get 1/1000 of a cent for every $100 Pampered Chef order I would be surprised. Yet, in the example I give, their windshield wiper money probably provides the same amount of money to the child killers.
Name any company that is publically held and I can draw you a line how any purchase you make from them will cause a portion of your money to end up in the hands of an abortionist. Any publically held company sells stock. At least one person who holds any company's stock will be someone who gives a donation to Planned Parenthood. Thus, buying anything sold, produced, or handled by a publically held company supports abortion a small amount.
This is why this whole concept is ridiculous, it assumes that we have a moral obligation to follow our money through the whole flow.
What if the guy instead of buying a blizzard went to a strip club? That's a pretty short series of steps for your money to be supporting something you might find immoral.
1) You
2) Auto-shop
3) Rusty
4) Tina at the Pink Pussycat
Compare that too,
1) You
2) Pampered Chef
3) The Berkshire Hathaway Company that owns Pampered Chef
4) Berkshire Hathaway
5) The Berkshire Hathaway Foundation
6) Various pro-abortion groups
5 steps to get to the evil Child killers from you, while Tina got her stripping money in 3 steps. How many steps are you responsible for your money? If it's more than one, I suggest you make charts like this for all of your purchases. Who know, Rusty may have given to Planned Parenthood, would that have made the windshield wipers more evil than the Blizzard?
But because a Foundation run by a Company that has several layers of companies between itself and a Pampered Chef customer gives a small portion of their charitable giving to baby killers, that's a direct connection? Sorry, that doesn't wash.
I'm sure you are. :) Have a good afternoon.
Two thirds of our economy is based on consumer spending. The culture of instant gratification promoted by the sexual revolution promotes the same attitudes toward spending on consumer goods for self gratification. Plus, keeping families small increases the amount of money the adults can spend on the stuff those guys make. Larger families have a nasty habit of saving for the future and spending money on their kid's basic needs. Bad for business.
Looks like a straight line to me. OK, how about this one. Achmed the corner grocery owner sells part of the store to his nephew Amir. Amir is a member of Hamas and his share ends up funding terrorism. You find this out. Achmed is no terrorist, but he can't or won't sever ties with Amir, even though part of their profits goes to Hamas. Do you still shop the corner grocery?
Personally, I've never heard of the Pampered Chef. In my kitchen, the old Presto pressure cooker rules. Bon appetit!
1) Me
2) Amir
3) Hamas
That seems pretty simple. Much simpler than Pampered Chef to Planned Parenthood.
Maybe you meant something like,
1) Me
2) Achmed
3) Achmed's Mosque
4) Mullah Amir
5) Center for Muslim Relations
6) Hamas
That would be more in line, and I would not have a problem buying canned peached from Achmed. He is only responsible for giving to his Mosque, and I am only responsible for giving to Achmed. If Achmed was sending money directly to Hamas, like Amir is in your example, then sure I have a responsibility in that step.
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