[Catholic League Cancels Boycott] AMERICAN RED CROSS APOLOGIZES FOR CENSORING RELIGIOUS SPEECH

www.CatholicLeague.org ^ | 3-12-2002 | William Donohue

[Notwithstanding]

March 12, 2002

AMERICAN RED CROSS APOLOGIZES FOR CENSORING RELIGIOUS SPEECH

In a news release March 11, the Catholic League pledged to contact the leaders of over 100 organizations asking them to join us in dropping all support for the American Red Cross. We did just that—we faxed all of the organizations on our list. And also we contacted the Red Cross.

Our complaint centered on the decision of the headquarters of the American Red Cross to defend its Orange County (CA) chapter in prohibiting students from Orange County High School of the Arts from singing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” at a Red Cross luncheon this past Sunday. The Red Cross opposed the songs citing its “sensitivity to religious diversity” and its “preference for a music program that would be inclusive and not offend different populations participating in this particular event.”

Yesterday evening, the American Red Cross issued a statement saying “the judgements we made in this case in applying our principles clearly offended some in our community.” It mentioned that “it is important to use reasonable judgement in applying principles to the everyday circumstances we confront.” The news release continued saying “the judgement we made to exclude certain songs from the Sunday program was a mistake.” It then apologized for its decision.

Catholic League president William Donohue remarked as follows:

“We are delighted that reasonableness prevailed at the American Red Cross and we have no interest in continuing our campaign to discredit the organization. While we accept the apology we do not buy the line that this was a ‘mistake.’ No, it was a calculated decision designed to punish religious speech. The statement, therefore, is intellectually dishonest. But the bottom line is they got the message. One more point. We expect the organization will soon change its name: any group that has ‘Cross’ in its name is clearly being insensitive to religious diversity.”

[patent]

Can't we keep up the boycott anyway? ;-)

[evad]

Can't we keep up the boycott anyway? ;-)

And we would want to do that because......???

[isthisnickcool]

Rumor is that the Red Cross will be merging with Rainbow Push. The new name is the Red Pushy Rainbow.

[Publius6961]

saying “the judgements we made in this case in applying our principles clearly offended some in our community.” It mentioned that “it is important to use reasonable judgement in applying principles to the everyday circumstances we confront.”

Problem is, you see, that the same morons keep making the same mistake over and over and over and over...

Haven't you heard?
IDIOTS!!

Doing something in order to avoid "offending" a handful, and offending millions in the process... is stupid.
Any third grader can tell you that!

[TLBSHOW]

because they promote socialism.

[Moosilauke]

Donahue nails it. The only "mistake" by the American Red Cross was in underestimating the outrage their political correctness would encounter. And he's right, the "cross" in their name must be deeply offensive to all tolerant free-thinkers. Likewise, the "American" part of their name will strike the pc sort as jingoistic and exclusivist. Hmmm, how much of their name does that leave us with?

[DoughtyOne]

I will NEVER give a dime to the Red Cross again. I am a firm believer in donating to local community concerns that a person can monitor or even gain hands on involvement in.

If a national disaster occurs, donating to local church charities is a lot better than donating to the Red Cross.

[patent]

My "we" sees no reason to support an organization that consistently acts like the Red Cross does. Its apology here sounds as genunine as yet another Ted Turner apology for yet another anti-Christian comment. Perhaps they apologize for it, but why support an organization that prefers to silence you and your values, except when it hurts their donations? Perhaps your "we" has a masochistic streak, and likes giving money to people who would rather gag you. My "we" notes there are multitudes of organizations out there that will take my money and still respect me in the morning. I prefer to donate my all to finite funds to them.

patent

[let freedom sing]

We expect the organization will soon change its name: any group that has ‘Cross’ in its name is clearly being insensitive to religious diversity.”

/sarcasm off

Fool me once, shame on you--

Fool me twice, shame on me.

Third time's a fool?

[oc-flyfish]

For those of you who want to protest the Red Cross's actions click here.  Freeper jrewingjr came up with this great idea.  Ping all your friends and chapter members.
 

[kellynla]

Did anyone watch the piece "60 Minutes" did on the Red Cross Sunday night. It appears that the Red Double Cross has been stiffing people for years...you may want to continue your boycott.

[rmvh]

Since military flying days, I have dispised the Red Cross for their condescending attitude toward all military personnel.

I am delighted with this turn of events.

Please have a very nice day.

[Cleburne]

We expect the organization will soon change its name: any group that has ‘Cross’ in its name is clearly being insensitive to religious diversity

Good one!

[mc5cents]

Doing something in order to avoid "offending" a handful, and offending millions in the process... is stupid. Any third grader can tell you that!

Indeed, AND those few that they want to avoid "offending" in most likelyhood would not be "offended" in the first place but by doing this they assured themselves of offending millions. Stupid indeed.

[oc-flyfish]

See post 13.

[Alberta's Child]

The Red Cross opposed the songs citing its “sensitivity to religious diversity” and its “preference for a music program that would be inclusive and not offend different populations participating in this particular event.”

In attempt to avoid offending non-Christians and people who are not U.S. citizens, the American Red Cross decided that from now on it would simply be known as the Red.

/sarcasm off/

[sausageseller]

My father in law told me how he was not given food and drink during WW2, by the red cross. Said they had been relieved from the front lines by other units and had taken rear postions and had come into contact with red cross unit, that had food and other items. They were not given anything because they had no money on them. He did say the officers ate free though.

Seems they have not changed their ways. So as far as I'm concerned you my continue the boycott!