Posted on 05/12/2023 7:18:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Many major companies are “going woke” by advancing controversial progressive political ideas through their products or company policies.
Having a major company like Disney, Target or Walmart express support for the LGBT movement or other ideas is starting to become cliché, as are the backlashes to their decisions.
However, it might be surprising to learn that some of these very companies were either founded by devout Christians or have a history of appealing to conservative Christian culture.
Here's a list of five major companies that have recently gone woke that have a Christian past. They include major retail stores, a big-name airline and one of the most magical places on Earth.
Alaska Airlines is one of the hundreds of companies that have expressed support for the controversial proposed legislation known as the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of federally-protected classes.
Last year, the airline was sued by two former employees who claim they were fired for expressing religious objections to the Equality Act on an employee message board.
So, it might be a shock to learn that Alaska Airlines used to have a policy of handing out prayer cards to passengers that included quotes from the Old Testament book of Psalms.
For more than 30 years, the airline would pass out the prayer cards with their meals, as a way to encourage passengers to say grace over their food. The practice was discontinued in 2012.
From 1979 to 1991, the airline’s CEO was Bruce Kennedy, a devout Christian who eventually stepped down from his role in the company to pursue missionary work. He remained on the board of directors until his death in a plane crash in 2007.
Disney and its expansive kingdom of family entertainment is known for its huge theme parks and super-popular films and toys. More recently, its made headlines for pushing LGBT ideology and upsetting parents who simply want wholesome entertainment for their children.
Last year, the company released an LGBT-themed clothing line, featuring fashion for all ages and tying in franchises they own such as Mickey Mouse, Marvel Comics, Pixar and Star Wars.
In the past couple of years, it has made the occasional kids' film that featured an openly gay character. However, those films, among them “Strange World” and “Lightyear,” sufferedbadly at the box office.
And yet, Walt Disney, the man, was someone who, according to a Mickey News story from 2017, was a practicing Christian who had a Congregationalist minister give the dedication at the opening of Disneyland.
“Whatever success I have had in bringing clean, informative entertainment to people of all ages, I attribute in great part to my Congregational upbringing and my lifelong habit of prayer,” said Walt, as quoted by Mickey News.
“To me, today, at age 61, all prayer, by the humble or highly placed, has one thing in common: supplication for strength and inspiration to carry on the best human impulses which should bind us together for a better world.”
Walt was also politically conservative and opposed unions. In 1947, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee against suspected Communists in Hollywood.
In recent years, the popular dating website eHarmony has done a lot of promotion of same-sex romantic relationships in its policies and television commercials.
This included having a commercial in 2021 that featured a lesbian couple kissing and being together in a kitchen as part of an advertising campaign known as “Real Love.”
“We’ve spent substantial time recently bringing our entire team together to formalize a company mission and values statement that reflects who we are today. Explicitly reflecting a brand and a workplace that strives to be safe, inclusive and welcoming to each and every member of our community,” eHarmony COO Gareth Mandel told NBC Out News in 2021.
One would almost forget that eHarmony was originally founded by an Evangelical pastor named Neil Clark Warren and that, for religious reasons, it would not allow dating for same-sex couples or anyone who had been divorced more than once.
And while the website was never intended to be a Christian dating site, Salon reported back in 2005 that its account holders were exclusively Christian through its first couple of years of operation.
Further, Warren had a history of working alongside James Dobson of the socially conservative group Focus on the Family, with him telling Salon at the time that he maintained a lot of respect for the Christian organization.
Over the past few years, big box store Target has been stirring the ire of conservatives across the United States for its public support for the LGBT movement, both in products and policy.
In 2016, Target garnered backlash and an intense boycott when it announced that it was allowing customers and employees to use the bathrooms of their preferred gender identity rather than their biological sex. This meant men could enter women's restrooms and girls' dressing rooms.
In 2016, the American Family Association compiled a list of 10 cases that showed why Target's bathroom policies that allow male customers who identify as female to go into women's bathrooms and dressing rooms put women and girls at risk.
Eventually, the company agreed to spend $20 million to install single-stall bathrooms.
Beginning in the 2010s, Target also began annually selling LGBT-themed products in honor of so-called Pride month, what most of the world knows as the month of June, even including an extensive social media campaign for it.
So, it might be a shock to learn that there was a time when Target received backlash and anger from social liberals for its financial donation to a conservative group.
In 2010, the company reportedly donated $100,000 to a conservative advocacy group known as Minnesota Forward, which advocated against abortion and same-sex marriage. Target also gave Minnesota Forward another $50,00 to help with the advocacy group’s branding.
Target’s founder, George Draper Dayton, was a devout Presbyterian who originally kept his stores closed on Sundays and refused to buy ads in newspapers that promoted alcohol.
In 2015, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon released a statement opposing Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act legislation, claiming without evidence that the bill was antigay.
The Human Rights Campaign, purportedly the largest LGBT advocacy group in the United States, gave Walmart a 100% rating on issues like “workforce protections” and “responsible citizenship.”
In 2022, Walmart launched an LGBTQ+ Officer Caucus, which focused "on building community and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within the workplace.”
“We are building a Walmart for everyone, and we know that diverse voices at the leadership level drive innovation, guide our path forward and serve as a source of inspiration,” Walmart stated.
Founder Sam Walton and his wife were devout Presbyterians, with Mr. Walton being a Sunday School teacher.
According to a 2009 Harvard Review report, Walton’s company succeeded largely because it “gradually tapped into the strong fundamentalist Christian culture across the Sun Belt.”
“Walton worked into the company’s corporate structure the notion of ‘service leadership’ that ties worker roles into the concept that ‘Christ was a servant leader,’ and emphasizes the importance in the Christian tradition of serving others,” noted the Review, periodically quoting from a lecture by scholar Bethany Moreton.
“In the 1980s, during regular business meetings with Walmart managers and their spouses, Walmart’s director of family living spoke on the changed relationships between husbands and wives, which were, Moreton noted, ‘fundamental to the company’s business model.’”
They may have had Christian origins. But they aren’t Christian anymore. They were targeted intensely by the left to ruin them.
There’s another one, that most already know about: YMCA.
I informed a co-worker (a young Soccer Mom) that the letters stand for
“Young Men’s CHRISTIAN Association”.
She was stunned. “ Really? I didn’t know that! I’m not sure if that’s going to end up being problematic or not.”
Her 12 y/o son had been a member since he was 8 y/o.
Alaska used to give each passenger a verse from the Bible!
RE: Alaska used to give each passenger a verse from the Bible!
Speaking of the Bible, do American hotels still allow the Gideon Bible Group to freely distribute Bibles in their hotel rooms?
Satan has made serious inroads but he loses in the end. I read the book.
Pretty sure eHarmony was sued and made to change. Of course, they could have refused and shut down.
kinda sorta had those all in mind already except for Alaska Air, so good to know.
I despise Target and Disney the most.
The same thing almost always happens with foundations once the founder’s heirs get hold of them: they lurch leftward. Ditto for traditional organizations like the Boy / Girl Scouts, YMCA / YWCA.
“Christian” orgins. Not true with any of them.
I have seen Bibles in some hotel rooms. Not sure if this is the exception or the rule.
Forgot the Young Men’s Christian Association.
I had never heard that Walt Disney was a practicing Christian.
On the contrary, I thought he opposed it.
Korporate Amerika has been blackmailed by these made up "awards".
Also, most of the Ivy League universities started out as Christian seminaries.
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