Target & The Grinch: Two Peas in a Green Pod
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Now that Christmas has come and gone, I’m convinced that Target and the Grinch have a lot in common. Neither of them quite understood what Christmas was all about.
Remember the words of Dr. Seuss’ famous poem?
“The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one knows quite the reason.
It could be his head wasn’t screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all – May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.”
When Target announced that they would no longer allow the Salvation Army – one of America’s most beloved charities – to set up their red kettles in front of Target’s 1,300 stores nationwide, I was aghast. They blamed their new Grinch-like policy on an “increasing number of solicitation inquiries.”
Yeah, right!
Guess what? Target is a private company. They’re not a governmental agency, hamstrung by five miles of bureaucratic red tape. If they decide to exclusively allow the Salvation Army to solicit donations, then that’s the policy. End of story.
Target has also oddly claimed in an e-mail response to concerned customers that they simply wanted to provide a “distraction-free shopping environment in which to shop.”
Hellooooo! You don’t shop in the parking lot.
Something doesn’t pass the sniff test here.
It turns out that GayDC, a Washington, D.C.-based homosexual activist Web site, and other homosexual groups including Integrity, a group that promotes homosexuality within the Catholic Church, have actually been sending thank you notes to Target, commending them for kicking the Salvation Army bell ringers off store property.
Some suggest that Target has caved to the mounting pressure from homosexual groups who despise both the evangelistic mission of the Salvation Army as well as their refusal to endorse illicit homosexual relationships with corporate medical benefits. Robert Knight of the Culture and Family Institute, declared: “Needy families are not even on the radar screen of these homosexual activist groups, who are more interested in promoting acceptance of sodomy than in the Salvation Army’s ongoing charity efforts to keep poor people fed and clothed.”
“This kind of thing goes beyond all normal sensibility, morality and decency,” said Brian Camenker, president of the Parents Rights Coalition, based outside Boston, Massachusetts. “Coming during the Christmas season, this act of Politically Correct meanness is a direct assault on a charitable organization specifically because it bases itself on Biblical morality,” Camenker said. “We are starting to witness the same level of hatred that the Nazis and Communists had for religious believers.” Camenker, who is Jewish and whose family came from Eastern Europe, has friends who survived Hitler’s death camps.
Sadly, since Target’s heart was “two sizes too small,” it cost the poor $9 million dollars nationally and $130,000 locally here in San Antonio. The money the Salvation Army raises during the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas enables them to minister to the needs of untold thousands of poor and disadvantaged year round.
According to The Fresno Bee, a California newspaper, the kettle campaign “began in San Francisco in 1891 when a Salvation Army captain wanted to provide free Christmas dinners for the poor. He remembered his days in England seeing people place charitable contributions into a large pot they called ‘Simpson’s pot.’ He received permission from authorities to place a similar pot at the Oakland, California ferry landing, at the foot of Market Street. By Christmas 1895, kettles were used by 30 Salvation Army Corps in various locations on the West Coast.”
This past December, Target tried to stop Christmas for thousands of poor “Whos” in the Alamo City just like the green Grinch. “Whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes, he stood there on Christmas Eve, hating the Whos, staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown at the warm lighted windows below in their town.”
But the San Antonio Christians embraced the Salvation Army kettle slogan “The perfect gift for the person who has nothing” and they gave generously. In fact, dozens of KSLR Radio listeners joined me and volunteered for three-hour shifts all over town to ring that traditional bell, reminding others of the needs of the poor.
As I stood in front of the red kettle outside the Wal-Mart at Loop 1604 and Highway 281 the Saturday before Christmas, I was reminded anew why the kettle campaign of 1891 was such a God-send. First, it reminds us, smack dab in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, of the Biblical admonition found in Proverbs 14:31: “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Second, the Salvation Army kettle campaign gives people a way to give anonymously, without recognition, as taught in Matthew 6:3: “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”
But, good ole Target, has the heart of Mr. Grinch. Do you remember the lyrics from the song? “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a heel. You’re as cuddly as a cactus. You’re as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch. You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel.”
Perhaps the highlight of my three-hour bell-ringing shift for the Salvation Army was to watch the parents teach their children to remember the poor. At least half of the hands that dropped change or dollar bills into my kettle belonged to kids between the ages of 3 and 12.
What a powerful lesson for them to learn in their formative years. In that simple act of obedience to their parents, they grasped that “Sharing is Caring” indeed, as my red and white sign blowing in the wind above my kettle boldly proclaimed.
And then there was the Papa John’s delivery guy who drove past me. His window was rolled down and I jokingly asked where my pizza was. Without missing a beat, the lanky teenager, grabbed two fists full of change in the seat, handed me what appeared to be a $7 donation in quarters through the window and said, “Hope this helps!”
But I loved my pre-Christmas visit with a 78-year-old native San Antonion woman in front of that Wal-Mart. She didn’t look a day over 60. Athletic, sophisticated, well dressed. After making her donation, she placed her warm, soft hand on mine and said, “I was born in 1926 and I remember when my parents would take me to the Woolworth’s Store in the Alamo Plaza in the early 1930’s around Christmas. The Salvation Army band would play carols in their spiffy uniforms and my parents donated some of their dollar bills in the red kettle.”
What a thrill to see people from all walks of life respond to the ringing of the bell. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, would have been proud. Back in 1852, as their website documents, Booth “began his crusade to win the lost multitudes of England to Christ. He went into the streets of London to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor, the homeless, the hungry and the destitute.
“Thieves, prostitutes, gamblers and drunkards were among Booth’s first converts to Christianity. His congregations were desperately poor. He preached hope and salvation. His aim was to lead them to Christ and to link them to a church for further spiritual guidance.”
The original, time-tested vision of the Salvation Army is alive and well today in 2005. Not only do they minister to the physical needs of the downtrodden, but they offer Christ as the only hope to avoid eternal separation from God. Politically incorrect to be sure. But Biblically sound from start to finish!
But Target has turned its back on the poor and the spiritually bankrupt just like Mr. Grinch.
“You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart’s an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders.
You’ve got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch.
I wouldn’t touch you, with a
Thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.”
So, as you make your New Year’s resolutions, my challenge for you is to abide by the lyrics of the song about bitter old Mr. Grinch. Don’t touch Target with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!
That’s also the advice of Rev. Rob Schenck, President of the National Clergy Council – a coalition of 5,000 member churches – who has called for a national Christian boycott of Target. “This is not about being vindictive. It’s about teaching proper moral and civic responsibility to corporations that make bad public policy decisions. This isn’t personal, unless, of course, you’re talking about the personal injury Target is doing to the poor who are helped by one of America’s oldest, most reputable and most effective charities.”
Perhaps, through our boycott, Target will come to the same conclusion that the Grinch did.
“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! ‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas – perhaps – means a little bit more!’”
TAKE A STAND ACTION STEPS:
1. Boycott Target throughout 2005 over their refusal to allow the Salvation Army to set up their red kettles outside their 1,300 stores. Christians need to hold Target accountable and hit them where it hurts, in their wallet.
2. Let Target know why you plan to shop elsewhere until they change their policy: Write: Robert Ulrich, Chairman, Target, 1000 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403, Call (800) 440-0680, E-mail: guest.relations@target.com.
3. Support Wal-Mart which not only allows the Salvation Army to set up their red kettles outside their 3,600 stores, but generously gave a $1 million matching gift this past Christmas.
4. Thank Wal-Mart for their warm embrace of the Salvation Army and for their generous $1 million donation. Write: John Menzer, CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 702 S.W. 8th Street, Bentonville, AR 72716, Call: 1-800-WAL-MART.
5. Send the website dontshoptarget.com to everyone on your e-mail list.
6. Volunteer to help the Salvation Army of San Antonio throughout the year by calling (210) 352-2000. They’d be thrilled to hear from you.
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