by Christine Dhanagom
September 2, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Major U.S. companies that had offered consumers the ability to donate a portion of their purchase to faith-based charities are now under pressure from gay activists to end their support for any charities that support traditional marriage.
The activists are taking aim at the Charitable Give Back Group (CGBG), formerly known as the Christian Values Network, an online shopping network that supports Christian family organizations such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
The organization’s website provides links to retailers who will donate a percentage of the purchases made through those links to a participating charity of the customer’s choice.
While CGBG continues to receive support from major retailers such as Walmart and Target, some companies have backed away from the organization after petitions posted by gay activists on Change.org and Allout.org garnered thousands of signatures.
A recent Change.org press release says that Apple removed their iTunes store from the CGBG website after a petition posted on the Change.org website by Western Washington University Student Ben Crowther received 22,000 signatures.
The statement says that various other companies, including REI, Macy’s, Delta Airlines, BBC America, and Wells Fargo, have also severed their connections with CGBG due to other Change.org petitions.
Many of the petitions refer to organizations such as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council as “hate groups,” an allegation based in part on their having been labeled as such by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The SPLC classified the Family Research Council as a hate group last year because of their opposition to pro-homosexual legislation, a move that was criticized in an open letter signed by U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, former Governor Mike Huckabee, Governor Tim Pawlenty, former U.S. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, and presidential contenders Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. The letter was published in Politico and The Washington Examiner.
John Higgins, president of CGBG, told World Net Daily that while 350 big name retailers initially pulled out due to pressure created by gay activists, 250 of them are now back on board.
“Once these retail partners heard the facts, many of them have realized that they had been had,” he said. “In many cases a junior executive made a knee-jerk reaction to dump CGBG, and once a senior manager heard the truth, the retailer has come back online with us.”
The website Allout.org, a forum for homosexual activists, is now sponsoring a petition to urge companies to “stay off” CGBG.
The Catholic League, which has been a target on Change.org, called the website an “anti-Christian force” in a recently released statement.
“Radical proponents of gay marriage have taken the culture war to the marketplace. Rejecting diversity and tolerance, these activists have declared an economic war against any organization that embraces the Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage,” said Catholic League president Bill Donohue.
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