Wal-Mart faces boycott for banning Christmas
HOLIDAY BLUES
Top retailer accused of discrimination while promoting Kwanzaa,
Hanukkah
November 10, 2005
By Joe Kovacs
A Catholic advocacy group has launched a national boycott against
Wal-Mart,
claiming the world's No. 1 retailer has in effect "banned" Christmas,
while
promoting other seasonal holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
But Wal-Mart tells WorldNetDaily it has "absolutely not" banned
Christmas,
but is just "trying to serve all our customers for the holiday season."
According to the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil
Rights, the controversy was sparked when a woman recently complained to
Wal-Mart that the store was replacing its "Merry Christmas" greeting
with
"Happy Holidays."
The League says the woman received an e-mail response from a
customer-service representative, reading exactly as follows:
Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this.
The
majority of the world still has different practices other than
"christmas"
which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism.
The
colors associated with "christmas" red and white are actually a
representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also
borrowed
from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths,
the
time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a
wide
wide world.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue speculated the writer of that
e-mail
was perhaps drunk, so he sent the response to Dan Fogelman in
Wal-Mart's
public-relations department.
Donohue received back a response from Fogelman, who wrote in part:
As a retailer, we recognize some of our customers may be shopping for
Chanukah or Kwanzaa gifts during this time of year and we certainly
want
these customers in our stores and to feel welcome, just as we do those
buying for Christmas. As an employer, we recognize the significance of
the
Christmas holiday among our family of associates ... and close our
stores in
observance, the only day during the year that we are closed.
"It's nice to know that Wal-Mart is closed on a federal holiday,"
explains
Donohue, who says he's asking the leaders of 126 religious
organizations
spanning seven religious communities to boycott the retail giant.
He points out, and WND confirmed, that when using the company's online
search engine, if the world "Hanukkah" is entered, 200 items for sale
are
returned. The term "Kwanzaa" yields 77. But when "Christmas" is
entered, the
message returned says: "We've brought you to our 'Holiday' page based
on
your search."
However, the search also brings up a secondary link on which to click,
which
reveals 7,970 items that match the "Christmas" term.
When WND entered the name "Jesus," 5,668 items were displayed. And when
the
phrase "War on Christmas" was submitted, the Wal-Mart search engine
produced
the new book by Fox News Channel host John Gibson, subtitled "How the
Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You
Thought."
"Wal-Mart is practicing discrimination," Donohue maintains.
But has Wal-Mart "banned" Christmas in any fashion?
"No. Absolutely not," company spokeswoman Jolanda Stewart said, telling
WorldNetDaily that Wal-Mart became aware of the boycott late yesterday.
"We
already serve a diverse customer base, and we're just trying to help
them to
celebrate their individual needs and wants."
A company news release dated Nov. 1 promoting shopping at this time of
year
uses the words "holiday" or "holidays" 18 times, without a single
mention of
Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.
One sentence had the H-word four times:
Based on the theme "Home for the Holidays," Wal-Mart's holiday campaign
celebrates the holiday style of some of Wal-Mart customers' favorite
celebrities, including Garth Brooks, Destiny's Child, Martina McBride,
Jesse
McCartney, and Queen Latifah, each enjoying the holidays at their
actual
homes.
Reaction on Internet messageboards is mixed.
"I am going to walk into Wal-Mart and go tell the manager Merry
Christmas
and let him or her know I am leaving there empty-handed," writes one
poster.
Another states: "Their policy seems reasonable to me. They're not
banning
Christmas, as have other store chains. They're just going after
potential
customers who don't happen to celebrate Christmas. That's just good
business
sense."
Based in Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer,
with
over $285 billion in sales, and a workforce of 1.6 million.
As WorldNetDaily has previously reported, the celebration of Christmas
is a
major cultural battleground in the U.S., dating back to colonial
America
when Christians in New England outlawed Christmas, saying it was based
more
on ancient pagan traditions than instruction from the Bible.
In his Pulitzer Prize finalist, "The Battle for Christmas," historian
Stephen Nissenbaum at the University of Massachusetts documents the
American
development of the holiday now ensconced in popular culture.
"In New England, for the first two centuries of white settlement,"
writes
Nissenbaum, "most people did not celebrate Christmas. In fact, the
holiday
was systematically suppressed by Puritans during the colonial period
and
largely ignored by their descendants. It was actually illegal to
celebrate
Christmas in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681 (the fine was five
shillings). Only in the middle of the nineteenth century did Christmas
gain
legal recognition as an official public holiday in New England."