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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Did you see the 2020 report with John Stossel about
Wal-Mart? I like Stossel because he seems to find the middle ground that is the
real truth. Not the excitable far left or right.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=deco@moscow.com href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">Art Deco</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">Vision 2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, November 12, 2005 7:53
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] 11-12-05 LA Times:
Wal-Mart, Its Foes Turn to Religion</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>From: <EM>LA Times</EM> 11-12-05</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><!--StartFragment -->
<DIV style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"><A
href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart12nov12,0,4816382.story?track=tothtml">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart12nov12,0,4816382.story?track=tothtml</A><BR>
<H1>Wal-Mart, Its Foes Turn to Religion</H1>
<H2>The retailer urges clergy to visit and to serve on committees. The other
side plans sermons.</H2>By Abigail Goldman<BR>Times Staff
Writer<BR><BR>November 12, 2005<BR><BR>Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and its critics
have been fighting for the hearts and minds of the American public, through
advertising, media outreach, worker testimonials and public debate. Now the
two sides are fighting for souls.<BR><BR>The world's largest retailer and its
adversaries are hoping to sway religious leaders to their respective causes,
seeking to use the clergy's powerful influence to reach flocks that may not
respond to mere public relations or media-driven pitches.<BR><BR>Wal-Mart has
quietly reached out to church officials with invitations to visit its
headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., to serve on leadership committees and to
open a dialogue with the company.<BR><BR>Across the aisle, one of the
company's chief foes, Wal-Mart Watch, this weekend is launching seven days of
anti-Wal-Mart consciousness-raising at more than 200 churches, synagogues and
mosques in 100 cities, where leaders have agreed to sermonize about what they
see as moral problems with the company.<BR><BR>"They are each probing for
weaknesses behind enemy lines," said Nelson Lichtenstein, professor of history
at UC Santa Barbara and editor of the forthcoming book "Wal-Mart: The Face of
21st Century Capitalism." "The liberals are trying to go into the churches
even in conservative Republican neighborhoods. And then Wal-Mart goes into
black churches and poor neighborhoods and says, 'Look, on this question, you
should be with us because we provide jobs.' "<BR><BR>Wal-Mart Watch's
religious efforts are part of the group's Higher Expectations Week, a series
of nationwide events at churches, clubs, colleges and other organizations that
highlight criticism of the retailer. The activities include free screenings of
Robert Greenwald's recently released documentary, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of
Low Price," a critical look at how the company, the largest private employer
in the U.S., treats workers.<BR><BR>Wal-Mart declined to comment on its
outreach to clergy. But church leaders from around the country said the
retailer had contacted them to encourage their support or to respond to
their criticism of the company.<BR><BR>The Rev. Ron Stief, director of the
Washington office of the United Church of Christ, said a Wal-Mart
representative telephoned him about six weeks ago after he criticized the
company in a church newspaper article about Greenwald's documentary. After
years of writing letters to the company to complain about Wal-Mart's conduct,
Stief said, he finally received an invitation to Bentonville.<BR><BR>"They
wanted me to come see their side of it," he said. Stief said he hoped to take
the retailer up on the offer after he and other church members see the
film.<BR><BR>The Rev. Clarence Pemberton Jr., pastor of New Hope Baptist
Church in Philadelphia, said a Wal-Mart representative attended Tuesday's
regular meeting of about 75 Baptist ministers in that city.<BR><BR>"It
appeared that what he was trying to do was to influence us or put us in
opposition to this film that is coming out and will be in the churches,"
Pemberton said, referring to the documentary. "It was implied very strongly
that it was about some sort of cash rewards for people who would become
partners with Wal-Mart and what they were trying to do."<BR><BR>Bishop Edward
L. Brown, a regional leader of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, said
a Wal-Mart representative attended a CME bishops meeting last spring in
Memphis, Tenn.<BR><BR>"They are reaching out, no question about that," Brown
said. "They were trying to give their point of view, to do damage
control."<BR><BR>And the Rev. Ira Combs of the Greater Bible Way Temple of
Jackson, Mich., told the Jackson Citizen Patriot last week that Wal-Mart
recruited him to be part of a national steering committee of community leaders
that would meet in Washington to "develop responses to issues raised by the
company's critics."<BR><BR>Combs, who told the paper that he was a Wal-Mart
supporter and might have been chosen because he is active in the Republican
Party, did not return calls seeking comment.<BR><BR>Lichtenstein of UC Santa
Barbara said he was not surprised that Wal-Mart was hoping to influence church
leaders. Through its community grants, the company already gives money to many
local church projects. <BR><BR>Wal-Mart Watch, in reaching out to churches,
has opened a new front in its campaign, hoping to win converts among those who
are not natural allies of labor and environmental activists, the mainstays of
the group's support.<BR><BR>"In order to make the impact we wish to make, we
need to have breadth and depth of supporters, and we've been discovering that
one way of developing that is with communities of faith," said Wal-Mart Watch
spokeswoman Tracy Sefl. "The notion of justice, fairness and opportunity is a
message that is powerful from the pulpit and is a message that really
transcends simply talking about the stores in familiar ways."<BR><BR>In
preparation for this weekend, the group distributed a 16-page Faith Resource
Guide, which outlines how to link a moral lesson about Wal-Mart to the
assigned biblical texts for services in the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
faiths. The guide also describes portions of the Koran that might be
applicable to a discussion about Wal-Mart for Muslims, who do not use weekly
assigned texts.<BR><BR>A Muslim theologian, for example, suggests using this
teaching from the Koran: "Men shall have the benefit of what they earn, and
women shall have the benefit of what they earn" (Koran, 4:32). <BR><BR>The
Rev. Frank Alton of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Koreatown said he could
not recall ever sermonizing about a specific company in his 10 1/2 years in
his pulpit. But asking his 250 members to consider the ethical implications of
Wal-Mart, he said, was worth making an exception. <BR><BR>"They are a leader,
and they are multiplying around the world they have a responsibility as a
leader and an innovator and pioneer to set a standard since others are
following them," Alton said. "They are destroying community, which is a value
of Jesus; they are exercising greed, which is against the values of Jesus; and
they are promoting a culture of greed and extending a culture of poverty,
which are against the values of Jesus." </DIV></DIV>
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