Charity's Ouster Puts Retailer in Bull's-Eye

Salvation Army Ban Spurs Target Boycott

Susan Bonnett walks past a life-size cardboard cutout placed by the Salvation Army in a bookstore in Birmingham to cull donations. Target has banned such pleas, saying exceptions to its no-solicitation rule are unfair. (Jerry Ayres -- Birmingham News Via AP)

For decades, Salvation Army volunteers, ringing bells as they stand beside bright red kettles, have been a holiday fixture outside stores nationwide. This year, Target stores have banned them, and religious groups representing millions of evangelical Christians are calling for a boycott to protest the decision.

Target said it is trying to be fair to other charities by ending the exception from Target's non-solicitation policy given to the Salvation Army.

The Christian groups said they believe that the Minneapolis-based retailer has bowed to pressure from gay rights groups that are upset with the Salvation Army's refusal to offer benefits to employees' domestic partners.

The boycott "puts us in a weird position," said Maj. George Hood, a spokesman for the Alexandria-based Salvation Army.

Although nearly one-tenth of the $90 million the Salvation Army earned last year during its holiday appeal came from kettles at Target stores and although it is an evangelical Christian organization, Hood said it does not support the boycott.

"We do not want to be the facilitator or be the source of any boycotts of Target or any negative assault against Target," Hood said. "They've made a business decision that we have to respect and move on."

But such groups as the Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association, the Christian Defense Coalition and the National Clergy Council have taken up the cause and are calling on their members to abstain from shopping at Target this Christmas season.

"It's wrong to kick them out," said Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, a 2.3 million-member Mississippi organization that has led boycotts against companies advertising on racy TV shows. "This is a tragedy."

The National Clergy Council recently asked its 5,000 clergy members and 30,000 lay members to call on their congregations and others to stop shopping at Target, an effort it has dubbed "Operation Teach-Scrooge-a-Lesson."

Protests have been organized at Target stores, and a few ministers have taken to their pulpits to preach against the retailing chain, which operates 1,313 stores nationwide. The Christian Defense Coalition, based in Fredericksburg, had a small protest at the Fredericksburg store in early December and plans demonstrations at Washington area Target stores, according to the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the coalition.

"Our goal is to try to get Target to reverse their decision," Mahoney said.

Target said the decision is firm.

Lena Michaud, a spokeswoman for the retailer, said the company decided that it could no longer make the Salvation Army the sole exception to its rule against solicitation at stores.

She said the chain was getting increasing requests from other groups that also wanted to solicit money at the stores.

"It's not that we don't support" the Salvation Army, said Michaud, who noted that Target donates about $100 million a year to charities. "We just want to support them in a way that doesn't involve solicitation on store property."

But the groups said they believe that the real reason is pressure from gay rights groups, some of which have been boycotting the Salvation Army for years because of its views against homosexuality.

"It wouldn't surprise me if homosexual groups are behind this," Wildmon said.

Michaud said the decision was not ideological and has been misinterpreted. She said the boycott's effect is impossible to gauge because sales can fluctuate for a number of reasons.

Gay rights groups said they are not the cause of the boycott.

Soulforce, an interfaith gay rights group, has organized efforts for the past four years urging gay rights supporters to deposit notes of protest in the Salvation Army's kettles instead of spare change.

Laura Montgomery Rutt, communications director for Soulforce, said the group has not contacted Target, and she said she knows of no other gay advocacy group that has urged Target or other stores to ban the Salvation Army.