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National Chain Faces BIG Backlash After Rejecting Customer’s Christian Message
Office Depot may face a human rights lawsuit after refusing to print flyers that criticize Planned Parenthood.
“Office Depot is discriminating against me based on my religion,” said Maria Goldstein, who wanted 500 copies of a flyer she had designed back on Aug. 20 when she entered the Office Depot store in Schaumberg, IL. “If the store can pick and choose what orders it fills based on religious content, it is refusing to treat people of faith equally. In America where we value freedom of religion, this is simply unacceptable.”
“When I tell people they’re shocked because this is America,” Goldstein added.
Goldstein was initially told the flyers could not be printed because they violated Office Depot’s policy. The text-only flyers included a string of factoids about Planned Parenthood’s finances and activities and a prayer for the conversion of Planned Parenthood. Goldstein tried to get a further explanation from the company, and contacted corporate Office Depot officials. Finally, a response came in the form of a statement to the Chicago Tribune from corporate spokesperson Karen Denning.
Office Depot corporate policy prohibits “the copying of any type of material that advocates any form of racial or religious discrimination or the persecution of certain groups of people,” she said. The flyer, Denning said, advocated the persecution of those who support abortion rights.
“This seems crazy,” said Thomas Olp, an attorney with the religious liberty group the Thomas More Society, which has taken up Goldstein’s battle. “To say that a prayer that calls for conversion and understanding and enlightenment is persecution, to call that persecution to me is the height of intolerance.”
The Society is threatening to file complaints with the Cook County Human Rights Commission and the Illinois Department of Human Rights.
“This is a blatant violation of the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance, which forbids public businesses from discriminating based on religion,” Olp said.
“I am proud of Maria Goldstein for standing up for her rights, and I call upon Office Depot to reconsider this decision by evaluating more carefully the words of the prayer and the intent of its author,” said Rev. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, who wrote the prayer on the flyer Office Depot refused to print. “An Office Depot spokeswoman said this is because the prayer ‘advocates the persecution of people who support abortion rights.’ Actually, the opposite is true: the prayer advocates their conversion, enlightenment, and salvation.”
h/t: The Daily Caller
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/national-chain-faces-big-backlash-after-rejecting-customers-christian-message/
