US Military to Wal-Mart: Stay Out

According to The Army Times, Wal-Mart trucks bearing gifts for military families are a possible security threat and will have to park outside of US bases this holiday season.

Wal-Mart also poses as a competitor to exchange sales on the bases:

Officials in the military exchanges and the industry that sells products to the exchanges found out about the scheduled events last week. Sources said members of both groups contacted lawmakers in Congress and defense officials, concerned that having a rival on post would detract from exchange sales. In the long term, the exchanges fear such arrangements would take away from the dividends that come from profits, and are provided to military bases for morale programs.
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Wal-Mart, which has built a number of stores outside military bases around the country, is generally acknowledged as the biggest competitor of the exchanges for the business of the military community.

Although there were no plans to sell items on the bases — per Wal-Mart policy, according to Leyva and a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart — Operation Homefront’s press release said “a toyland of the latest toys and electronic games will be available for children of all ages to try out.”

And they obviously offer a far greater inventory than what shops on military bases can provide, but this isn't about Wal-Mart marketing, right? It's about 'supporting the troops'.

I'm sure the last thing Wal-Mart wants to be known for is costing the military funds for morale programs although the mega corporation was planning to donate an incredibly generous $20,000 to each base for those types of programs. That's darn impressive for a company whose net profits have risen 26% this past year to total $2.04bn (not to mention the fact that charitable donations are tax deductible).

Keep this in mind when those Wal-Mart greeters are once again ordered to wish you a Merry Christmas this season as they try to get back in the good books of religious groups by pretending to support spiritual values (like charity).

That's not good enough for some religious people though. Operation Rescue/Operation Save America is planning to boycott Wal-Mart this Friday anyway:

This spirit that presently inhabits the corporate shell of Wal-Mart is the devil himself and he is having his way. Why? Because we, in the Church of Jesus Christ, are not willing to cut off his head. He was on the ropes – we had him – repentance was near, and then we let him go.

We have the sharp double-edged Sword of the Spirit at our disposal, but we are afraid to unsheathe and use it for fear of appearing bigoted or judgmental. So now we are asked by our friends at the “American Family Association” to thank Wal-Mart for its many kindnesses extended to us. What hypocrisy!

We have absolutely no intention of thanking Wal-Mart for what it has done to the Name of Jesus, to little baby boys and girls safe in their mother's wombs, to Sam Walton's Christian legacy, and to the American Christian family. Wal-Mart needs to repent before Almighty God. We don't need to be thanking it for not doing so!

David didn't have any problem cutting off Goliath's head for he knew that Goliath was an enemy of God and an enemy of God's people. He knew the havoc Goliath would wreak if he were allowed to live. Wal-Mart, as it now exists, needs to die, so that the Wal-Mart of Sam Walton might be resurrected in Jesus' Name.

We, in the Church, have become so effeminate! No, maybe we have become so … Republican! Isn't this what Republicans do – snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

Yikes. Those people scare me!

So, Operation Rescue is mad at another Christian group, The American Family Association, for accepting the latest Wal-Mart statement about gay issues, claiming they were victorious (when they weren't). I'm still trying to figure out exactly what those 'pro-homosexual items' that Wal-Mart apparently sells on its website are. It's bad enough when these church groups fight the rest of us but when they start attacking each other, it gets a little confusing, to say the least.

Regardless, there are so many people shunning Wal-Mart - including the US military now - that I'm sure this will have a huge impact on their bottom line.

Yeah, right.

I find it rather odd that we on the left who have been boycotting Wal-Mart for years are now in the company of the US military and religious groups. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows. No, I'm not talking about those kinds of bedfellows, anti-gay behaviour Christians - relax.