A number of churches in Florida are boycotting Pepsi products to send a message to companies involved in “anti-family” activities.
The Community Issues Council, which meets with about 50 churches each month to discuss issues that conflict with traditional Christian values, had asked the soft drink company to curb its support of groups, events and legal issues that “oppose traditional family values,” according to council president Terry Kemple.
“This year, they pumped millions of dollars into organizations that opposed California’s same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8,” he told The Tampa Bay Tribune.
Pepsi also forces its employees to attend sexual orientation and gender identity diversity training, where they are taught to accept homosexuality, noted Kemple’s church – Bell Shoals Baptist in Brandon, Fla., which is leading the boycott – in a report earlier this year.
“There are a lot of corporations that have diversity programs, but Pepsi goes far beyond,” Kemple added.
After months of discussion turned up fruitless, Bell Shoals Baptist decided to boycott Pepsi and this week replaced the last of their ten Pepsi vending machines with Coke machines.
Fla. Churches Boycott Pepsi Products Over ‘Anti-Family’ Efforts | Christianpost.com.
September 11th, 2009 4:57 pm
I dont buy Pepsi products any more, for that reason,,, You have to take a stand for what is right and stick with it….JMO
September 12th, 2009 9:43 am
According to The Coca-Cola Company website, Coke has relationships with a few gay organisations, has The Coca-Cola Gay and Lesbian Forum , ‘The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), has given The Coca-Cola Company a 100 percent rating for its workplace policies for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) associates’, and Coke has diversity training for all employees which considering their support of their gay employees would cover homosexual issues (in addition to female and race issues etc).
Abandon Coke and just drink tap water?
September 12th, 2009 8:36 pm
I like pepsi better than coke myself, I simply drink it!
September 13th, 2009 6:23 pm
A quote from a post of mine (http://ronclick.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/i-am-boycotting-your-boycott/) on the subject of boycotts….
“It is easy, it is without cost, to refrain from drinking Pepsi and send them them emails explaining your moral outrage. Now, put your money where your mouth is. The United States of America collects taxes, some of which goes to funding legal partial-birth abortions. If you think the dyslexic sexuality (I wish I could remember who came up with that description) of gay people is bad, how much worse is infanticide? Quit paying your taxes and boycott a country that funds killing babies if you think boycotts are the way the Kingdom is grown. (I hear crickets chirping.) “But I have to pay taxes” you say. No you don’t. You will go to jail if you don’t. It will cost you and your family unlike switching from Pepsi to Coke and sending Pepsi a few emails. So, do your really think boycotts are the way to go out into the world with the Good News to the glory of the Triune God?”
September 11th, 2009 5:57 pm
Deb, the first freedom we must always defend is freedom of speech. Whether or not we disagree with this church, this is a freedom of speech matter – and frankly, in a country based on market-place economy, he or she who dents the wallet most is he or she who wins the battle.
September 13th, 2009 6:27 pm
Well said, Ron
September 14th, 2009 10:11 am
I’m sure the government of Rome did not do everything in ways God would prefer, yet it seems to me that Christ said to pay taxes.
Matthew 22:15-22
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
So, if you want to be obedient to God, then yes, you have to pay taxes.
You don’t have to buy Pepsi OR Coke, however.
September 14th, 2009 11:07 am
I think its better for the diet if you do not.