Charge: Office Depot
refused Christian print job
'We do hope this matter can be resolved short of legal
action'
Office Depot is
being accused of refusing to print a flyer for an Illinois woman because of its
Christian content.
“We suggest that you consider what your position would be if
our client were black and your employees refused service because of her race,”
said a letter to Office Depot Chairman Roland C. Smith from Thomas Olp of the Thomas More Society, which is representing the
woman.
“In that case it would not be hard to see how unreasonable
that refusal of service would be. The public accommodation laws do not give any
greater leeway for refusal of service when a customer’s religious expression
motivates the refusal. … Our laws welcome religion and religious expression,
treat it fairly and equally, and do not permit its marginalization or
silencing.”
Multiple WND telephone calls and emails to Office Depot headquarters were not returned.
Thomas More said the dispute arose when Maria Goldstein
placed an order last month for a print job at the Office Depot in Schaumburg,
Illinois.
It included details of videos revealing Planned Parenthood’s baby body-parts trade.
She was told, however, by an Office Depot employee that the
printing of her flyer was “restricted by corporate policy” and that her order
would not be filled.
When she contacted the office of the chairman multiple times
to discuss the company’s refusal to fill her order, staffer Diane Demma
defended the refusal and offered no alternatives, the letter said.
“Office Depot is discriminating against me based on my
religion,” Goldstein said in a statement released by her lawyers. “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.”
Olp told WND the company has not responded to him. An Office
Depot representative told the local newspaper that the prayer advocated
“persecution” of people who support Planned Parenthood.
He said if there is an employee with some sort of religious
objection to the Christian statements, the company should accommodate that
employee and find someone else to do the print job.
“That’s the enlightened way of doing things,” he said.
The flyer she had prepared
noted that during fiscal year 2013-2014 “Planned Parenthood received more than
$1,400,000 per day in the form of government grants, contracts and Medicaid
reimbursements.”
It also said Planned Parenthood committed 327,653 abortions
in 2013 and there “are 9,170 federally qualified health centers who provide
health services (but NOT abortions) to low-income populations, compared to
about 700 Planned Parenthood clinics.”
The refers to the series of undercover videos revealing
Planned Parenthood executives and others negotiating over the prices for the
body parts of aborted babies. There are companies that salvage the body parts
and resell them for research.
One of the videos revealed a California Planned Parenthood
executive negotiating over the prices, fretting about being “low-balled” and
then stating, “I want a Lamborghini.”
Besides the statistics about Planned Parenthood and a link
to the website with the videos, the flyer featured a “Prayer for the Conversion
of Planned Parenthood.”
“Lord for whom all things are possible, We are confronted
once again today with the evil of the abortion industry and the corruption
found in the world’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood,” it
started.
“We stand against the evil that has been exposed in Planned
Parenthood and in the entire abortion industry,” it includes. “We stand today
for the triumph of truth over falsehood, of light over darkness, and of life
over death.”
“Anyone can order printing at Office Depot,” said Olp, a
special counsel attorney. “But because Ms. Goldstein’s flyers had religious
content – namely calling for prayer for Planned Parenthood – Office Depot
refused to complete her order. This is a blatant violation of the Cook County
Human Rights Ordinance, which forbids public businesses from discriminating
based on religion.”
Demma told Goldstein that “if it makes employees feel
uncomfortable they don’t have to print something.”
“We take exception to your position,” the letter said. “Your
store, in our view, is a public accommodation within … the meaning of the Cook
County Human Rights Ordinance.”
With that status, the letter said, workers cannot discriminate
based on “religion.”
“Ms. Goldstein’s flyer unmistakably expresses her Christian
religious convictions. It contains a prayer by Fr. Frank Pavone, national
director of Priests for Life, a national Catholic pro-life organization,
seeking divine assistance to end abortion and the pernicious practices of
Planned Parenthood.
“We believe that by allowing and ratifying your employees’
refusal to serve Ms. Goldstein because of their hostility to and disagreement
with her flyer, you have unlawfully discriminated against Ms. Goldstein because
of her religion and religious expression within the meaning of the Cook County
Human rights ordinance and the Illinois Human Rights Act.
“We do hope this matter can be resolved short of legal
action,” Olp wrote.
The case is in sharp juxtaposition to numerous other cases
in which Christian business operators have been ordered to fulfill orders or be
penalized, even when they specifically violate the business owners’ faith.
Among the cases is a pizza
place that was targeted because the owner answered a hypothetical
question about catering a “gay wedding.”
Bakery owners in Oregon and Colorado now facing huge
penalties for refusing to endorse “same-sex marriage.”
And a county clerk in Kentucky was jailed last week by a
federal judge, David Bunning, for refusing to violate her faith by issuing
licenses to same-sex couples.
Planned Parenthood
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
Note: George Soros is the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Robin Hood Foundation, the Committee
for Economic Development, the Brookings Institution (think tank), and
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
Clifford S.
Asness was a leadership council member for the Robin Hood Foundation, and supported same-sex marriage in New York.
Emma
Bloomberg was a senior planning officer for the Robin Hood Foundation, and is Michael
R. Bloomberg’s daughter.
Michael R.
Bloomberg was a donor for the Robin
Hood Foundation, is Emma Bloomberg’s
father, a co-chair for the Risky
Business Project, and the founder of the Bloomberg Family Foundation.
Bloomberg
Philanthropies is an umbrella organization for the Bloomberg Family Foundation, and a partner with the Risky Business Project.
Gregory
R. Page is a risk committee member for the Risky Business Project, and was the chairman for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
Roland
C. Smith was a director at the Big
Brothers Big Sisters of America, and is the chairman & CEO for the Office Depot, Inc.
Steve
A. Odland was the chairman & CEO for the Office Depot, Inc., the top new CEO of 2002 in the Bloomberg Markets Magazine, and is the
CEO for the Committee for Economic Development.
James
S. Rubin was a director at the Office
Depot, Inc., and a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Donna
E. Shalala was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, a fellow
at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and is a risk committee member for the Risky Business Project.
Bloomberg
Philanthropies is a partner with the Risky
Business Project, and an umbrella organization for the Bloomberg Family Foundation.
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation was a funder for the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the Committee for Economic Development,
and the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
William H. Gates
III is a co-chair for the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, and a member of the Augusta National Golf Club.
Casey
Coffman is a senior director of business affairs for the Augusta National Golf Club, and a
director at the Big Brothers Big Sisters
of America.
Roland
C. Smith was a director at the Big
Brothers Big Sisters of America, and is the chairman & CEO for the Office Depot, Inc.
Warren E. Buffett
is a trustee & major donor at the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, a member of the Augusta National Golf Club, and an adviser at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think
tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)
James
S. Rubin was a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a director at the Office Depot, Inc.
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