Corporate Accountability
Billy Graham once said, “Give me five minutes with a person’s checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is.” While I can think of a few exceptions to this, I agree that your finances usually follow your priorities. As it says in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. If you think that racing motorcycles is a priority, then your credit card will probably have lots of charges for motorcycle parts suppliers. If it’s quilting, then the local fabric store will figure prominently in your bank account. But here’s the thing, sometimes we think our finances are following our values, but they really are not.
Let me provide an example. There is a proposed piece of legislation called the Equality Act which creates nothing close to equality but elevates sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class along with existing protections for things such as race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It states,
“This bill prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity with respect to businesses, employment, housing, federally funded programs, and other settings.” Equality Act Summary
The Equality Act would conflict with many of the gender laws ND passed this past session, and it explicitly states that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is not a defense against the law. We just passed RFRA in North Dakota and it protects our religious freedoms in a comprehensive manner (think Jack Phillips the baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding). Thus, the overall take on the Equality Act is that it is bad for those of us with traditional pro-family values.
So, who would support this harmful infringement on our freedoms and religious liberty? Reportedly, over 500 corporations have publicly supported this law. That’s fine, you might say, then we will let our dollars do the talking, in line with Billy Graham’s quote. Easier said than done.
Perhaps you don’t feel like cooking tonight, so maybe ordering a pizza is the plan for dinner. You go online with your HP laptop, pull up Google, and find the information for Dominoes. You call them up and place your order using your iPhone on your Verizon cell plan. At the appropriate time, you give the Dominoes employee your Citibank Visa or Mastercard or your Discover card to pay. After a really long wait (you’re hungry!), your pizza is delivered by a guy wearing Levi’s jeans and a J.Crew t-shirt who drives a Ford Focus. You grab a Coke from your GE refrigerator, settle into your couch from Ikea, and watch some Netflix while eating your pizza.
Congratulations, you just directly or indirectly supported at least 13 companies that have explicitly indicated their support for The Equality Act. Frustrating, isn’t it? I suppose if you wanted to live off the grid in a cabin in the woods, you might be able to avoid supporting something directly contrary to your family values on this issue. Just make sure you don’t buy any of your tools from Home Depot.
From a practical perspective, it is very difficult to identify and avoid corporations that support terrible legislation like the Equality Act or that espouse values directly opposed to those of you and your family. Most of us know that finding substitutes for Disney, Target, and CVS is a good thing to do, but it is clearly broader than that. So, can we really vote with our dollars or not?
We can – just ask Budweiser. It is the easiest when we know a corporation has taken a consistent and outspoken position against our values. It took longer than it should have, but our family no longer watches Disney movies or Disney+ shows, no longer shops at Target, and recently started using Gateway Pharmacy for our prescription needs. However, a lot of corporations have been unwittingly ignored by us on the ramifications of their stance, and what I linked to was their position on only one LGBT issue/bill.
So, what are the other options if voting with dollars won’t entirely do it? The other most impactful option is public policy. It means using political and legislative avenues to ensure your values are represented in North Dakota, and more broadly in our nation.
This is why North Dakota Family Alliance and our sister organization North Dakota Family Alliance Legislative Action work so hard to defend your values in the state legislature. In fact, during the 2019 legislative session, we specifically fought and succeeded in helping defeat two bills that would have done something virtually identical to the Equality Act at the state level – enshrine some combination of gender and sexual orientation as a protected class (House Bill 1441 and Senate Bill 2303). And we not only fight against this type of legislation at the state level. We regularly join with the other 40 Family Policy Councils around the country to battle legislation similar to this at the national level, by submitting legal briefs and working with the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts indicating our opposition to these types of laws.
The other way you can use public policy to defend your values is by contacting your senators and representatives at the state and national levels. For example, it takes a very quick phone call to Senators Hoeven and Cramer and Representative Armstrong to indicate your opposition to the Equality Act. Here is their contact information.
To recap, what tools are in your toolbox to ensure your values are heard at the national and state levels on an issue like the Equality Act? In no particular order:
Contact your congressional and state legislators (upper right corner of the page).
Support organizations like NDFA who continually fight for your values at all levels of government.
Whenever possible, stop your patronage of companies that oppose your values and support companies that uphold your values.
So now you definitely have some tools in your toolbox which can make a difference. You can protect your family’s values in concrete ways. That is one of the reasons why we are here – to give you these tools so that your voice can be even louder. Plus, I guarantee you that our tools are not from Home Depot.