A Portland, Maine, doughnut shop was viciously attacked on social media by LGBT activists for trying to help a family in need this Christmas season. The store’s crime: enlisting the assistance of the Salvation Army.
According to Portland’s WCSH, the Holy Donut announced on its Facebook page that customers who donated to the store’s drive to help a needy family with five children would be given free doughnuts or T-shirts.
Had the store left it at that, there would have been no controversy. However, they made the mistake of confessing to the unforgivable sin among social-justice warriors: consorting with Christians. The Holy Donut, it seems, had dared ask the Salvation Army to identify a needy family whom the store could help and to provide the ages and clothing sizes of the children in the family.
That was all it took to get the store’s Facebook page flooded with angry comments from LGBT activists who allege that the Salvation Army discriminates against the LGBT community. “Indeed,” noted the Blaze, “commenters wrote that the Salvation Army has a ‘history of turning away LGBT people and supporting anti-LGBT laws’ and engages in ‘active homophobia.’”
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The Portland Press Herald reported that another commenter wrote that the Salvation Army “proselytize[s] people in their programs,” an accusation that, if true, should hardly come as a surprise. After all, the organization’s website says “its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name” — and, it adds, “without discrimination.”
The Salvation Army, in a separate statement, categorically denies discriminating against LGBT people, saying to do so “is in direct opposition to our core beliefs,” or spending any funds on lobbying. Nevertheless, as a Christian ministry, it has occasionally been forced to take stands against the LGBT lifestyle and same-sex marriage, and for such stands it has become a target of the militant LGBT activists, many of whom showed up to criticize Holy Donut and subject it to poor online reviews. Some even threatened a boycott of the business.
According to Fox News’ Todd Starnes, one Facebook commenter wrote, “In case you forgot, a solid 70 percent of your clientele is part of the LGBTQ community. You’re making a silent statement that you’re completely fine with [the Salvation Army’s] choices.”
The Press Herald recounted another comment: “People are going to boycott The Holy Donut because of YOUR choices. Do you see what we’re getting at? You’re supporting an establishment that doesn’t support your customers, so your customers will stop supporting you.”
At first, the Holy Donut tried to distance itself from the Salvation Army, posting on Facebook: “We do not support the Salvation Army or consider them our ‘partner’ for this project, they simply linked us to a needy family…. We have nothing to gain here, we just wanted to help a family in need. It seems we have offended people which obviously we regret and that was not our intention in a holiday gift drive.”
That, according to the Blaze, was not enough to satisfy activists out for blood, who responded that the Holy Donut was not “taking responsibility” for its supposedly harmful actions, so the store “posted a contrite follow-up message … saying it ‘made several oversights and mistakes’ and ‘did a poor job in doing our due diligence in choosing the vehicle to help a needy family and we only made matters worse in the way we handled the aftermath.’”
Both of the store’s posts have since been deleted from Facebook because of the vitriolic responses to them.
LGBT activists can now pat themselves on the back for causing a poor family’s needs to go unmet this Christmas — er, “winter holiday” — and for making it that much less likely that the Holy Donut and other Portland businesses will try to help the less fortunate in the future. Is it possible that the G in LGBT stands for Grinch?
