U.S. retailer J.C. Penney has raised the ire of pro-family groups for a Father’s Day ad featuring two homosexual men and the children they are raising. Reuters News reported that the two Dallas-area homosexual partners shown in the retailer’s June catalog are Cooper Smith and Todd Koch. They are pictured playing with their three-year-old children, Mason and Claire, with ad copy that reads: “First Pals — What makes Dad so cool? He’s the swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer and hug giver — all rolled into one. Or two.”
The controversial ad comes on the heels of a similar one published by Penney’s in its May catalog featuring a lesbian couple with their children, along with the hiring of openly homosexual talk-show celebrity Ellen DeGeneres as a company spokesperson featured in TV commercials.
The pro-family group One Million Moms, which called for a boycott of Penney’s following the May lesbian advertisement, has again risen up to protest the homosexual Father’s Day ad. “JC Penney’s (JCP) is continuing down the same path of promoting sin in their advertisements,” the group said in an action alert posted on its website. “It is obvious that JCP would rather take sides than remain neutral in the culture war.” The alert warns that “one day we will answer for our actions or lack of them. We must remain diligent and stand up for Biblical values and truth. Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature.”
The alert encourages individuals receiving the catalog in the mail to send it back to Penney’s with the words “REFUSED — RETURN TO SENDER” written across it. “If they receive an onslaught of their returned magazines, they will take notice,” the alert advises, adding that “if you have a store credit card, you can close your account, if you have not already done so, to help get the message across that you have no plans to shop with them in the future. Be sure to tell them why you are unsubscribing and canceling your credit card.”
One Million Moms is being joined in the boycott by its parent organization, the American Family Association, which noted in its own action alert that J.C. Penney’s founder, James Cash Penney, “was a Christian who lived his life and ran his business by the principles of God’s Word. Sadly, the re-imagining of the present-day J.C. Penney Company indicates a departure from biblical moorings and Mr. Penney’s leadership by taking sides in the cultural war in celebration of homosexuality.”
The Christian Post reported that the homosexual pair were approached by Penney’s representatives in February to be included in the Father’s Day ad. “The photo is just a one-second photo of our life, said one of the “Dads,” Cooper Smith. “It’s a candid moment of how we interact with each other.” He explained that the retailer was “just trying to present a wholesome gay family and I guess we fit the bill for that. They’re really trying to represent what America looks like, and that’s not just heterosexual white people.”
On the Huffington Post’s “Gay Voices“ web page, columnist Jenny Block derided the pro-family campaign of the One Million Moms, saying the effort “would be funny if it wasn’t so awful. I can imagine the handful of moms aggravating their poor mailmen or torturing the manager at their local JCP…. Come on, OMM, aren’t there some hungry children to feed or some homeless to shelter? Isn’t it time to stop wasting so much time and energy over who someone loves? After all, if this really is about God, he is about love. And I don’t think he’d be thrilled with your hateful behavior.”
Block advised the Moms that their campaign represented “a terrible example for your children. Since it’s them you claim to protect, shouldn’t you be teaching them that everyone is equal and God loves all his little children?”
Monica Cole, director of One Million Moms, responded by pointing out in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com that Penney’s homosexual advertisements “are desensitizing our children by normalizing this sinful lifestyle choice. The Bible clearly states that marriage is between a man and a woman. No one, including JCP, can redefine it.”
Image credit: J.C. Penney Catalog
