Boycott boycotts!

As a christian conservative, I'm usually the first in line to support the efforts of my brethren on the right. I'm unabashedly pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage, etc.

Apparently, there is an organized boycott against certain products at Procter and Gamble because some christian conservatives believe that there is an active, pro-homosexual agenda at P&G (www.afa.net). (This would be the very same company which, a few years ago, some groups claimed was 'satanic' because of the way their logo was designed).

Got three problems with this approach -- 1) boycotts don't work, 2) the information my conservative brethren seem to be operating on is not entirely correct (or is based upon honest mistakes remedied long ago), and 3) P&G has, as far as I can tell, actually been friendly toward the conservative movement (just last night, while attending the Federalist Society dinner, I noticed them among the sponsors).

Additionally, I have inside scoop, and I have seen internal communication to christian employees on the boycott issues. I have christian friends inside P&G who like the company and think it's generally a family-friendly, good, solid place to work. Though they don't agree with the company on everything, none of them believes there is any sort of Big Gay Conspiracy going on.

The boycott, it appears, has not had any real impact on sales (hellooooo! that's cause they don't WORK!), but it has people on the inside very upset just on principle.

My point? I have always been leery of boycotts, even if they are deserved. The problem is, I think P&G is being scapegoated. In fact, if you read some of the distortions on the boycotters' websites, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that the boycott is not being executed in a very Christian (read: honest) way. This is not a perfect company--they have made mistakes, and they probably will again. My internal sources quickly point this out. But there are FAR worse actors out there. Based on my conversations with some very distressed christians on the inside, I believe the culture at P&G is in no way like the boycotters are trying to portray it.

Perhaps, my friends, it's time to move on. We need to slap 'em when they deserve it, for sure....and a few extra times, just for fun, but a full-fledged boycott in this instance seems very over-done. Plus, if you are holding up P&G as a worthy target for boycott, we might as well be boycotting every major company in the nation.

Finally, give up my Swiffer? From my cold, dead hands.....