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Note #7660 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

War and peeps
03175
April 3, 2003

War and peeps

Toy soldiers, weapons in Easter baskets have some up in arms

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - As David Young unpacked the Easter basket his son had bought at
Wal-Mart, you could hear the crackling of cellophane.
	
"Let's see. There's a helicopter, an armored personnel carrier ... and an
ambulance, oh good," Young, a member of Memorial Presbyterian Church in
Midland, MI, said by telephone - and not bothering to hide his sarcasm. "A
rocket launcher. Soldiers who may interchangeably use grenades or guns. ...
	
 "There is all kinds of candy: Something called 'Warheads' and "Fruitburst'
jelly beans," he said, adding that, on the back, there's the wording, 'Happy
Spring,' and  bucolic images of bunnies and chicks.
	
"This," Young said, "sends a wonderful mixed message."
	
Young had asked his son, Micah, who was leaving for Wal-Mart, to bring home
one of the guns-and-butterscotch baskets he'd read about in the newspaper.
	
Young passed it along to Betty Chenoweth, the chair of his church's Social
Concerns Committee, who put it on the committee's agenda.
	
"We'll decide how to approach Wal-Mart and tell them this is a pretty poor
idea," Chenoweth told the Presbyterian News Service. "It's probably some
marketing deal to take advantage of the war."
	
As it turns out, Wal-Mart isn't the only chain stocking Easter baskets laden
with military action figures and toy weapons ranging from plastic knives to
grenades and handcuffs. They also have been found at Rite Aid, Genovese (a
division of Eckerd's Pharmacy) and Kmart.
	
Walgreen's took them off its shelves after fielding questions and complaints
from reporters and offended customers.
	
The other stores' public-relations offices say they're only giving customers
what they want.
	
What's more, they say, this isn't the first time the militaristic Easter
baskets have been sold. But there was no fuss before.
	
A spokesperson for Rite Aid said its annual customer-satisfaction surveys
reflect widespread approval of the baskets, which also come in versions
featuring police officers and firefighters.
	
Kmart said it is permitting its local store managers to remove the baskets if
customers complain. "We don't want to reduce our customers' choices," said
Kmart spokeswoman Abigail Jacobs, "but we do want our managers to listen to
their communities. In some regions, where there is a high military
population, these baskets are viewed as patriotic, as in Texas."
	
So far, one Kmart manager, in Grass Valley, CA, has announced that his store
won't stock the baskets. That decision came after Joanna Robinson, the wife
of folk singer U. Utah Phillips, was arrested at her local Kmart while
peacefully protesting the sale of the baskets, provoking a group of
protesters to gather at the store and chant, "Kmart, get smart!"
	
Jacobs said she didn't know whether the protesters were motivated by
religious conviction or anti-war sentiment.
	
Daphne White, the leader of a peace-advocacy group called the Lion & Lamb
Project, said it's just common sense that selling violent toys to kids is a
bad idea, whether the occasion is a religious holiday or not.
	
White said she's tired of hearing corporations say they only make what
customers want.
	
"There are so few people of conscience any more in corporate America," she
said. "Unfortunately, military toys teach violence; they say that war is
something to play with. Take a look at these baskets: They have a puzzle on
the back, and in the front there's an image of a bomb and a bomb-sniffing
dog.
	
"They wrap up the whole concept of war: Killing people. Doing puzzles. Eating
chocolate."
	
And what do churches say?
	
Most support free speech and free enterprise and don't meddle in the business
practices of their members, though several - including the PC(USA) - have
committees that advise church investors on socially responsible investing.
PC(USA) policy, for instance, forbids church funds from being invested in the
manufacture of real weapons.
	
Even the PC(USA) General Assembly gets nervous about policies that view the
economy through a Christian lens. Fifteen years ago, a policy paper about
business ethics, "Toward a Just, Caring and Dynamic Political Economy," got
voted down as policy and was used as a study document instead.
	
Some churches have lamented the merchandisers' lack of sensitivity about
Christianity's most sacred holiday,
	
"I find this to be an outrage  as Christians look toward Easter as a time of
remembrance of the Prince of Peace," said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the
highest ecclesiastical officer in the PC(USA). "To connect this season, when
Christians are focusing on the passion of Christ and the peace of Christ, to
the celebration of violence  is an outrage to the church."
	
Chicago's United Methodist Bishop Joe Sprague said the corporations, out of
"common decency," ought to "step back" from turning a profit by glorifying
war and violence. He said church leaders who have objected to the baskets are
"just appealing to good taste."
	
This is offensive to Christian sensibilities," he said.
	
The founders of Wal-Mart, Sam and Helen Walton, have been tied to the life
and ministry of the PC(USA) for decades, generously supporting its work with
both money and service. But Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk said,
nonetheless, the baskets are "at this point on our shelves, and they will
remain on our shelves."
	
Burk, noting that she speaks for the corporation but not for the Walton
family, said the baskets were stocked because of customer demand.
	
White, the peace activist, said she has heard such evasions before.
	
"Violence is being marketed to children like candy," she said. "What we have
to do is make violence not cool. Like smoking: That's not cool. Or littering:
That's not cool, either. But now, violence is cool."
	
The Rev. Peter A. Sulyok, the PC(USA)'s coordinator for social-witness
policy, was asked whether the church has adopted any statements that might
bear on the Easter basket issue.
	
"I'm unable to locate any specific policies that apply to the appropriateness
of marketing shrink-wrapped chocolate and toy guns in the same Easter
baskets," he said. "I assume General Assemblies have trusted members to use
their common sense."

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