Wal-Mart Protest: Placerville, CA over gay activity

"Expressing God's Love in a Whole New Kind of Way"

Church Protests Wal-Mart's $60,000 Donation to Gay Activists | Nov. 25th, 2006
Wal-Mart responds by calling Sheriffs Dept. and accusing church of "lying"

Church of the Divide members showed up for a planned protest of the Placerville Wal-Mart at 9:00am on Friday, November 24, 2006. We stood right in front of Wal-Mart with signs stating “Christians: Don’t Shop Here”, “Wal-Mart Gives $60k to Gay Group”, “Christians Boycott Wal-Mart”, and “Wal-Mart Supports Sodomy.”

As expected, Wal-Mart immediately responded by insisting that we get off of their property. However, current court cases like Hamburg V. Walmart clearly show that when a store is “open to the public”, the First Amendment protects our activities although technically the property is private. Wal-Mart recently settled with a group of eight protesters in Ukiah, Ca for $90,000 over this exact same situation (view the Ukiah press story here: ). After being shown a copy of the news story, the Wal-Mart rep. went inside and said he would “call the authorities.”

Sergeant Drehr of the El Dorado County Sheriffs Dept. showed up around 9:45am and alerted us that he realized our right to free-speech, asked to see the court case and then requested that we move to an area which did not block the entrance; being a reasonable request, we complied. He also mentioned his concern over the term “sodomy” (the new “s-word”), and what little children might be asking their parents... We complied with his request that we voluntarily not use that sign, although we disagree with his reasoning completely (the main point of our message was not taken away and we try to be as cooperative as possible with law enforcement).

The flyer we passed out was titled "True Christians: Boycott Wal-Mart" which stated the two main mistakes Wal-Mart made: donating $60,000 to Out & Equal and joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The flyer included a place for a signature that customers could take to the Wal-Mart customer service desk and drop off, expressing their disgust with Wal-Mart’s pro-gay activities… Wal-Mart employee’s reportedly ripped up a woman’s flyer a threw other customers’ flyers in the trash… “Satisfaction Guaranteed??” We don’t think so.

We were able to witness to a few open individuals and we pray that God would convict the hearts of those lost souls and that the seeds which were planted would grow and bear much fruit. However, we were surprised at the amount of hypocrites that named Christ’s name who did not care at all about Wal-Mart supporting immorality. They could not quote one Scripture to back up their position except for the usual “Judge not” and “God is love” comments which somehow justifies their support of darkness.

All in all, it was an excellent way for us to expose the hypocrisy and leaven filling the businesses calling themselves churches in our town. We praise our God that His name was glorified through our humble efforts.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father which is in heaven." mtt 5:16

MUST SEE Video Footage:
Wal-Mart employee tears down sign

Three upset customers (one a stockholder) explain how Wal-Mart Customer Service mistreated them and ripped up their flyers or threw them away when they complained about Wal-Mart's pro-sodomy donations

View/Print/Download our flyer:
View image of our boycott Wal-Mart flyer
Download and print our flyer: right click and click 'save as' (MS Word)

Pictures:
Sheriffs Dept. in front of Wal-Mart
Sheriffs Dept. Leaving in front of protester
Sign pictures