The attack on Christianity stemming from the corporate world is relatively new, but it is picking up speed. In this issue alone, we detail our response to Cigna, Disney and Major League Baseball (MLB).
Cigna’s employment policy reads like something that was penned by some fanatical dean on a college campus. Asking employees if they are Christian is troubling, and what makes it seriously obnoxious is that it is being done for malicious reasons. Instructing Christian staffers that they are unjustly benefiting from what Cigna calls “religious privilege” is obscene. Being white and male are two other problematic categories.
Cigna has one “diversity” standard for its corporate leaders and another for everyone else. Those who run the insurance company are mostly white men, and no doubt many are Christian. Yet they do not see themselves as unfairly occupying a mantle of privilege. No matter, when we listed the email contact for the head media staffer, our subscribers jumped on it and registered their outrage.
Disney is apologizing for offending everyone from Indians to Pacific Islanders, but it has not said a word about the one demographic group it has offended the most, namely Catholics. There is a racist element at work here as well—it is not just a religious bias that it is exhibiting. Catholics are still largely white and white people carry baggage.
The assaults on Catholics that Disney has launched over the years has come by way of the big screen (e.g., its incestuous relationship with the Weinstein brothers in the movie distribution company, Miramax), and television (its takeover of ABC is a case in point). It has used these platforms to bash Catholics; the few times it crossed the line with others it apologized.
MLB should stick to bringing fans back to the ballpark—attendance is way down. But it gets a large portion of its money from the big sports TV companies, which is why they don’t mind alienating the fans. That explains why the corporate boys—not the players—decided to get involved in politics and move the All-Star game from mostly black Georgia to overwhelmingly white Colorado. Perversely, it did so in the name of racial justice.
The Commissioner of Baseball, Rob Manfred, got belted by our email base. We know this because it got back to us that he was furious with being deluged by angry emails. He was particularly incensed with Bill Donohue and sought reprisals, but his appeal went nowhere.
We are delighted with the vigorous response of Catholics to our requests for action. It is the only way we can win, or at least stop matters from getting worse.
