A friend of mine recently received an email denouncing Target stores. Apparently, in mid 2002, a Viet Nam veteran contacted a Target store for a donation to sponsor the Viet Nam Memorial and was turned down because local Target stores are only allowed to give gift cards. All cash grants must be approved and given through the corporate offices. There was, however, a miscommunication between the veteran asking for the donation and the employee at the local Target, who did not take the time to explain fully the procedure for applying for grant money and the veteran thought that Target only donated money to arts, social action, and education. The veteran promptly sent an email message to everyone that he knew stating that he would no longer be shopping at Target stores. Since then, the misunderstanding has been rectified and Target sponsored the Traveling Wall in 2003. Unfortunately, the email message has gone to possibly millions of people and it has been anonymously amended to read that not only does Target fail to sponsor Viet Nam veterans, they also refuse to support Toys for Tots (although a little bit of research reveals that Target does give to Toys for Tots, although it is on a store-to-store basis), that they only support gay and lesbian causes (no proof of this, unless you think that Toys for Tots and the Traveling Wall are gay and lesbian causes) and that it’s no wonder that they are so bad…they are FRENCH OWNED (Target, Marshall Field's and Mervyn's department store chains, is a U.S. based company headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.) Although both Target and the Veterans of Foreign Wars have written press releases explaining the misunderstanding, the email message is still sent out, outraging more Americans who send it to yet more Americans, who swear that they will never shop at Target again.
In this era of high speed communication, it is even more important than ever that we keep ourselves from passing on lies and innuendoes. Think how much damage has already been caused by the outrage of those who probably consider themselves good Christians who pass on rumors to their friends and family without bothering to research it to discover whether or not it isn’t true. Are these same people going to feel virtuous about destroying a business, about people losing their jobs, all over an embellished accusation?
God has given us a basic command: do not bear false witness against your neighbor. False witness is more than gossip. It’s more than a bald-faced lie. It also encompasses that area of "let me tell you about what I heard about [fill in the blank]." Does this mean we should never boycott a company that does things you oppose? Of course not! However, we have an obligation to research the accusations as well as a responsibility to state ‘just the facts, ma’am.’ As tempting as it is to embellish to strengthen our own positions, if we do so, we are no better than the company we oppose.