ZitatWhat in the sweet name of Santa Claus is wrong with liberals?
A popular doughnut shop in Portland, Maine, was forced to apologize to the community after it offended customers by working with the Salvation Army to provide Christmas to a needy family.
The Holy Donut had asked customers to help them with a gift drive for a local family with five children. Those customers who participated received free doughnuts.
The doughnut shop reached out to the Salvation Army to find the family in need, the Press-Herald reports.
Instead of saluting the doughnut shop for doing a good deed – an online mob stormed their Facebook page. Many accused the Salvation Army of being anti-gay and discriminating against the LGBT community.
It was all untrue, of course – but the truth doesn’t really matter these days.
“They proselytize to the people in their programs, they reject LGBT people from their shelters,” one outraged customer wrote. “They have tried to scrub their image, but still discriminate.”
For the record, the Salvation Army is a well-respected Christian ministry that provides shelter for the homeless, addiction programs and of course the iconic red kettles at Christmas time.
Nevertheless, some freedom-loving, donut eaters defended the popular mom-and-pop establishment.
“Going after a doughnut shop because they don’t like their politics is exactly why people voted for Trump,” one observer wrote online.
“I don’t care if someone is L, G, B or T, but when they stand in the way of people helping people simply because their own personal noses are out of joint, they lose my respect and any sympathy I have for their cause,” wrote another.
But the Press Herald reports that the anti-doughnut mob was unrelenting – going so far as to threaten boycotts unless the donut shop renounced its association with the Salvation Army.
“In case you forgot, a solid 70 percent of your clientele is part of the LGBTQ community,” one rabble-rouser wrote. “You’re making a silent statement that you’re completely fine with their choices.”
Ah yes, nothing quite like an old-fashioned yuletide public shaming.
“We do not support the Salvation Army or consider them our ‘partner’ for this project, they simply linked us to a needy family,” the store owners wrote on Facebook. “We have nothing to gain here, we just wanted to help a family in need.”
As unthinkable as it might be – a good number of the pro-LGBT protesters were upset that the donut shop dared to help a family in need during the Christmas season.
To quell the growing controversy, The Holy Donut threw themselves at the mercy of the surging mob.
“We take this opportunity to sincerely apologize to anyone that we have offended,” the store owners wrote on Facebook. “We are an organization which prides itself on our track record of kindness and acceptance of everyone.”
I know it's easy for me to say as this is not my livelihood, but I wish they had never apologized. Instead they should have posted a statement which pointed out they were helping a needy family and they offer no apology for doing so.