Do you shop at Target? I stopped shopping there in 2004, when they banned the Salvation Army from their stores during the Christmas holiday season. At the time, I thought to myself “I wonder if this is being caused by an anti-Christian bias”. And then more stories came out showing that they really might be. Let’s take a look at some of Target’s actions, and decide whether we should shop there.

Here’s the story from The Federalist:

Since 2012, Target has happily stocked the front of its stores with pro-LGBT T-shirts, accessories, pet items, party supplies, and decor. In recent years, Target expanded the reach of messages like “trans people will always exist,” “queer,” and “live laugh lesbian” to the children’s section.

[…]Target furthered its commitment to advancing radical gender ideology this month when it partnered with a Satan supporter who called for the eradication of anyone who disagrees with the mutilation of children to supply transgender-themed merchandise to Target’s “pride” collection.

Target is collaborating with “the U.K.-based brand Abprallen and its designer “Erik,” a self-proclaimed “gay trans man”.

But is Erik really a Satanist?

One quick glance at the designer’s website and Instagram shows dozens of designs featuring satanic and sacrilegious symbols such as pentagrams, “Satan respects pronouns” T-shirts, “gay as hell” stickers, and stained glass windows covered up by “trans bodies are holy.”

“So for me, Satan is hope, compassion, equality, and love. So, naturally, Satan respects pronouns. He loves all LGBT+ people. I went with a variation of Baphomet for this design, a deity who themself is a mixture of genders, beings, ideas, and existences. They reject binary stereotypes and expectations. Perfect,” Erik wrote.

[…]One particularly graphic image on the designer’s Instagram shows a naked demonic creature with a horned skull and mutilated breasts.

In addition to promoting explicit evil, Erik often uses violent language and imagery, with products such as a “burn down the cis-tem” lighter, a “we bash back” mace, and “time’s up for transphobes” skull pins to call for action against people who take issue with radical gender ideology and the dangerous mutilation and castration it prescribes. Erik also sells merchandise promoting the murder of babies in the womb.

One can only infer from this that Target supports all this as well. And if you shop there, then so do you. I disagree with all of that, because I’m a Bible-believing Christian and a Constitutional conservative. So I don’t shop at Target.

This isn’t the first time that Target has gotten into trouble with Christians and social conservatives.

You can see it in their bathroom policies.

Breitbart reports:

The Target department store chain drew the ire of millions of Americans after it announced it was opening its bathrooms to transgender shoppers and employees and allowing them to choose whatever bathroom they feel like using at any given time.

And Christian Post notes:

With that in mind, FRC compiled a list of 21 cases reported in the U.S. stretching back to 1999, but most within the last 10 years, where men violated the privacy of women in bathrooms, locker rooms, and other private spaces.

The most recent case was reported on Jan. 17 by WPRI, concerning a man who mounted a camera inside the family bathroom at a Target store in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Umit Cakmak, 41, of Providence, was arrested by Lincoln police and charged with video voyeurism, with reports noting that the man already had an active warrant for the same crime.

In a similar case from July 2016 in Idaho Falls, a man who identifies as transgender was arrested on one count of felony voyeurism for taking photos of another woman changing clothes at a Target store in Ammon.

And then of course there was the banning of the Salvation Army from the sidewalks outside of Target stores during the Christmas holidays.

Christian Post reports:

Target shoppers won’t be hearing the sound of bells ringing or a polite “Thank You” when they contribute to Salvation Army Kettle Drive this holiday season. The Salvation Army expects the enforcement of Target Corp’s non-solicitation policy to hurt projected donations and cutback the ministry’s services to the community.

[…]The decision will force many Salvation Army locations to reduce services to make ends meet. The Salvation Army in Metro Detroit has already suffered $1 million in income cutbacks this year and will lose the $220,671 in potential donations it collected last year at Target, which can fund 6,000 meals.

“We’re going to lose 112 days of food service for the hungry because of (Target’s) decision,” Russ Russell, Salvation Army executive director of development, told The Detroit News.

I’ll bet their Satanist friend really approved of that. Do you? Is it time to stop shopping at Target?