Eleven major American corporations whose products and services are advertised in “buy Christian” business directories are opposed to discriminatory advertising practices and are so informing their local agents who placed the ads.
The companies are IBM; Chrysler Corporation; Avis; Allstate; Penn Mutual, New York, Massachusetts Mutual, Preferred Risk Mutual, and New England Life Insurance Companies; Blyth Eastman Dillon and Co., and Lincoln National Sales Corporation.
In letters to the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, according to general counsel Arnold Forster, most of the firms said that they had been unaware of the nature of the directories or that their local agents were placing ads in them. They thanked the ADL for calling the matter to their attention.
The directories limit advertisers to “born-again Christians” and urge readers to buy only from Christians. The dominant ones, called “Christian Yellow Pages” and “Christian Business Directory,” are published in some 34 cities in 14 states, mostly in the South and the West. However, these and other independent directories of the same kind are spreading throughout the country.
A report on the directories was made today by Marcia Goldstein, vice-chairman of ADL’s fact-finding committee, at a first-day session of the agency’s 64th annual meeting which is being held here at the Hyatt Regency Hotel through Monday.
The report reveals that in addition to the “Christian Yellow Pages” discriminatory business practices, the promoters of the directory-its founder, Paul Seeley of Portland, Oregon, and its national director, W.R. Tomson of Modesto, Cal–have published a tract, “The Moral Imperative of Christian Yellow Pages,” attacking Jews and their ancestors for not accepting Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
ADL has filed separate anti-discrimination suits in California and Colorado against “Christian Yellow Pages” and “Christian Business Directories” published in Los Angles, San Diego and San Mateo Country, Cal, and in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado. ADL said its suits are based on the premise that limiting advertisers to “born-again Christians” constitutes religious discrimination against Jews, Catholics and some Protestant denominations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
