In Theory: Should Lowes have pulled its ads?

The deeper and more insidious issue (other than lily-livered advertisers being bullied by the FFA — what's that stand for, anyway, “Fervent Fanatics of America”?) is the refusal of some folks in America to realize that not all Muslims are fanatics. I just hope that Muslims and Jews realize that not all Christians are fanatics.

The Dearborn, Mich., Muslim community has been there since long before 9/11. Believe it or not, some Muslims came to America to escape the oppression of their native countries, and for the same reasons some of our forefathers came: to worship in peace, to have a safe place to live and to raise a family. So to tar all Muslims with the same brush is criminal, and about as unChristian and unAmerican as you can get.

I wasn't alive when Pearl Harbor happened, but I'm ashamed of what my country did then. The good ol' Land of the Free, Home of the Brave rounded up anybody with a Japanese name (at least on the West Coast), took away their businesses, and shipped them off to concentration camps. We had a reason: They looked like the enemy. And we were afraid.

Fear does crazy things to some people. Remember the old Twilight Zone episode called, “Monsters on Main Street”? It showed what fear can do to a civilized people. So I'm ashamed of Lowe's and other advertisers who knuckled under to bigotry. But I'll save my deeper disgust for the Freaking Fanatics of America. It's Christmas, FFA, so don't forget to go to church. Blecchh!

The Rev. Skip Lindeman

La Cañada Congregational Church

La Cañada Flintridge

By pulling its advertising from a show that has no agenda other than simply following the daily lives of a group of American Muslims, Lowe’s has demonstrated a clear lack of business and ethical principles.

Lowe’s unfortunate action makes it obvious that its organizational environment is not grounded in basic ethical values of diversity that is commonplace in corporate America — the authentic diversity that makes both business sense and advances our nation to be truly exceptional among nations as engraved on the Statue of Liberty in New York: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”