Influential and persuasive? Definitely. Misleading and missing the mark? Absolutely.
Here's the letter I wrote to them this morning. I remained positive throughout, applauded them on their good intentions, showed them where they came up short, suggested what they do next, and promised not to purchase their product until they did. :)
Enjoy.
Dear Honey Maid,
With great love for the human person, you have launched your
recent “wholesome” advertising campaign.
Your video advertisement showed that all human beings should be loved,
regardless of gender, age, or sense of attraction.
And with great love you took criticisms and changed them
into something beautiful. With your second video advertisement, you made the
point again that love is what makes us human and ties us all together.
And now, with great love again, I hope you will go one step
further. This final step is fully necessary,
absolutely essential, and most definitely full of love.
With great love comes great responsibility. To each human being, we have the
responsibility to give dignity.
And while your advertising campaign certainly embraces love, it does not
adequately promote the dignity of the human person. Love and dignity go hand-in-hand for us human beings and
must never be separated. To
promote one without the other is to greatly undermine and greatly mislead.
Please take a moment to learn about Theology of the Body, the
late great Pope John Paul II’s writings on the dignity of the human being and
our sexuality as persons. From this, I believe you will see why Christ Himself
accepted and loved all people (a true display of love) yet counseled them on appropriate
behavior (which is to give dignity to the human person). Christ’s mission was a mission of love,
and paramount to His mission were His teachings on sin and our call to have
true freedom from it. Truly, each
of us have been called to greatness.
Through the concept of Theology of the Body, I have learned
of the loving reasons behind God’s design of marriage being between one man and
one woman only. I have learned why
God charges us to love ALL persons, including those with same-sex attraction. And with that great love, I have come
to understand why the dignity of the human person (and the family itself) needs
marriages to be between one man and one woman only.
Let us care deeply about the dignity of all human persons,
especially the person who struggles with same-sex attraction. Let us not encourage him or her to feel
bound by the impulses of the body but rather to feel freed from it, knowing
that with our bodies and our sexuality we can glorify the God who made us so
beautifully!
I hope that you will take this last step of love by
restoring full dignity to the human person with a third video
advertisement. I pray that it will
clarify to viewers the TRUE vision of love, which I suspect may have been what
your heart longed for in the first place. And when you do, I will support your company by buying your
products again.
May God give us His love, mercy, and guidance always!
Sincerely,
Lisa Goddard
