TOMS Shoes: Tsk tsk On You, Playing with Homophobes & Anti-Choice Groups?

This is a tough one, like a blow below the belt. We have to pick our battles. I am a big flaming homosexual and do my best to not give my money to groups supporting hate, but I also find it impossible to be a 100% ” gay PC”. It is hard to keep track of where to and not to shop, eat and patronize.  Why TOMS, why? Target, now you. (crying into the palms of my hands) AB

Last week, TOMS shoes founder Blake Mycoskie was a headliner at an event hosted by Focus On The Family. According to Christianity Today, Focus On The Family is “working to become a TOMS international distributor in Africa.” Will canvas-footed progressives balk?

Since the departure of James Dobson, the group has modified their tone on polarizing topics, but not their positions on them: They still are anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-evolution, you name it.

“The media is having a tough time figuring us out,” an official at the group’s political unit toldChristianity Today in the same July piece, adding that when “we are active in the defense of traditional marriage, which is seen by the media as hateful and homophobic, so they scratch their heads and say, ‘Wait, I thought they were changing their tone.'”

There’s nothing inherently political about distributing shoes to African children, of course. In theory, it’s a good thing for Focus to spend less time trying to police sex and more actually helping people, but they’ve not really cut back on the former. And Focus On The Family isn’t the only group TOMS could have turned to for collaboration, nor is it the only Christian group involved in charitable missions. It carries significant cultural and political baggage, for good reason. TOMS is at major risk of alienating a constituency that has enthusiastically adopted their product, including yours truly. MORE AT jezebel.com

Tags: Abortion debate, Africa, Christian, Christianity Today, Focus on the Family, James Dobson, Pro-choice, TOMS Shoes