Have you heard disparaging words about the legitimacy and accuracy of The Boycott List?

LDI has faced harsh criticism from a few people who are known as pro-life and/or Christian activists. After a person or persons outside of LDI asked them to drop boycott target PayPal, they accused us of putting corporations on The Boycott List that do not fund Planned Parenthood. They claim to have asked LDI for documentation that led to PayPal becoming a boycott target, but we flatly refused to provide it. The statements are utterly false. There is not even a hint of truth to them. These people are likely motivated by an unwillingness to face the truth and do the legwork necessary to change to an alternative to PayPal. (LDI even offers a list of several alternative companies, which cuts the legwork to a minimum.).

Persons known to be engaging in such deception are Steve Ertelt of LifeNews, Simon Rafe of RealCatholicTV and Dave Schmidt of Live Action. These men refuse to do the right thing despite being confronted by LDI. We are not talking about people speaking out of ignorance. We are talking about people who are calculatingly making statements they know are false. We cannot file a lawsuit against these groups or individuals (and they know it). But we are not going to let false statements be made without confronting our accusers, especially since they hinder our efforts. (All three groups use PayPal. Ertelt even goes so far as to remove references to PayPal from LDI press releases before posting them on his website.)

Imagine the legal and moral nightmare LDI would face if--even once--we put a corporation on The Boycott List that did not deserve to be there. In an attempt to validate their claims, some accusers use random standards. For example, “The company told me they do not currently fund Planned Parenthood and have no plans to do so in the future.” The problem is that “currently” is broadly—and conveniently—defined and “no plans” is being interpreted as definitive, but it is not. You may be assured that all corporations on The Boycott List belong here based on our long employed, clearly explained and uniformly applied standards.

LDI will add specifics about the accusations made by Ertelt, Rafe, and Schmidt within the next 60 days or so. It truly pains us to provide such information but we understand it is our responsibility to prove everything written herein. You will be surprised at the audacity and disregard for basic Christian principles displayed by each. We make no false statements. We make no exaggerations. We make no assumptions. We simply provide details and let you decide. We invite these three men to show evidence--any evidence whatsoever--to prove that anything we have written is incorrect. But we especially invite these men to do the right thing.

We find it difficult to come up with even one reason why someone who claims to be pro-life would not choose to participate in such an easy and highly effective project. Nevertheless, anyone wanting to ignore the boycott is free to do so as this is a matter between each individual conscience and God. (Pro-life/pro-family organizations have less legitimate justification for refusing to participate than do individuals.) But please let no one resort to bearing false witness or making phony or misleading allegations that are--fundamentally--outright lies. We welcome legitimate criticism, but the flagrant display of such sin hurts every pro-lifer and follower of Christ.