Cait from TPN’s Global Geek podcast (and one of the original MODM’ers) pointed me to this story in the news today (see article below).
This link between Hillsong Church and Gloria Jeans isn’t new to me.
I blogged about it back in 2005. I was wondering why that post was getting so many hits today!
Yet another example of Christians doing harm in the local community and why I say the whole religion is dangerous and why I stopped drinking Gloria Jean’s coffee a couple of years ago (apart from the fact that it sucks).
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They need this company to do some emergency PR work. They are sooo good. http://christvertising.com/who.html
Hi, Alexandra Deakin, Global Marketing Manager for Gloria Jean’s Coffees. Read your comments & just wanted to share what we think about all of this. You can get our view from our website, here’s the link: http://www.gloriajeanscoffees.com.au/resource/Mercy_Web_Post.pdf
Alexandra, thanks for taking the time to respond. Isn’t it true that the founders of Gloria Jean’s, Peter Irvine and Nabi Saleh, are both board members of GJC as well as members of the Hillsong Church? And, if that is true, isn’t your PDF incorrect when it states “We have no relationship with the Hillsong Church”?
Jesus or no jesus- your coffee is awful.
Hi Cameron, and thanks for taking the time to checkout the site. The fact that our founders are members of the Hillsong Church is their personal choice. People have the right to their own religious beliefs. You can’t simply say because someone – even if they are on the Board – has a religious belief, that everyone in the company shares those beliefs or that the whole company is associated with the religion or belief.
Let me put it this way. If “John Smith†the Chairman and a shareholder of “ABC Supermarket†is a member of the Catholic Church and makes a personal donation to the church then does this means that the “ABC Supermarket†has a relationship as a benefactor or has the same beliefs as the Catholic Church? I don’t think so.
If someone chooses to give to or take a lead role in their church, or any other charity, that is their personal choice and is separate to how they conduct their business life. If you are a religious person, I’m sure you don’t bring your religion to work. That’s why we believe and stand by our view that Gloria Jean’s Coffees as a company has no relationship with Hillsong Church.
Alexandra, with all due respect, I think you are trying to blur the issues. Mr Saleh’s beliefs may be his own business and who he tithes money to may also be his own business. What many of us care about though is that a percentage of the money spent by us in your stores is going support a fundamentalist Christian organisation which, it is claimed, has been treating troubled young women with Bronze Age remedies such as exorcisms.
And to suggest that Mr Saleh, in his roles as an Elder of the Hillsong Church and as Chairman of the Board / Co-Founder / significant shareholder of Jireh International Pty Ltd, the company that holds the right to franchise Gloria Jean’s Coffees in Australia and other countries, had zero influence on the company’s promotion and support of Mercy Ministries, a favoured group of Hillsong’s, stretches the credibility of your argument. Your assertion that the business has no relationship with Hillsong is mere semantics. If you were a public company I would be requesting a copy of the minutes of the Board meetings where the decision was made. Did Mr Saleh abstain from the vote and preceding discussion about Mercy because of a conflict of interest?
While Jireh is a privately owned company and can do whatever it likes with its profits, we, your customers, also can choose not to support you with our dollars if we know you use them in part to support dangerous, misguided organizations such as Mercy Ministries and if we know that your Founders are using the wealth they are creating with the stores to personally support a fundamentalist religious organization many of us feel is also dangerous and misguided.
Go Cameron hahaha.
Alex- U got owned, no comeback whatsover.
Mercy ministries needs to stop preying on vulnurable young women and filling thier heads with whacky ideas. They’d be better off without you.