Pampered Chef Controversy over Abortion

Pro-Life 'Chefs' Exiting the Pampered Life
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/6/afa/162003c.asp

By Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
June 16, 2003


(AgapePress) - A growing number of Christian, pro-life mothers are
leaving lucrative careers with a national kitchenware company because
of the new owner's support of abortion.

"The Pampered Chef" is one of the nation's largest and fastest-
growing kitchenware companies. The company, founded in 1980 by
professing Christian and stay-at-home mother Doris Christopher, has
been driven mostly by stay-at-home moms who sell the products from
home. The company boasts more than 67,000 "Kitchen Consultants" and
sales of $700 million annually.

But now, according to Citizen magazine, many Christian mothers are
walking away from the company because Pampered Chef's new owner,
billionaire Warren Buffett, is a huge supporter of abortion. His
Buffett Foundation, using company profits, has donated tens of
millions of dollars to abortion-related causes.

Citizen reports that Buffett's conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway,
Inc. -- owners of such well-known names as Dairy Queen, See's Candy,
and Fruit of the Loom -- has funneled millions of dollars to the
Foundation. The Foundation, in turn, last year donated at least $11
million to pro-choice and "reproductive-rights" groups.

Among those recipients are international abortion-provider Planned
Parenthood, the Population Council -- chief promoter of RU-486 in the
U.S. -- and International Projects Assistance Services. IPAS,
beneficiary of a five-year, $20 million commitment from the
Foundation in 1999, is the principal manufacturer of the suction
pumps used in abortions. According to Business Week, that financial
backing permitted IPAS to double its capacity to produce and
distribute "manual vacuum aspirators (MVAs)."

According to Citizen, the exodus of Pampered Chef distributors who
are pro-life is gaining steam. It says resignations of top-selling
distributors are catching the attention of company officials. Among
those who have decided to quit the company is Tammy Gillespie of
Tupelo, Mississippi. She excludes Buffett from her decision.

"It's not between me and Warren Buffet, it's between me and God,"
Gillespie says. "I cannot bow before the Lord when I get to heaven
and have Him look me in the eye and say, 'You knew that your money
was going to fund abortion.' And that's why I'm quitting the Pampered
Chef."

Gillespie says the decision was not a difficult decision for her and
her husband to make. "We searched God's Word and found a ton of
scriptures that I believe that God led us to find and know exactly
where God stands," she says.

"The Book of James it says if you know what to do and you don't do
it, it's a sin. So if you know where God stands on something and you
choose not to do it because of finances or because you like the
product, it's sin."

She says there was never any hesitation on her part about quitting a
company that helps finance the killing of innocent babies. Citizen
quotes a West Virginia mom and a 33-year-old Arizona mother of three
who both also have resigned from The Pampered Chef over its financial
support to abortion-related cayses,

Buffett purchased The Pampered Chef in September 2002 and remained
under the management of Mrs. Christopher at that time.

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