SunTrust Cuts Ties with Benhams
after HGTV Flap
CBN News May 16, 2014More than a week after HGTV dropped David and Jason Benham's reality show over their views on same-sex marriage, the brothers and business owners announced SunTrust Banks is cutting ties with them.
According the Daily Caller, the Benhams said SunTrust's decision came "without warning or explanation" and "took place over a 15-minute period" Thursday.
"We were caught off-guard with this one," David Benham said. "Keeping us off television wasn't enough, now this agenda to silence wants us out of the marketplace."
Faith Driven Consumer founder Chris Stone agreed, suggesting the move by SunTrust was punitive and part of a growing movement to silence people of faith.
"SunTrust's actions have effectively put into place a belief-oriented litmus test for its business partners seeking to compete in the marketplace of goods, services, and ideas," Stone told Charisma News. "This is discriminatory, intolerant, and in direct opposition [to] everything that America is about."
"Faith Driven Consumers, and all fair-minded Americans, are getting tired of this," Stone continued. "They know it's wrong, and they are not going to tolerate this kind of bullying."
SunTrust issued a statement Friday saying the move had to do with changes in management and was not motivated by politics.
"SunTrust supports the rights of all Americans to fully exercise their freedoms granted under the Constitution, including those with respect to free speech and freedom of religion," they said.
"Mid-2013, we consolidated the management of certain residential assets with a third party vendor, which has the relationship with Benham Real Estate," they continued. "While we do not publicly comment on specific vendor relationships, we don’t make choices on suppliers nor base business decisions on political factors, nor do we direct our third party vendors to do so. We clarified our policies with our vendor and the issue has been resolved."
The Behnam controversy is the latest evidence of shifting attitudes toward marriage.
Ten years after same-sex marriage first became legal in the state of Massachusetts, acceptance of gay marriage has grown across the country.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now allow same-sex couples to wed.
Although 30 states have voter-approved constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, judges in seven of them have struck down those laws.
Meanwhile, recent polls show 53 percent of Americans now support gay marriage. A decade earlier, that number stood at 30 percent.
***Is it inevitable that gay marriage will become a norm in America? Chris Plante, with the National Organization for Marriage, addressed that question and more on CBN Newswatch, May 16.
If you want to voice your discontent with Sun Trust Bank and HGTV. Write, call, email, or comment on Twitter:
SUNTRUST
Write to the office of the president:
7818 Parham Road Richmond, Virginia 23294
Call Headquarters: 303 Peachtreet St, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Phone number: (404) 588-7711
HGTV
Write:
HGTV Corporate Office Headquarters
500 W Summit Hill Drive Knoxville, TN 37902
Email your complaint.
Tweet @HGTV
