Bethel Women’s Pastor Promotes Target Boycott Citing Concerns Over Child “Sexualization” 

A screenshot of one of Havilah Cunnington’s live Instagram videos in late May in which she pushed others to boycott Target.

June 30, 9:11 am: Editor’s Note: We have updated our headline to correct and clarify the use of quotation marks.

“This is a direct assault against our kids. This is offensive, and this is belittling, and it’s derogatory towards us as parents, towards the children”, Bethel Church’s Havilah Cunnington told her Instagram followers on May 26. She was referring to a display of Pride clothing in Target stores nationwide, including the local Redding Target.

Cunnington specifically complained about what she referred to as sexually explicit clothing being sold in children’s sizes for Pride month. Her video included a background photo of a girls shirt with the words:  “I dream of girls.”

While Target’s children’s Pride clothing includes shirts with messages like “Rebel girls support Pride”, and “Love is Love”, the line does not contain clothing with sexually explicit messages. Instead, the gay romantic messaging mirrors similar heterosexual romantic messaging already commonly seen on children’s clothing, such as the popular toddler boy’s t-shirt with the words “Mr. Steal Your Girl” and little girl’s t-shirts that read “Fries Before Guys”. 

Over the months of May and June, Target has become the latest company to be impacted by evangelical pushback against an increasingly visible LGBTQ+ community. National criticism has focused on the store’s annual Pride collection, which includes rainbow-themed trinkets, clothes, and books for children about gender and acceptance.    

Widespread claims that Target is promoting “child sexualization” and “grooming” are largely based on misinformation. For example, while some, including Cunnington, have claimed that Target’s “tuck-friendly” bathing suit is sold in kid’s sizes. In fact, a fact check by Politifact indicates the suit is sold only in adult sizes. Others in the evangelical community, including Bethel-connected worship pastor and political activist Sean Feucht, have sounded the alarm on Target for selling participating in “satanic perversion,” by selling clothing with satanic imagery. The Associated Press says that false claim was based on fake AI-generated images, and a fact check by Politifact indicates that none of the items made by UK designer Abprallen for the Target Pride collection contains any form of Satanic imagery.

But Feucht, who is connected with political leaders across the United States including former President Donald Trump, has continued to promote unified anti-Target action by those in the evangelical community. He’s asking his followers to sign a one-sentence “petition” called “Stand Up to Target.” The petition has garnered at least 60,000 signatures so far.

Feucht’s “Stand Up To Target” landing page includes this messaging.

Cunnington and Feucht are both connected to Bethel Church, a local megachurch whose adherents make up about 10% of the City’s population, giving statements from church leaders like Cunnington outsized local influence.

While Cunnington statements were made on her own Instagram account, they’re closely aligned with Bethel Church’s ongoing pushback against homosexuality. In 2018, Bethel Church lobbied against three California bills that would have protected community members from conversion therapy and provided better access to healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community. And in 2021, the Church’s Associate Senior Leader Kris Valloton advocated against the Equality Act, a bill giving more legal protection to the LGBTQ+ community.

Bethel also supports the CHANGED Movement, a religious movement dedicated to, in their own words, “exchanging the LGBTQ worldview and identity for a Christian worldview and identity as men and women who are children of God”. 

Her Instagram video comments came a few weeks before a series of local anti-LGBTQ+ incidents that have deeply concerned many in the community.

In early June, days after Cunnington’s Instagram video went live, disturbing anti-Pride flyers were distributed on vehicles in the Redding Target parking lot. “Child Groomers Get the Rope,” reads one such flyer, using Target logos to depict the letter “o” in the word groomers,“Target supports transitioning and mutilating children.” The flyer appears to threaten violence, citing the Biblical passage Luke 17:2, which says that it’s better for someone to die than to lead children into sin.

Screenshot of a June 7 post by Facebook user Ashley Rawson.

Another disturbing local incident has been the repeated defacing of a Pride flag which local organizers obtained a permit to paint on a Redding walkway. The worst of the vandalism included religious anti-LGBTQ+ messaging, including the phrase “Pride is a sin.“

A Pride flag painted on a Redding walkway for the month of June has been defaced multiple times over recent weeks. Photos courtesy of Dylan Benton.

Members of the local gay community and their many allies have repeatedly repainted the flag, saying hate will not stop their message of love. The United Way of Northern California issued a press release about the vandalism saying it “propagates an alarming message of discrimination and intolerance that we unequivocally reject.”

After pushback from the evangelical community over Pride merchandise, Target’s stock has plunged in recent weeks, suffering a total estimated loss of $15.7 billion, or about one-fifth of its total value. While some say those losses are a direct reflection of the buying power of the evangelical community across America, others point out that broader economic factors appear to have similarly affected other retailers over the same period of time, including Footlocker, Children’s Place, Walmart, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree.

Last month, Target responded to customer pressure in some parts of the country by removing controversial items and promising to move the merchandise to the back of the store. 

But for many evangelicals, including Cunnington, that wasn’t enough.

“Until it is removed from the Redding, California Target, I’m out,” Cunnington told her followers. “I’m not going to visit you. I’m not buying online. I’m not talking about your products. You are going to lose that, and that’s very important.”

Fact checking for this story was provided by Heather Taylor. If you have a correction to this story you can submit it here. Have information to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org