c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Mitchell Gold is well known for his classic couches and comfy chairs sold nationwide at places like Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn. But Gold, the co-founder and chairperson of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, is increasingly known for his fight against what he calls religious bigotry.

Gold recently founded Faith in America, a non-profit advocacy group, that’s hosting “Call to Courage,” a national ad campaign about homophobia from May to November. Gold recently talked about the intersection of faith, furniture and politics.

Q: What are you hoping to do with Faith in America?

A: We’re hoping to educate America. There are people in America today who, because of their religious beliefs, favor legislation that marginalizes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender American citizens and in fact denies them of their full constitutional rights. And we want to point out that what those people are doing is not dissimilar to what people in 1967 believed about interracial marriage … because of their personal religious beliefs.

Q: What is your religious background? How does it relate to Faith in America?

A: I was brought up Jewish. And it relates in the sense that growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, I experienced discrimination because I was Jewish.

One of my earliest memories is coming out of my house and going across the street to play with my friend Johnny. He came running out onto his front yard, screaming at me not to get on his property, that I was a dirty Jew, not to ever come to his house again.

His mother, hearing that, was aghast. She asked what he was talking about. He said the nuns in school today told us about the Jews and how they killed Christ.

Q: Why is homophobia such an important issue for you?

A: Well, because it’s denying me and millions of others of full and equal rights.

Q: Your company sells furniture to Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel and Williams-Sonoma. Are you afraid your advocacy could affect your bottom line?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because first of all, I believe that if people are bigots, they don’t deserve my furniture. And fortunately, the companies that I sell to and the consumers who buy our furniture, for the most part, are pretty fair-minded.

This isn’t a Republican or Democrat thing, this is really about bigotry. And people who are heavy bigots, I don’t think they buy our furniture.

Q: Tell me about the “Call to Courage” ad campaign and what you’re hoping to accomplish.

A: I’ve spoken to a lot of local ministers here who … are afraid that if they were to broach the subject in their congregation differently than what their church has been used to teaching, that they would lose their congregation. And there are people, average parishioners, who I come in contact with who say to me that “I understand what you are talking about and I feel bad about it _ my brother’s gay, my cousin’s gay _ but I’m afraid of the peer pressure … I’ll be ostracized.”

That’s why we’re saying to people, you have to have courage to step up for what you believe.

Q: Describe what the ads are like.

A: There’s a series of ads that point out the historical references to how religious beliefs have been used in the past to discriminate. And we also talk about how religious beliefs in the past have been used to free people. That’s a really important thing.

We want to give voice to the hundreds of thousands of ministers and people who are deeply religious people, who are very observant, but in fact are not an extremist, fundamentalist group that would deny people rights.

The abolitionist movement was led by people that were very religious. The civil rights movement _ Martin Luther King was a reverend _ was led by people of the cloth. So we want to make sure that those people have a voice and we want the ads to speak to that.

Q: How did you pick the five cities for the ad campaign?

A: One important thing for us was Iowa, for example, is an early primary state. But in picking Iowa, we picked Ames versus Des Moines because we didn’t want to go to a place that was more liberal; we wanted to go more into the smaller country.

In Nevada, we’re not going to Las Vegas, rather we’re going to Reno-Sparks. And in New Hampshire, we’re going to Manchester, and in South Carolina we’re going to Greenville. And then finally we’re going to Colorado Springs which is the capital of religion-based bigotry.

Q: Why is that?

A: (Focus on the Family founder) James Dobson, to name one. These folks have really set up camp there.

Q: These are all early primary states, right?

A: Yes. We want to get people talking about this, thinking about this, and we want people to be asking the presidential candidates about this.

Q: There’s tons of gay rights groups out there. Why start a new organization? Or do you think they’re neglecting this focus on faith-based discrimination?

A: I thought about that very carefully, and I did not want to start a new organization. But after meeting with many, many of them, this really doesn’t fall in their bailiwick in a sense. And frankly they’re not comfortable telling somebody that their religious beliefs are wrong.

But I’m with a group of people who are comfortable doing that because here’s a whole bunch of people _ mostly fundamentalist Christians _ telling me that my beliefs are wrong. I have every right to tell them that I believe that their beliefs are wrong.

This is different and challenging. We have chutzpah.

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