Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270222
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-18 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: FAIRFAX LENGTH: Medium
Business at his car dealership has never been the same since.
"I started with the C," said Jackson, whose dealership, Brown Lincoln-Mercury, is the subject of a dispute between a national Christian organization and civil rights and Jewish groups,
"I wrote everything down that began with C that had to do with Christ or Christian. I did the same thing with the letter M. I stayed up all night trying to figure out what those letters meant."
The next morning, he said, he had it: "Christian Members Buying Plan."
Christians would buy cars at bargain prices and a percentage of his profit would go to their church.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith say Brown Lincoln-Mercury discriminates against non-Christians.
A lawyer for the ACLU, Victor Glasberg, told the Federal Trade Commission this month that the policy violated equal-opportunity credit laws.
A spokesman declined to say whether the commission was investigating.
A spokesman for Mary Sue Terry, Virginia's attorney general, said the plan apparently did not violate state or local law.
Glasberg said that unless Jackson makes the same sale terms available to all, the ACLU will sue.
"Freddy Jackson figures this is a good way to mix two of the important things in his life: business and religion," said David Friedman, Virginia director of the Anti-Defamation League, which is considering a suit.
"He doesn't see that the very idea of doing business with people on the basis of their religion is repugnant."
A countersuit is threatened by the Christian Coalition, a national organization whose director, Ralph Reed, calls the attitude of the two other groups equally repugnant.
"We are sick and tired of Christians and Christian values being expunged from every area of public life," he said.
"This isn't separation of church and state; this is a private merchant."
Under Jackson's plan, a Christian who fills out a certificate naming his church and his pastor gets a set price of $600 over cost on Lincolns and $250 over cost on Mercurys. Pastors get a similar discount.
Depending on the car, 10 percent or more of the amount over cost then goes to the church of the buyer's choice.
by CNB