I have had problems for over a decade with the Knights of Columbus repeatedly attempting to sell me their insurance (and fund their anti-abortion and theocratic mission) after repeated requests to remove me from contact lists that I never requested to be on.
Stress on the word "repeatedly" and "never requested."
While I was (very, very) briefly a member, I realized extremely quickly that despite its origins, the KofC is far more interested in working against abortion access (as opposed to wanting to reduce the number of abortions). I had my membership terminated shortly thereafter.
And yet I keep getting added to email lists from their agents without any action on my part. Let’s call it "zero-opt-in."
And that, my friends, is absolutely horrific marketing, existing on the same ethical level as all other email spam.
So if you ever feel tempted to add someone to an email list (or social media group) without getting at least single opt-in, I want you to remember my reaction here, and to reconsider your actions.
(Also, I’m kind of hoping that posting this publicly will finally result in the KofC never contacting me again, which is what I wanted twelve years ago).
Dear Knights of Columbus agent Peter C. Holm,
Thank you for your unsolicited commercial e-mail and your unsolicited addition of me to your mailing list.
I say that sarcastically.
I do not know where you obtained my contact information as being appropriate to add to this list; my membership was officially terminated by Supreme in 2011. I have repeatedly told agents — including Pat Flynn in 2011 and Jason C. Staas in 2014 — to not contact me, to remove my name and contact information from any maintained lists of contacts, and to add me to any do-not-contact lists that the Knights of Columbus might maintain.
I almost immediately left the KofC after joining — despite its laudable initial goals of caring for others — because it only took two meetings to make it obvious that the Knights of Columbus is a far-right anti-abortion group actively working towards a more theocratic state. That trend has, sadly, continued in the decade since, as retired priest Father Peter Daly documented in the National Catholic Reporter in 2020.
The actions of the Knights of Columbus — including their part in injecting God into the political sphere (counter to Matthew 22:20-22) from the 1950’s onward — are no small part of what drove me from Catholicism.
Your actions — and the nauseatingly holier-than-thou attitude of some of your websites (go read Matthew 6:5 again and really think about how you’re coming across) — have just served to remind me why I made that decision long ago.
However, aside from any political or religious disagreement that I may have with the Knights of Columbus (and I have plenty), I have — without exception — had KofC agents repeatedly add me to their email lists without my consent.
Although this decade-old article from MailChimp — who, you’d think, would know something about the effectiveness of email marketing — discusses the benefits of using double-opt-in instead of single-opt-in for one’s email list, it does not bother to even mention the effectiveness of zero opt-in.
You know why?
Because you get reactions like this one.
Therefore, I have made a donation in YOUR name, Peter C. Holm of New Carlisle, to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.
I will make an additional donation to these groups — again, in your name — with every email I get from you that is not solely noting that I have been removed from your mailing list and have been added to any "do not contact" lists that the KofC maintains.
This response is also being posted publicly, as will any further responses engendered by any response from you or the KofC other than acknowledging my requests to be removed from any and all mailing lists and being placed on the KofC’s "do not contact" lists.
Featured Image by talha khalil from Pixabay