This FAQ is based on information in the early 1990's.  It appears that
the legend is going around again, this time with a different host in
place of Phil Donahue.  I still don't believe it.  The wording is too
close to the previous two versions, and it still is impossible that a
major corporation would give a significant portion of its income to
any church, whether Christian or Satanist.  There are laws requiring
corporations to manage the companies for the benefits of the
stockholders.

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This is a classic example of a Christian "urban legend".  (Actually I
think calling it this is being charitable, as you'll see shortly.)  I
know more about the history of this than most people, because until a
few years ago my father was director of personnel for Procter and
Gamble.  He continues to maintain contact with upper management of the
company.  I have his personal assurance that such a thing never
happened.  I also have photocopies of documents from both P&G and
producers of the Phil Donahue show saying that no such appearance
occurred.

Finally, this story shows a serious misunderstanding of how major U.S.
corporations work.  Corporate profit is not available to the president
of a corporation to give to his favorite charity, whether Christian or
Satanist.  Any president who did what is claimed here would be
immediately ousted by the stockholders, and sued for violating his
fiduciary responsibilities.  (Of course it wouldn't get that far --
the comptroller of the corporation would prevent it from happening in
the first place.)

For some background: This story has gone around at least twice.  The
first time was about 1986, the second time 1990.  In both cases it was
apparently possible to trace the rumor to its source, which was a
competitor to P&G.  Court cases resulted, in Georgia the first time
and most recently the mid-West (Kansas?).  Note that the only thing in
the rumor that's true is a list of the products.

In fact most upper-level P&G management are active in local Christian
churches, and the churches in Cincinnati depend very heavily on P&G
staff.  When I was growing up, I knew many of them or their children,
and I'd say it would be hard to find a major company with a more
Christian management.

If you want more information, please contact the public relations
department at P&G.  I don't have the phone number here, but you can
get it from Information in Cincinnati, which is 513-555-1212.  They
have a packet of information, including documents from the producers
of Phil Donahue (where some of the claims were supposedly made),
letters from various church leaders in Cincinnati, etc.

These stories worry me.  They make Christians look like fools.  If
Christians are spreading as fact things that can easily be shown to be
false, it makes people wonder about the truth of other things we say.
I would appreciate it if you would do everything you can to stop the
spread of this story.  It's been going around in church newsletters
for years.  It seems impossible to stamp out, even though any attempt
to check it would show that it's false.

Note that the fact that it has apparently concrete information is no
guarantee of accuracy.  Recall the yearly story that someone has
petitioned the FCC to prohibit Christian broadcasts, complete with an
FCC petition number, completely bogus.