I am not a big fan of boycotts. I also don’t like to give my money to businesses that deliberately work in opposition to my faith. With all the craziness going on these days, it can be a tough thing to reconcile these two positions, as more and more businesses seem to openly, and deliberately, support anti-Christian beliefs.
Recently, the state of North Carolina passed a transgender law which stated people must use the bathroom associated with their biological sex. This kind of legislation became necessary because people of a certain political persuasion began passing ordinances and regulations which allowed men to go into women’s restrooms and vice versa. Those who think this kind of social engineering is insanity naturally pushed back.
PayPal responded by withdrawing a plan to open a new operation center in the state. They stated, “The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture.” Even just a few years ago, a statement like that would be a total shock to virtually everyone in the country, and a death knell to the business. Now, in some circles, that belief is the norm, and everyone who does not agree with it is considered a bigot. How is that for a turnaround?
What is even worse, it is not merely a matter of my values contradicting theirs. I don’t have any problem interacting with people who hold different values than my own. I can respect them (not to be confused with agreement) if they will also respect me. But what we see here is not just a conflict of values. PayPal has moved to actively punish people who hold my values. In other words, they hate my beliefs so badly, they are willing to work to punish me, and anyone who agrees with my biblical values.
As it turns out, MarketFaith Ministries has used PayPal for merchant account services on our ministry website since we put it up. Their services have been adequate for our needs up until now. But this latest corporate pronouncement makes it abundantly obvious that they hate me and all I stand for. Under those circumstances, why in the world would I want to give them my support? My preference now is to give my business to someone else who doesn’t despise me – which, by the way, is what we are now doing. We found a merchant account company (Cornerstone Payment Services) owned by Christians who have deliberately sought to help and strengthen Christian owned businesses and ministries, and we have changed over to them.
The truth is, there are a lot of companies which have expressed the same sentiment as PayPal – companies such as Target, Wells Fargo, Abercrombe and Fitch, American Express, Aetna, Coca Cola, Levi-Strauss, Ben and Jerry’s, and many others. So, I have asked myself the question: Should I boycott all businesses which promote values I find offensive?
My personal answer to this question is no – but don’t jump to any conclusions just yet. A boycott is when a person refuses to have commercial or social dealings with an organization as a punishment or a protest. Frankly, I do not have a great interest in punishing and protesting (though, I will boycott a business as a means of protest if it takes an “in your face” stand against my Christian faith – but that is generally a last resort). My motivation is entirely different. I simply don’t want to give my business to people who hate me. On the other hand, I do want to support people who support me.
Since I don’t generally promote boycotts (because I am not out to punish anyone), I don’t necessarily refuse to do business with companies whose leadership have other beliefs. That said, if I can find a company that provides the goods and services that I need, and which holds the values I hold, I will go out of my way to do business with them instead of the company that works against my values.
Worldview Beliefs of Modern Society
So, what is it exactly that has created the situation where anti-Christian beliefs have become so prominent in American society? Put simply, the foundational worldview beliefs which dominate modern American culture have changed in a way that has allowed it to happen.
Up until the last three or four decades, the worldview foundation of American culture was Christian Theism. This belief system is based on the notion that God exists, and that reality is expressed by what is taught in the Bible. With that belief structure in place, morality is understood to be based on objectively real, absolute beliefs which express what is right and wrong.
What we see now, though, is the emergence of an entirely different dominant worldview structure – one which does not acknowledge the existence of God, and which believes morality exists on a relative foundation. Based on this naturalistic worldview foundation, what used to be considered right and wrong can be changed based on the changing circumstances of society. As it relates to the transgender issue, since biblical morality has been set aside and relativism has taken its place, a large percentage of people find no reason to follow biblical teachings any more. Those who dominate the major institutions of modern society have deemed sexuality to be a social construct rather than a physiological one. Thus, any belief about sexual activity a person wants to hold is considered perfectly moral.
Of course, this naturalistic belief is not real in any sense. A person’s sexuality is an objective reality based on physical characteristics. A person is either male or female based on scientifically verifiable traits. But in a naturalistic belief system, it seems that an individual’s personal desires or perceptions can trump even physical reality – which is exactly what has happened.
Christian Worldview Beliefs Concerning Boycotting
The truth is, there is nothing particularly Christian or unchristian about boycotting. The place where the real issue lies is in the heart of the individual.
If I choose to boycott a business, I need to do it based on a sense of leading from God that he wants to use me in that capacity. But even then, it is essential not to do it for the purpose of hurting someone (or a business), but as a means of witness – all the while showing love to the individuals who are on the other side.
If I choose not to boycott a business, I also need to do it based on a sense that God is leading me in that way, and that he wants to use me in that capacity. At the same time, that decision cannot simply be a means of copping out of the debate. It must also be a means of witness.
Our purpose as Christians, before God, is not to create particular earthly circumstances. This, though, is not meant to minimize the importance of having a positive effect on temporal conditions. The circumstances which exist in society have a profound effect on our ability, as followers of Jesus Christ, to express our faith in the world. They also create an environment which makes it easier or more difficult for people to see and turn to Christ. Still, generating change in that arena is not our purpose. Our purpose is to share Christ with a desperately lost world. Our efforts to impact the world, and the moral effects of those efforts, are merely the natural side-effect of accomplishing our real purpose.
I choose not to boycott – though there are businesses I will deliberately avoid. Rather, I choose to seek out businesses that honor God, and which express a witness for him in the world. I want my actions to be positive and purposeful, not negative and reactive. At the same time, I will speak out to explain the reason for my decision in order to express a witness for Christ. In that, I am able to accomplish my own calling out in the world – to share Christ with those who need him.
© 2016 Freddy Davis
What an interesting if not twisted way of looking at the Bible and at the Christian faith. I am a Christian, I hold the Bible as authoritative, and I love the Way of Jesus, but I can find nothing which justifies equating faith in Christ with sex-based bias. You make it sound as if Jesus is obsessed with human genitals. Your “Christian” moral values sound like a thin veneer for justifying personal bias and discomfort with differences. I don’t see Jesus being uncomfortable with any human differences and calls us to break barriers. I appreciate that you choose not to boycott and that you’ll find other ways to witness, but it’s a strange convoluted way of getting there. I don’t see the face of Jesus in it.
I am trying to figure out what you consider to be twisted. Acknowledging the natural differences between men and women while looking to not only protect women from predators, but seeking to maintain a biblical view of sexuality in general does not seem to me to be twisted at all. In fact, your dismissal of human sexuality as something that has no moral underpinning, as well as your own unbiblical personal bias and insensitivity to people’s natural modesty is rather appalling. What kind of barriers are you suggesting need to be broken? What in the world do you find moral about men and women intruding on each others privacy? If anything is convoluted, it seems to be your assertions. There is nothing Christian or biblical in what you have written.