When Did I Become an Alarmist?

I don't know the answer to that question, but somehow, I have. I am determined to stop it. In the meantime, however, I am going to keep paying attention to essays like this, which should be posted over at the Balcony View blog also. However, because I thought this was so good, I'll post it in its entirety here.

Should Christians Boycott? If I gathered a true sense from you, the answer is no. We should engage and we should pray -- communicating love rather than hostility.

First off, you're example was a bit of a straw man (not to mention incomplete. See attached article). Of course boycotting a business for 1 quote out of a multitude is silly. Here are some harder examples:

* Company A is an avid supporter of homosexual groups, who in turn use their funds to wage an active campaign to promote GLBT-friendly curriculum in the public schools systems.
* Company B has an active policy of discrimination towards Christians, punishing those foolish enough to reveal their faith and using their profits to contribute solely to those politicians or organizations hostile to Christianity.
* Company C demands a "diversity-friendly workspace" and advises all employees to display tolerance paraphernalia in their cubicles. Those who do not are noted and passed over for promotion or even pushed out of the company.

The list goes on and on. Only an ostrich could miss the culture war that rages in America today. Is boycotting appropriate in these instances? I would say yes. Companies are not people; they are soulless entities scrabbling for financial dominance. They don't suffer from our lack of love. When their profits are employed as a political weapon against us, it makes no sense to continue arming the opposition. We can love and pray for sinners while still joining battle on the wider field.

The problem that I have with a lot of christians is that they say things like "God and politics don't mix." "You can't legislate Christianity." (I know you said that one today...sorry) Yes, it is true that you cannot legislate Christianity, but the implication left when this statement is made is that a nation's heart cannot be steered from the political arena. While I would agree that laws, alone, will never turn the hearts of a nation's people back to God, they most certainly can and have been used to lead the nation away from Him. That is why we must also engage the fight in the public square.

The criticism that was leveled against the Republicans when they took control of Congress in 94 was that they had been in the minority for so long that they didn't know how to lead -- the Democrats still sounded like they were in charge. It was true. I think that the same dynamic is evident in how Christians approach the culture war. We've lost something mentally. The alternately shrill or conciliatory tone in our voices proclaims louder than any statistic the fact that we have been
marginalized and we know it. We have been cowed into submission like a lion in the circus ring, scared by the cracking whip of liberal scorn.

We cannot afford to disengage the culture. We cannot retreat to some solely spiritual realm and allow a radical, God-hating minority to hijack the ship. As the head goes, so goes the body. It is no accident that the culture is growing increasingly hostile to Christianity: it has been legislated bit by bit and the culture has turned to accept it. Whether it is a frontal assault against professions of faith in the public arena, or it is an oblique attack against Judeo-Christian values, we are in a battle
over what our name will be as a nation.

A boycott is a way of giving a reality check to those at the helm of a company who have taken sides -- who are using their visibility, resources, and influence to push the limits of the tolerable. We've made enough room. We've tolerated enough. We're going to "tolerate" ourselves right into the closet. We must fight back. Yes, first and foremost we must love our neighbor and show Jesus to the world, but if you were to see bandits waylaying a traveller, would you not fight them off? That, too, would be an act of love. We are at war, and the bandits have waylaid our culture. The devil is winning because we do not know how to fight. We've allowed the enemy to set the rules of engagement, and they've told us that swords, for us, are out of the question. When sickness spreads in a human body, a family, a church, a community, or a nation, it must be cut out before healing can take place.

It is no accident that homosexuality is the first issue which pops to mind when Christians think in battlefield terms. I believe that the radical gay agenda is the tip of the spear that the devil seeks to drive into the heart of the church. With it, he has the perfect weapon to undermine the entire religion.

I'll explain myself: Always before, the Church has held the moral high ground (and by "the church" I mean the Bible). We have confronted sin and conscience has verified our superiority. There have been no persuasive challenges against the rightness of scripture and therefore the goodness of God -- man has not, in his mind, been able to peek behind the curtain
and discover the whole thing to be an invention. If we were able to see a flaw in God -- or more rightly put, the evidence of man's fingerprints upon God -- it would undermine our belief as surely as most rational people do not suppose that the Gods of Olympus might really exist.

Well, think on this for a minute: what if the Bible clearly indicated that blacks should be enslaved and treated as they were prior to the Civil War? The religion would have survived while prejudice remained, but by this current generation, the only remaining Christians would be in the KKK. Why? Becasue that seed of evil discovered in the midst of the Bible's goodness would have shown the whole business to be a construct of man and unworthy of belief. Any form of Christianity that remained in the mainstream would be drastically amended, and it seems hard to believe that its adherents could truly believe in a worthy God who had just suffered their enlightened updates.

The gay movement today fights for the moral high ground, and by our silence, we concede it. They not only say that their lifestyle is right and good, but they accuse us of sin and evil by opposing it. Our intolerance causes them pain. The consciences of good people are slowly being seared to accept this view as correct because we offer no defense --
becasue we are scared to respond in love with the truth. We've lost our moral confidence, and we have decided that that particular breach in the wall is too daunting so we should rather defend the more secure positions. What insanity! We don't see the repercussions of our decision. What credible appeal can we make to the authority of scripture in any matter of
sexual purity once we have truly lost this battle? The enemy of the gay movement is guilt, and they champion all who feel it. Pick a sexual perversion. Pick a "lifestyle" choice. They all suffer under the oppression of our puritanical rigidity and condemnation. Once this last rampart has been truly smashed, how does Christianity retain any credibility whatsoever?

It doesn't stop there, though. We all support the "war on terror." We all recognize that radical Islam is a threat and must be rooted out. Fundamental extremism is a dangerous thing -- these people hate us just becasue we are different than they are. Give it a generation. Let hate-crime legislation pass unprotested. Let gay activists set the curriculum in our elementary schools. Let the church continue to relinquish its moral authority. Bible-believing Christians will be the next target in the "war on terror," and they will find no sympathy in the mainstream culture.

Yes, it's likely that the battle is already lost, but does that give us permission to run from the field. Many Americans do still believe in biblical morality. What we have lost is our voice in the public discourse. We have been shut out, and we have been told that we are a dying few. So, the many start to lose heart and begin to flirt with compromise. How invigorating was it, though, to hear Bush call for a constitutional amendment to defend marriage and to see the overwhelming support for its defense? It gave back a little hope that maybe Hollywood and the fashionable elite don't truly speak for all of us.

A boycott is a way to be heard when your voice has been effectively silenced elsewhere. It's economic weapon may be crude, but it is effective. It makes a statement far beyond the ears of its economic target. It provides confidence to those who speak its message in the public arena and it gives pause to those PC-followers who are always looking for the next bandwagon. Yes, a nation's heart will not be changed by a boycott, but it may just be preserved for a little longer yet; and in
that time, maybe more will be reached for the Gospel.

On a brighter note, God's in charge of it all...