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Culture Watch:Are Boycotts Biblical?
by Lee Warren (Lee's bio)
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With corporate takeovers and mergers happening faster than you can say AOL Time Warner, it's getting easier and easier to find fault with the business practices of these conglomerates. And with questionable business practices come boycotts from Christians.
I've participated in several of them over the years. When I found out that that the major long distance telephone companies were pumping money into the homosexual movement, I chose a long distance company that was openly pro-family.
When I heard that Christians were boycotting goods imported from China several years ago, I gladly joined that cause. The thought of Christians (and many other innocent citizens) being forced to make cheap goods for pennies a day repulsed me.
When the Southern Baptists called for a boycott of Disney in 1997 because they hosted a “Gay and Lesbian Day at Walt Disney World” in Florida, I participated in the boycott—or at least attempted to. But this boycott started to make me wonder about whether boycotts were even possible given the nature of corporate mergers.
Disney owns the following movie making companies: Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Caravan and Miramax Films. They own ABC, ESPN, A & E Network, the Disney Channel and the Lifetime Television Network. They own sports teams, publishing companies, a record company, radio stations, magazines, newspapers, trade publications and of course, two theme parks. Those were just the associations I knew about. Forget about the ones I didn't.
Up until the Disney boycott, the biblical justification for boycotts in my mind was 1 Thessalonians 5:22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” It seemed like a simple enough command. But how was that was even possible with a situation like Disney without at least violating the boycott accidentally?
Recently, the Apostle Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 8:4 challenged my position on boycotts: “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.” Paul's conclusion in verse 8 convinced me that my position on boycotts was wrong: “But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.”
Certainly Paul didn't contradict himself with when he wrote 1 Thessalonians 5:22 and 1 Corinthians 8:8. So, letting scripture interpret scripture, we have to conclude that eating meat sacrificed to idols is not evil—nor does it even appear evil. We know that the practice of idol worship is/was an abomination to God and a violation of the second commandment. But the abomination was committed by somebody other than the purchaser and consumer of the meat, therefore his actions weren't wrong.
Isn't that what is going on regarding situations like Disney? Disney is wrong and they are responsible before God for their actions. The question is, are individual believers wrong to use their products? If so, wouldn't we be in sin if we did business with ANY company or organization with immoral business practices and how would we ever be able to purchase anything without carrying enormous lists around telling us who the offending companies were? Do the scriptures advocate such actions?
I wonder if we haven't confused biblical commands to not associate with unrepentant believers steeped in sin (e.g. 1 Corinthians 5:11) with commands concerning our business practices. Paul had no problem with buying meat from a market that may or may not have been sacrificed to idols, but he had a big problem with believers associating with other believers who wouldn't repent of their sin.
I certainly understand individual believers making the choice not to do business with a company based on a company's actions. These Christians simply don't want to help fund policies that they disagree with. Those are choices that each believer needs to determine in his own heart. But I can't help but wonder if we aren't going “beyond what is written” (I Corinthians 4:6) by calling for boycotts.
Copyright 2002, Lee Warren. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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About Lee Warren: Lee Warren is a freelance writer from Omaha, Nebraska. He has written for various publications and is currently working on a novel. If you are interested in reading more of his work or in receiving his column via e-mail, please go to his website: www.leewarrenjr.com or drop him an e-mail: LeeWJunior@cox.net.
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