Why I Frequent Pagan Businesses that Support Causes I Disagree With

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My house guest for the week got a frown on his face. “I’m sorry, I don’t shop here. They support…”

He had been helping me with a DIY project at home. But when I needed something from Home Depot and invited him to come along without mentioning where I was going, I discovered upon my arrival that he was boycotting the store because they support a cause that runs counter to Christianity.

“Okay,” I said, “You can stay here in the car while I go get the part I need.”

I quickly got out and left him stewing. Obviously, he expected me to support him and find a different store.

I come across this from time to time: Christians who, out of personal conviction, feel the need to boycott certain businesses and organizations. I applaud them for taking concrete action on their convictions. But the problem I have is when these believers expect me to always do the same.

Take, for example, the comment I got on my “Lose the Weight” post last Wednesday.¹ I facetiously included a picture of a Starbucks coffee cup and brownie, because “that’s what I was eating and drinking” when I wrote the post. It was intended to illustrate in a humorous way the internal struggle we all deal with when it comes to dieting.

Unfortunately, one reader took offense.

“Can you find a different coffee vendor to promote? One that does not contribute to abortion providers and anti-Christian organizations?” he wrote.

Now I don’t know if this assertion about the causes Starbucks supports is factually true or not. I’m thinking that it probably is. But even if it is, I have three problems with this comment.

First of all, scripture makes it clear that if we’re going to insist that every business – and every non-Christian, for that matter – agree with us on every ethical point or else we’re going to disassociate ourselves from them, then we simply will not be able to function in society. Here is what Paul says on the matter:

“I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”²

In other words, if we’re going to boycott anyone, it should be fellow believers who blatantly and willfully disobey scripture, not non-Christians and their businesses.

The second problem I have with that comment about Starbucks is that it doesn’t allow for variation in our personal convictions. Scripture makes it clear that when it comes to matters of personal conviction among believers, there are going to be differences and we are to accept that fact.

Believers in the New Testament had disagreements about what was the proper day of the week to worship the Lord on and whether or not believers should eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols at heathen temples. Here’s what Paul said about these differences in conviction:

“One man regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes a special day does so to the Lord; he who eats [meat sacrificed to idols] does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains [from meat sacrificed to idols] does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.”³

So when it comes to matters of conscience, we are to allow for disagreement and not insist that everyone else conform to our convictions.

And finally, my third problem with this comment is that Christian boycotts simply don’t work and may be even counter productive. I’m not saying that boycotts don’t work, because they can and have worked. I’m saying that Christian boycotts, or boycotts that are perceived in the general population as Christian boycotts, don’t work.

The reason Christian boycotts don’t work is because all boycotts are an expression of power and force, and Christianity is not about power and force. In this fallen world, power corrupts, as even lizards on the ivy-clad walls of every ivy league college in America know. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.

No, Christianity is about persuasion and conviction. It’s about creating a general environment where Christian assumptions flourish – even if just subconsciously among non-believers – because non-believers are witnessing the beauty of holiness, the efficacy of Christ’s love, and the intellectual implications of redeemed minds being lived out among us Christians.

“Wow! That is so cool. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before,” said the barista at Starbucks the other day when she asked what I did. She never would have learned about how the love of Christ is motivating thousands of men to serve widows and single moms across America had I been boycotting the store.

And that would have been very sad.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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1. “Lose the Weight, Because Healthy Men Make Fewer Widows and Single Moms“
2. 1 Corinthians 5:10-11, New International Version
3. Romans 14:5-6, New International Version