I Am Boycotting Your Boycott!!!

OK, I am, at least for now and after thought and prayer, rescinding my blogging  hiatus.  Here I go again…

I found our recently that some focus on the family kind of group sent out an email encouraging Christians not to buy Pepsi products because Pepsi supports gay rights.  All this is probably old news in some denominational circles. After giving this issue some time to percolate, here are some thoughts on Pepsi and boycotts.

• Do we need to come up with a WWJD (what would Jesus drink) bracelet? But that might lead people to abandon Pepsi for wine!!! Irony….

• Is there a list of approved beverages? Can someone point me to a sinless company from which to buy my sodas?

• Does the advancement of the Kingdom really come about due to boycotting the consumer products of the world?

• Related to the previous bullet point, so what if we get everyone to behave nicely and quit with all those outward expressions of sexual immorality. Do we do the world a favor by forcing the Law on them without also pointing them to Grace? I think Satan would be quite happy, quite satisfied, if the gay people quit being gay and the adulterers quit adulterating and the drunks quit drinking as long as they think they are being ‘righteous’ by their own efforts.

• I assert without ambiguity that marriage is to be between a man and a woman. I also declare abortion is wrong; it is a holocaust. So, our government condones and supports partial-birth abortions. It is easy, it is without cost, to refrain from drinking Pepsi and send them them emails explaining your moral outrage. Now, put your money where your mouth is. The United States of America collects taxes, some of which goes to funding legal partial-birth abortions. If you think the dyslexic sexuality (I wish I could remember who came up with that description) of gay people is bad, how much worse is infanticide? Quit paying your taxes and boycott a country that funds killing babies if you think boycotts are the way the Kingdom is grown. (I hear crickets chirping.) “But I have to pay taxes” you say. No you don’t. You will go to jail if you don’t. It will cost you and your family unlike switching from Pepsi to Coke and sending Pepsi a few emails. So, do your really think boycotts are the way to go out into the world with the Good News to the glory of the Triune God?

• Do you think gay people going to be redeemed by Christ and change their orientation due to your boycott?

• Are there non-gay people, even some Christians, working for Pepsi that may lose their job if your boycott actually takes a substantial toll on Pepsi’s income-earning potential?

• Does not these boycotts sound a bit like the tactics of Islam Lite? “Conform to our moral codes or suffer the consequences!!” “Say ‘Merry Christmas’ during the holidays or we will take our business elsewhere!!!” So, if people do change there behaviors and marketing practices due to your boycotts, does it really reflect a change of heart or is it more due to a desire not to lose your Christian dollars?

• Do boycotts really reflect the call to be salt, to be a light on a hill?

• That all being said, if you desire on some personal level to refrain from drinking Pepsi because of their politics, I think that is quite OK and honestly admirable. Many years ago, I decided not to buy Hitachi stereo equipment because they sold the Soviets equipment that made Soviet submarines more difficult to detect. As an aside, and if memory serves, the president of Hitachi later killed himself. I hope there was no cause and effect.