Financial giant Wells Fargo recently released an ad that featured a lesbian couple learning sign language to be able to communicate with a speech-impaired child they are adopting. The subtle message is that same-sex couples are just as human and caring and normal as heterosexual couples. What is not clear in the ad is the reason they are adopting is because they, as a lesbian couple, are biologically incapable of having their own children making them fundamentally different than heterosexual couples.
Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, has called for a boycott of LGBT friendly businesses and has withdrawn his ministry’s financial holdings with Wells Fargo and invested elsewhere. While I wholeheartedly agree with Franklin Graham’s stand on biblical marriage, and the threat same-sex marriage posed to our nation, I am not a fan of boycotts; here’s why.
Wells Fargo is a large financial institution and there are probably many Christians who work for them who do not agree with the company’s advertisement policies and could be adversely affected by such a boycott.
Boycotts are used by the LGBT community to bully others into complying with their demands and I do not think bullying others is the means God would have us employ to accomplish His purposes. Godly goals should be pursued with Godly means; otherwise we are no different than them. Besides, outward compliance is not always indicative of an inward change, which should be our goal.
Also, it would be impractical to vet every company that provides a service or product to determine whether or not they are LGBT friendly resulting in possibly unfair and biased boycotts.
The boycotts themselves are seldom effective. Several years ago a company that manufactures a number of health and household cleaning products was targeted by Christian leaders to be boycotted, because the family that owned the company was rumored to be involved in satanic worship and practices. The rumor turned out to be a complete hoax. That company continued and still flourishes financially today.
Wells Fargo’s advertising policies are merely a reflection and symptom of the spiritual condition of our culture; it is just responding to the culture.
Franklin’s father, Billy Graham, said, “The central issues of our time aren’t economic or political or social, important as these are. The central issues of our time are spiritual and moral.” Spiritual battles will not be waged and won in the boardrooms of corporate America, but in our prayer rooms.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses,” 2 Corinthians 10:3-4. Our weapons against the spiritual stronghold of same-sex marriage that has gripped our nation are the proclamation of the Gospel and prayer; anything less courts defeat. Our goal is not to merely change the advertising practices of a company, but to win the hearts and minds of our family, friends and fellow Americans.
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