Should Christians Boycott Businesses and Organizations That Promote Pride Month?

If you’d like to learn more about what the Bible has to say about the things discussed in this episode, consider listening to the following sermons, exposited by Dr. Caldwell:

Children of the Light - Part 2: https://youtu.be/_hbIt8aASHA
Children of the Light - Part 3: https://youtu.be/BGPRWzW749Y
One Ambition: To Please Christ: https://youtu.be/i6E4ggezIwc
Discernment for Chaotic Times - Part 1: https://youtu.be/yG2FQ4NKJ4w
Discernment for Chaotic Times - Part 2 https://youtu.be/Eb8Wr662g2U
Walking In Wisdom - Part 1: https://youtu.be/swsUTh3ecec
Walking In Wisdom - Part 2: https://youtu.be/v5E90SOLwiI

During June in the United States, there is an ongoing month-long celebration known as Pride Month. This means that wherever you turn, it's highly likely that you'll be inundated with LGBTQ+ pride flags, in-your-face advertisements, pride paraphernalia, special events, and even pride parades. As Christians watch these things going on, we see more and more businesses and organizations endorsing and supporting these ideologies that are contradictory to our beliefs. The Bible gives us clear instructions on how to respond to the wrong thinking, understanding, and living choices of those who are caught up and believe these things. But where do we draw the line on things we engage with, like places we go, stores where we shop, programs and shows we watch, etc.? What is the best way to navigate our way through them? Join Dr. Richard Caldwell and host Dr. Josh Philpott on this episode of the Straight Truth Podcast as they delve into some of the complexities believers face in this rapidly morally declining society. They seek to provide biblical insight into how to balance our convictions over choices we make as we seek to stand firm in our faith while also seeking to remain as salt and light to those in need of God’s saving grace.

Dr. Caldwell reminds us that when the Apostle Paul, through the Holy Spirit, exhorts believers not to have anything to do with those people who are participating in the sinful behaviors he lists in 1 Corinthians 5, he makes it clear that he is speaking about those who are professing believers. Paul is talking about so-called believers, those who say they are believers yet go on living their lives in unrepentant sin. He doesn’t mean that we are to separate from just anyone who is living in these kinds of ways. If that were the case, we would have to go out of the world because the world is full of sinful behaviors, ideas, philosophies, choices, and decisions. The world will always be full of these kinds of things that grieve the hearts of believers.

Having shared this, Dr. Caldwell believes that the best way he can be helpful to believers in navigating the choices and decisions they will need to make regarding these things is to share how he walks through them on his own. He shares that first, for his own conscience's sake, he thinks about where he can go and what he can do and participate in, not what others should or shouldn't. He doesn’t believe that we should sit in judgment of one another about what we boycott and what we do not. It’s all over the place, being culture-wide and worldwide, so we won’t be able to boycott or avoid every place and thing. But for him and his conscience, when a business begins to do these things in a way that is in your face with no concerns for the beliefs of others and blatantly pushing their celebration of sin to the extremes, he decides to no longer frequent that establishment. Target, he shares, is an example of one of those extremes. Yet he also realizes that just because he chooses to no longer frequent Target, it doesn’t mean that down the road at other businesses and organizations that he might go to, like Exxon, McDonald's, and so forth, there won't be these same connections with the LGBTQ+. He sees the whole culture headed this way unless the Lord has mercy and some great awakening occurs. So there's no way we will be able to boycott it all. The way he thinks through each choice is he considers what convicts his conscience, what goes too far, and what things and places exhibit blatant expressions of offense towards the things he believes in. And that’s how he chooses to work through these tough decisions.

Dr. Philpot says that he sees that avoiding and boycotting certain places isn’t necessarily a black-and-white issue. This, he shares, gets to Ephesians 5, where Paul exhorts Christians to walk as children of light, the fruit of light being found in all that is good, right, and true, and that we're to be about discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. So there's a sense of discernment needing to take place as we seek to do what is most pleasing to the Lord as our consciences allow, being based on good biblical principles as we make our decisions about these things.