Doing business with those celebrating sin

I read a story several years ago about a family who decided to stop buying products made in China for a year. The mother, a journalist, said she’d noticed how China had taken over the manufacturing of consumer goods in the United States. Not only was it difficult to avoid such products, the non-China things the family did buy cost more money.

I recalled this story when I read that Burger King recently sold “The Proud Whopper” to promote homosexuality. The motto for the short-run campaign, which was limited to one restaurant in San Francisco, was, “We are all the same inside.” I don’t eat at Burger King, but I began to wonder about other companies and services I patronize and use that actively promote the gay agenda. For example, I like Starbucks, and the coffee company supports redefining marriage to include two people of the same sex as a “core“ value.

I’ve shopped at Target, and that retailer featured an advertisement of two men with foreheads touching and holding hands. Retailers like Amazon.com—where I spend money at least once a week—and J.C. Penney and services like PayPal and Google all support the “right” of two men or two women to call themselves married.

It’s one thing if an owner personally supports and celebrates sin; it’s another if the celebration is practically part of the business’s brand. What, if anything, should Christians do about it? We could stop shopping at these stores and using these services for a year. We could start a back-to-nature movement where we grow and hunt for our own food and make our clothes. But we’d also have to do without gadgets and the internet. There’s no practical way around it, is there?

We work with sinners, buy from sinners, sell to sinners—and we are sinners. Although, as believers, we are redeemed, we inhabit fallen bodies in a fallen world. Is there any real difference in God’s eyes whether we buy from an unsaved business owner who openly supports the redefinition of marriage or an unsaved business owner who opposes it?

The apostle Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians not to be unequally yoked with the unbeliever, but this pertains to marriage and any “spiritual enterprise or relationship,” as John MacArthur writes in his study Bible. Buying from (or selling to) unbelievers doesn’t constitute a spiritual enterprise. But it’s not a good feeling buying from businesses that celebrate sin.

It’s distressing to see a tiny percent of the population wielding the power to change society for the worst. It’s not unbiblical to stop buying from companies that rally behind the cause; it’s a personal decision that could ease the conscience and influence other Christians to do the same. One thing we definitely can do fervently and often is pray for repentance and revival in this country.

We know prayer is powerful. God delights in the prayers of the upright. We can ask Him to remove our anger or sadness or hopelessness. We already know we can and should rely on Him. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of His power and His plan.