A perfect mash of moral confusion

Cross-dressing and witchcraft are fine. Buy our product.

This summarizes the message of a recent Twix commercial in which a boy in a dress and his witch babysitter stand up against traditional social conventions, chasing away a bully in a superhero cape. The commercial is intentionally controversial, enjoying its five minutes of fame in various headlines. It all proves that we are living in a bizarre chapter of history. Who would have guessed that heavy-handed social messaging would be employed to advertise for a candy bar? In other words, what hath candy bars to do with witches and transgenderism?

The commercial targets one demographic for vilification and ridicule: moral traditionalists, particularly conservative Christians. At this point, orthodox Christians have learned to expect these social punch-downs. Religiously motivated villains crowd the screen; religiously motivated heroes that exhibit true piety and orthodox doctrine are significantly harder to find. While several incensed outlets and commentators have expressed their frustration and anger at this latest celebration of trans identity and dark supernatural power, many other Christians have simply rolled their eyes. We are now accustomed to this banal spectacle. Yes, cross-dressing is wrong, as is witchcraft. Christians rooted in the Scriptures know this. But, in the wider scheme of things, candy bars prove unimportant and superficial. But this is not really about candy bars—it is about further cultural decay. It is also about iconic American industries jettisoning all semblances of Christian social order and believing they will be rewarded for doing so.

In reality, this commercial is a symptom of much deeper problems. Modern culture is profoundly confused about sex, personhood, identity, virtue, and the self. The makers of Twix were not the first to celebrate cross-dressing or witchcraft. Institutions and influencers of culture with significantly more sway and power have already done that, which is why a candy company thinks it is a good idea to celebrate these transgressions in a short advertisement. If Christians really want to change things, they need to address matters significantly upstream from the advertising industry.

Large corporations like Mars Inc. only run commercials like this if they think it will benefit them. They calculate that repelling conservative Christians with such advertising will not cost them that much; they are aiming to benefit in brand loyalty and social approval from a largely progressive demographic. They risk their present and bank their future on a certain view of the world—one that straightforwardly rejects biblical morality.

In other words, corporate America has more than one kind of worldview problem. The most apparent kind has to do with embracing the lies of the Sexual Revolution, as well as playing around with dangerous supernatural realities they neither understand nor respect. But the other kind has to do with a naïve “just-so” history of inevitable progressivism. Corporate boards and advertising agencies rarely consider that they may be the laughingstock of a future generation. They can hardly conceive the prospect that their grandchildren or great-grandchildren could hold them in derision for celebrating degeneracy and the demonic. They cannot imagine that there could be a Sexual Counter-Revolution, where sanity and respect for nature (particularly human nature) come roaring back with a vengeance. 

Sane people and generations look back on Roman gladiatorial games with rightful disgust. It is doubtful that many Christians in the first centuries after Christ’s birth could envision that such a transformation in morals and social stigma could ever come to pass. But history is full of surprises, both bad and good. Many years of faithful preaching, widespread conversions to Christianity, and even great sacrifice were involved in ending the circuses, but they did eventually come to an end. Patient faithfulness rather than despair is the key. In the future, we should hope that advertisements about cross-dressing and witches will be seen as blasphemous, shameful, and irrational. It seems that corporate leaders have a hard time imagining that turn of events. Christians must not suffer the same failure of imagination.