When Is It Taking A Stand?

Have you ever 'boycotted' anything?  What did you do?  Did you sign a petition? Maybe you marched?  How did they know you were 'boycotting'?  I know in the case of a retailer or product the hoped for result is that their sales will decline and they will see 'the error of their ways'.  Some folks make a big deal out of boycotting things.


For me the jury is out on the real results on that.  Not don't get me wrong, I've seen TV shows that had no business being on the air pulled because the advertisers were scared away by a boycott of their products.  And we saw a TV network and some other businesses do the exact opposite when folks boycotted to get a show returned so you can see results.


But often it is, I'm not going to shop 'store X' because they do this, which that means you will probably shop 'store Y' that if you researched might do worse, 'store X' just got the spot light put on them. The fact is if Christians boycotted every business and product that the company did 'anti-Christian' things, in today's world we would probably being living on a farm, growing our own food and have no connection with the outside world (tv, internet, cell phone, pad, etc) with an occasional CookOut or Chick-fil-a..


So how do you pick and choose what you boycott?  How do you decide 'this one is the one I'm going to pick out?   That is a serious question, not just thrown out there for a joke, yet if we look at it carefully, it is sadly funny.  Sad because there are very few companies that even care about real Biblical standards let alone adhere to them.  Funny because picking one or two is almost hypocritical.


Now I'm not saying if you boycott you are wrong, I'm just asking if that is the best way to handle the situation.  Did God call us to call out the lost on their individual sins or are we to show His love and grace and tell them that all sin is wrong so we aren't going to pick and choose the ones that upset us the most.  I don't know the right answer here.  This is more of a 'we know we should do something but how do we do something that counts' blog with answers needed, not given.


If we, as Christians, lived our lives with more conviction, faith and trust instead of condemnation, would there be more coming to desire what we have? 


Now if by boycott, you mean you will not watch a show that trivializes God or makes fun of Him, well in truth as a Christian, we should not have thought about watching it, so it really isn't a boycott is it?  Doesn't the very point of boycott mean to not do something that you were doing?  So in some cases I think we are using the wrong words, but then boycott sounds better than 'refuse to let that trash in my house' I guess.  Again just my thoughts, I'd like to hear yours!