Incomplete Loves

By James Robison

Beth Moore, a wonderful friend and teacher on our television program, LIFE Today, has a Border collie named Star. She describes the cherished pet as her “best buddy” and relates a story to illustrate an insightful biblical truth.
Since Beth’s ministry has its own office building, Beth frequently takes Star to work with her. This breed is prone to substantial obsessive-compulsive issues, so they tend to fixate on their owner. In a very real way, Beth “completes” Star. The collie stares at her all the time. She sleeps where she sees Beth as soon as she opens her eyes. She puts her head down and tries to herd Beth so that she will go where Star desires. When she accompanies her owner to work, Star stares at Beth all day while she’s working.
Beth’s coworkers love Star and consider her the staff mascot. But once, when Beth had to leave the office for a few hours, her staff had some difficulty in babysitting the dog. After Beth left, they brought Star to the floor where the whole administrative team works. Star went from office to office, greeting everyone (or perhaps looking for Beth), then began to whine. Nobody could calm or quiet the dog. As Star became more distraught, they became more desperate. Finally, they tried playing a DVD of Beth teaching. It worked! When Beth returned, Star was still fixated on the television screen, watching her master’s every move.
That humorous illustration provides insight into human relationships. One of our biggest frustrations in life comes from the incomplete love we experience when we pin our hopes for fulfillment on people, experiences, or things. An incomplete love almost fulfills us, but still leaves us yearning for more. These incomplete loves are wonderful gifts from God, but nothing on this planet can truly complete us.
Receiving support from others during difficult times is very healthy. We need it for comfort, affirmation and, occasionally, healing. This “fellowship of suffering” is a beautiful thing because it connects us with others who have experienced the same sort of pain. You get to know someone well enough that you feel like you can honestly say, “Yes, I totally get that because I’ve been through every single bit of it!”
However, if you stay close enough to that person, sooner or later you will come to a place of disappointment and departure. You may feel alone at this point because you thought you had found someone who completely understood you. Then you begin to realize that he or she can’t go there with you 100% because you’re processing everything through your own personal history. Only you grew up in your family and felt what you felt and experienced what you experienced.
The Bible says, “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.... But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence" (Jeremiah 17:5, 7).
Many animals are herd animals. Gazelles on the African plain stick together. Canadian Geese migrate back and forth together from season to season. Sheep, cattle, and horses find a level of safety, direction, and comfort by sticking together. Yet all of them are still susceptible to predators. If we, as humans, stick together and rely solely on one another, we will eventually fall prey to our enemy, Satan, who always lurks nearby “as a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8, KJV). A time will ultimately come when we have to get to the place where it’s only you and I and Jesus.
Proverbs 14:10 tells us, “Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy.” Nobody else can enter into the intimacy of everything the way Jesus can. A huge part of our emotional well-being comes from reaching this place. We can let a lot of people off the hook for not being Jesus to us--for not being able to read our minds or emotions. God is the only one who truly completely “gets us” because He knows the intimate ways of our minds and hearts; He knows and has seen things that we don’t even remember. “For the Lord will go ahead of you; yes, the God of Israel will protect you from behind” (Isaiah 52:12b).
This is not to say that we detach from others. God puts people in our life so that we can journey together, shoulder to shoulder and elbow to elbow, and share experiences. Koinonia is a Greek word in the Bible that means “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” Christian fellowship is an important and necessary part of the Christian life, but it’s not simply the casual gathering of people in a church building. True fellowship is predicated upon a common belief in Jesus Christ, then enacted in an active pursuit of a common spiritual goal and bond. It is the shared experience of life as a true follower of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:1-2 says;

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Koinonia unites believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ and provides the environment to grow spiritually and fulfill God’s purpose in our life. Fellowship is a gift from God, but it is not a substitute for a one-on-one relationship with Him.
Any love outside of God is an incomplete love. Beth’s collie may find purpose through her owner, but such fulfillment is not sufficient for humans. Only God can truly satisfy.

The Decline of a Great Nation

By James Robison

 

 

President Obama or Gov. Romney, Democrats or Republicans, have never been and never will be our hope. The Lord is our hope and will offer help if we will turn to Him in humility and brokenness allowing Him to heal first our hearts and then our land. God’s own family – the church – needs to set the example in unity and wise reasoning, while visibly demonstrating how to work together so the world groping in darkness can see the power of love and truth in action. As my friend Rev. Samuel Rodriguez said, “Unless the agenda of the Lamb replaces the agenda of the donkey or the elephant, there will be no correction of our dangerous course.”
As I have repeatedly said for years now, the issue is not so much an election as it is a direction. Necessary correction for the United States of America continues and would regardless of who won Tuesday’s election. We must learn important lessons. The ever increasing pressure on a nation that has forsaken God in too many ways will intensify until in humility we fall on our knees before God or in humiliation are brought to our knees through crushing consequences, the result of forsaking God and sound biblical principles.
When expressing appreciation for the outcome of the election, President Obama rightly said that we must pull together as a family, caring for one another, and make necessary course corrections such as bringing excessive spending and debt under control. He emphasized the importance of learning how to effectively deal with our challenges and work across party lines. (This would in itself be a supernatural work.) Without a miracle of transformed thinking – the result of minds renewed by God’s love and truth – our direction will not change in a meaningful way. It requires changed people to change nations and rewrite history as only God can, through yielded believers and determined citizens.
President Obama also referenced the importance of reforming our tax code. In order to do this, people must experience renewed thinking because most Americans must be taught about the necessity and meaning of the fair tax. The President is right, however, concerning this need for reform. The economy will never be stabilized until we correct it and release the private sector to provide jobs and opportunity. Successful people must also begin expressing compassionate interest in the well-being of those who struggle, while everyone is taught the importance of assuming personal responsibility. Fatherlessness has led this present generation to erroneously seek to find a father in the federal government. There is only one Father who can give us the wisdom, guidance, and will to accomplish what is required.
I am still wondering if only a severe shaking and ultimate humiliation will be necessary before both the church and nation turn to God in genuine repentance. With God’s help and His grace, we must all be faithful witnesses and as ministers proclaim His word fearlessly and faithfully. We must continually offer hope and help to the downtrodden, overlooked, and often forgotten people here and around the world. We are commissioned by Christ to be salt and light, Spirit-filled witnesses, and makers of disciples among the nations.
Too many Americans have been trained to want someone other than God to care for them and consistently fail to truly love their neighbors as themselves. People are on the brink of trusting what the Old Testament prophets referred to as “the shadow of Egypt” (the ways of the world) and in another type of Pharaoh rather than in the shelter of the Almighty and as a result we are headed for bondage from which only God can deliver us. The Lord remains our hope.
What do we do now? We must continue to hold up the light of Christ, pray fervently, witness continually, and keep standing for the kingdom of God right here, right now.
Permit me to share a letter written with concern from Christian friends in Germany. Please consider it, pray earnestly, and perhaps pass my comments and the content of the following to others who care.

Our Dear America:

Today, Obama has been re‐elected; all the efforts of many Christian leaders, prayer movements, “prophets” and “concerned Americans” who have lobbied, written appeals, articles, books, letters ‐ some have even done films ‐ to warn not to vote for him have come to nothing. Many of them have behaved as if the future of the Kingdom of God is at stake. Well, it is not.

Can we, as foreigners who dearly love you as a people, say a few words into this situation? Because it is evident to us that God has a clear plan with your nation. But many don´t seem to see it, and therefore run the danger of fighting the wrong fight, wasting precious time and resources, and even endlessly call upon God to do what He just will not do.

The German weekly Der Spiegel, kind of a German Time Magazine, has a cover picture of Uncle Sam in bed, titled, “The American Patient: The Decline of a Great Nation.” We think this is a prophetic picture. As your friends, we know, acknowledge and admire that America has had a great past. But how will your future look like?

God chastises whom he loves because he knows: pride will come before the fall, and humbleness and brokenness is the only condition he responds to. We personally sense we need to tell you: the destiny of your nation is in God’s hands, not yours. It is not at all about Obama or Romney, it is about God using all the nations in the world according to his global and unchanging plans. Did you ever allow the thought that God in his sovereignty is using Obama like a pawn on his chessboard to humble the U.S. as a nation because he wants to show his grace to a nation gone completely self-sufficient?

A nation that is so full of independence, individualism, nationalism and trusting a greed and fear‐based economy that there may be only one way open to heal it from its idolatry and re‐align itself with the Kingdom of God: a crisis beyond anything that America has ever seen?

In 2008, God has been challenged by a man standing up in public, preaching to the cheers of a huge crowd: “Yes we can!” We watched it; we saw the tears of excitement in the eyes of the people; the statements were received as if coming from the Messiah himself, and the electoral rallies had all the flavor of a religious revival. "Yes, we can" is the exact opposite of the King of kings saying: "Without me, you can do nothing!"

If God is the one who "deposes kings and raises up others" (Dan 2:21), does it really matter what are the names of the current puppets set in place by God that advance both the New World Order and the Kingdom of God? Neither Herod, Pilate, nor Caesar were truly important for the development of the Kingdom. That is exactly why Kingdom people do not play in the Second League, but the First, the one that matters. The one that puts the Kingdom first, and everything else – including their own nation – second.

The problem of the current commotion and insecurities arises when even the people that call themselves after God keep confusing the Kingdom of God with the United States of America. And when that happens, especially through Christians with a public voice, then we have truly lost all perspective of the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the predictions he has made that will precede his coming.

America is being publicly humbled by God; and he is going to use Obama – and those after him ‐ to further advance his agenda that will lead all nations to kneel before that one true King Jesus very soon. If any nation wants to become a tower that reaches up to high heaven, it will be humbled by a God who will not share his glory with people relying on their own strength.

America, where do you go from here? What does this mean for you? The future is going to be very, very rough. Your securities will vanish, the economy will go down, the education system will become even worse, the streets more dangerous, the churches even more divided, the youth even more disillusioned – unless there is a true movement that abandons all those idols mentioned above, and radically repents, makes a radical alignment with the King of the Kingdom of God and his constitution, live the Law of Christ in all areas of life, first and foremost in the areas of sex, money, power and how we “do church”. This is a defining moment for you as a nation. You could go down, as the German journalist of Der Spiegel predicted. Or, America could be literally re‐invented by Kingdom people who are ready to implode the prevailing myths about America’s greatness, and replace it by God’s greatness. The King has even greater things purposed and would fulfill those purpose if those who call themselves after Jesus the King, would turn away from their self‐made religion, self‐made churches and religious factions, self‐made visions of success, and their self‐made, harmless God.

Can we lovingly but urgently call you back at this hour to begin and initiate a movement to reposition and repatriate yourselves into the eternal Kingdom, by submitting yourself not only in theory but also in practical deeds to Jesus the King, starting to obey the King and his liberating decrees in all the areas that count? You might even want to write a declaration of dependence on God and each other, because by idolizing anything else before and over God, you will become illegal aliens in the country that counts, where we all are called to have our home: the Kingdom, the one place where our true citizenship, nationality and allegiance lies (Phil 3:20). This is the only one country that will not be shaken, as it has an unchanging King.

If there is any way that we can help you in this great challenge and task – we want you to know we will.

Wolfgang and Mercy Simson

homeless

Philadelphia

This is a cumulation of the past few trips to Philadelphia as God's hands and feet.  We give God all the glory and are grateful to serve Him.
If your church or group is interested in starting a Survivor Bag Ministry in your town, go to
Love In A Bag for more information.  God bless you.

The Whipped Puppy
(excerpt from The God of All Creation by James Robison)

A friend of mine had a dog that had been beaten and abused as a puppy. Years later, as an adult dog, he still cowered in the corner when strangers walked in the room. If he did approach, it was always with his head down and tail between his legs.

“Is that dog ever going to get over it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” his owner replied. “I’ve done nothing but take care of him and treat him well, but he still acts like he’s being whipped.”

A lot of people are like that. They suffer through some painful situation and spend the rest of their lives unhappy and afraid. Many of them have legitimate reasons: abuse, tragedy, loss or other horrible situations. Like the tempest that rocked the boat carrying Jesus’ disciples across the Sea of Galilee, they are understandably shaken by the terrible storm. But even when the rain and waves subside, they never reach the other side.

Paul told the church in Thessalonica that his friend and co-minister Timothy was sent “to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such troubles.” (1 Thessalonians 3:2-3)

Jesus warned us that trials and tribulation will come our way. “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows,” he told his disciples. We will experience heartache, grief and perhaps great tragedy or abuse. But Jesus follows this warning with the powerful statement, “But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

James, the brother of Jesus, took our difficulties one step further. “When troubles come your way,” he wrote, “consider it an opportunity for great joy." (James 1:2)

Why would a good and loving God allow us to experience pain? And why would He expect us to have joy in the midst of suffering? I see three primary reasons:

First, we live in a fallen world and, therefore, suffer the consequences. Because sin is a part of our earthly existence, we feel the pain of mankind’s wrong attitudes and actions. We experience the valley of the shadow of death. Every day, we witness the results of sin around the world. People suffer, lives are destroyed and innocents die. Evil not only exists, but it does exactly what the Bible tells us the enemy came to do: kill, steal and destroy. The need for Jesus Christ should be obvious to us all. The “trials and sorrows” are clear, which magnifies our need for the One who has “overcome the world.” When our pets get sick, we understand the need for a doctor or veterinarian. When we see the suffering of this sinful world, we should likewise understand the need for a Savior, the Great Physician.

Second, the suffering can glorify God. Oftentimes, pain can help purify our hearts of the sin in our own lives. Ask anyone who has faced a terrible illness if their priorities in life have changed. Most will tell you that many of the things they once considered important fell by the wayside as the things that God considers important took on new significance. The specter of death can force even the most self-centered men to look heavenward. The suffering of a loved one can bring families closer. Unfortunately, it often takes a tragic or frightening situation to compel us to love, forgive or connect with others.
This is not to say that suffering is always the result of someone’s sin. When Jesus and His disciples came upon a blind man, one of them asked, “Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” Jesus answered, “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” (John 9:1-3)

Jesus then healed the blind man and many lives were touched by the power of God. Certainly, the blind man had faced a lifetime of difficulties. But in the end, Jesus was glorified through that man’s suffering. Whether pain eradicates sin in our lives or simply allows God’s power to be shown, trials and tribulations can serve to bring glory to God. And that, in the end, is a good thing.

Finally, suffering can build Godly character. Acts 14:22 says that “we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” If God is a good God – and He is – then how can this be?

Through His prophet Isaiah, God told His chosen people, "I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. I will rescue you for my sake—yes, for my own sake!" (Isaiah 48:10-11a)

Refinement is a process that brings out the value in a precious metal by burning off the impurities. God’s promise to carry us through the fire is not a guarantee that we will be rescued from the fire, but rather the assurance that we will prevail in Him in the midst of the fire. We will overcome, but our clothes may smell like smoke! Remember, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were delivered in the fire, not from the fire. Perseverance, patience, grace, strength, faith and other Godly qualities can all come out of the most difficult trials of life, if we submit to His leadership and allow Him to refine our hearts and renew our minds.

Once we understand the potential positive role of suffering in our lives, as long as we are living and abiding in Jesus, the words of James “consider it an opportunity for great joy” begin to make sense. We experience the joy of trusting God and discover the peace that passes understanding. This knowledge allows us to move beyond the permanent status of “victim” and accept the role of “over comer.” We no longer have to cower in the corner or walk with our heads down. We can live as children of the Most High God, free to be who He created us to be and empowered to complete His mission here on earth.

God and America

Video Of Rev. Rodriquez delivering following message here.



The Lamb’s Agenda

By Rev. Samuel Rodriguez

There’s a fine line between the prophetic and the pathetic and in the midst of a pathetic reality we find a prophetic declaration uttered by the Apostle John pointing to the answer for a hopeless world. John 1:29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” Later on that same John much older in age saw the revelation on the island of Patmos and declared Revelation 5:13, “And every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that is in them, saying: ‘To Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever!’”
Friends, we live in difficult times. These are times of great uncertainty, unrest, great consternation and flux. The obituary of American Christianity in the 21^st century already permeates both the church and society. Scholars and leaders from within and outside the church have arrived to the inevitable conclusion that Christianity will not survive the 21^st century in any viable or sustainable manner. I beg to differ. For even though housing markets may crumble, the stock market may plummet, banks are failing and institutions that serve chicken are being protested and boycotted, there is one institution that is still alive: THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL!
For that matter, I believe the 21^st century stands poised to experience the greatest Christian transformative movement in our history. This movement will affirm biblical orthodoxy. It will reform the culture. It will transform our political discourse and usher in a new awakening. I am convinced that God is not done with America and America is not done with God! For at the end of the day this will not be a political movement driven by expediency and agendas of man, but a prophetic movement driven by the impetus of the cross. What is the agenda of this new movement? It is not the agenda of the donkey or the elephant. This nation will be saved exclusively via the agenda of the Lamb. BEHOLD THE LAMB!
The agenda of the Lamb is Spirit-driven. Forget Harry Potter and Hogwarts. There are very, very real spirits in the world today. Via biblical illusions and biblical metaphorical applications the spirit of Pharaoh is still alive holding people in the Egypt of bondage and fear. The spirit of Goliath still lives mocking and intimidating the children of God. The spirit of Jezebel still makes men and women hide in caves with sexual perversion and manipulation. The spirit of Absalom is dividing homes, churches, relationships, while the spirit of Herod is killing the young through abortion, poverty, sex trafficking, and murder. Through dreams and visions, I have news for you today and for this nation: there is still a Spirit more powerful than all of these spirits combined. As a matter of fact, we are here today to declare not only to Dallas, Texas but to all of America that the most powerful Spirit today in our nation is not the spirit of Pharaoh, the spirit of Saul, Absalom, Goliath, Jezebel or Herod. The most powerful Spirit still is the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. He is still moving in this nation! He is still moving on this land! He’s still moving across the land from California to New York. The Spirit of God is still moving across the land. “It is not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord!”
So to every narrative and spirit that facilitates the platform of moral relativism, of spiritual apathy, of cultural decadence and ecclesiastical lukewarmness, we say the following: For every Pharaoh there must be a Moses. For every Goliath there must be a David. For every Nebuchadnezzar there must be a Daniel. For every Jezebel there must be an Elijah. For every Herod there must be a Jesus. And for every devil that rises up against us there is a mightier God who will rise up for us.
BEHOLD THE LAMB!
The Lamb’s agenda activates a Kingdom culture firewall of righteousness and justice. In other words, to order to defend life and protect liberty and facilitate the platform by which all Americans can pursue happiness, we must apply biblical optics and apply corrective lenses to spiritual and cultural myopia. In other words, when I wake up in the morning, I don’t see a Hispanic, black, white, or Asian, charismatic or automatic. I am first and foremost a child of the living God! I am a born again Christian! I am a Child of God! I am a follower of Jesus. I am a Christian – first and foremost! I am a believer and my vertical identity empowers my horizontal reality. And when we vote we must vote our vertical reality. We can’t be pro-life on Sunday and vote for abortion on Tuesday.
Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame and they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” There were some “propheliars” who once declared we wouldn’t even be here right now. Vladimir Lenin in 1917 in St. Petersburg Square declared that by the 21^st century the whole world would be communist and there wouldn’t be a Christian alive. In 1939 in Nuremberg, Germany Adolf Hitler declared that the Third Reich would outlast the church of Jesus Christ. In the 1960’s the Beatles said that by the 21^st century they would receive more adoration than the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost combined. Well, guess what? We’re in 2012. Lenin is dead. Hitler is gone, the Beatles are gone, but the church of Jesus is still alive and well!

This message was delivered at the “Under God, Indivisible” conference on July 27, 2012.

---

This Sunday, October 7, is Pulpit Freedom Sunday. It is a time for pastors and priests to stand up and boldly proclaim the absolute importance of timeless, unshakable, biblical principles. Political discussions must never negate our responsibility to proclaim the undeniable truth and relevance of God’s Holy Word. Your entire congregation would be mightily blessed if there is a way you could play on a large screen the two messages delivered back to back by Dr. Tony Evans, Pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, followed by the message you just read by Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. You will hear from truly anointed African-American and Hispanic leaders. All of America needs to hear the messages delivered by these men of God.
-James

The Dance

Just finished The Reason for God by Timothy Keller and I must say, it's an outstanding read!  So much useful information that I ended up hi-lighting most of the book.  While there were a lot of facts and information to use when witnessing to nonbelievers, I think the chapter that I loved the most was the one called The Dance of God.  It described the Trinity and their relationship in such a beautiful way it brought tears to my eyes.  And while I would love to include the entire chapter here, time does not permit, so I will give you some excerpts and hope it pulls at your heart the way it did mine.

The doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one being who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Trinity means that God is, in essence, relational.


The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love.


Each of the divine persons centers upon the others.  None demands that the others revolve around him.  Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them.  Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others.  That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love.  The early leaders of the Greek church had a word for this - perichoresis.  Notice our word "choreography" within it.  It means literally to "dance or flow around." 

      The Father... Son ... and Holy Spirit glorify each other ...
      At the center of the universe, self-giving love is the dynamic currency of the      
      Trinitarian life of God.  The persons within God exalt, commune with, and defer to
      one another...
      When early Greek Christians spoke of perichoresis in God, they meant that each 
      divine person harbors the others at the center of his being.  In constant
      movement of overture and acceptance each person envelops and encircles the
      others.
      Cornelius Plantinga

      In Christianity God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing - not even just
      one person - but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if
      you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance ....  The pattern of this three-
      personal life is ...the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very
      center of reality.
      C.S. Lewis

God does ask us to obey him unconditionally, to glorify, praise, and center our lives around him.  I hope you finally see why he does that.  He wants our joy!  He has infinite happiness not through self-centeredness, but through self-giving, other-centered love.  And the only way we, who have been created in his image, can have this same joy, is if we center our entire lives around him instead of ourselves.


We share his joy first as we give him glory (worshipping and serving him rather than ourselves); second, as we honor and serve the dignity of other human beings made in the image of God's glory; and third, as we cherish his derivative glory in the world of nature, which also reflects it.  We glorify and enjoy him only as we worship him, serve the human community, and care for the created environment.


The story of the gospel makes sense of our indelible religiousness, so Christians do evangelism, pointing the way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God through Jesus.  The gospel makes sense of our profoundly relational character, so Christians work sacrificially to strengthen human communities around them as well as the Christian community, the church.  The gospel story also makes sense of our delight in the presence of beauty, so Christians become stewards of the material world, from those who cultivate the natural creation through science and gardening to those who give themselves to artistic endeavors, all knowing why these things are necessary for human flourishing.

Christians, then are the true "revolutionaries" who work for justice and truth, and we labor in expectation of a perfect world in which:

                He will wipe every tear from their eye.  There will be no more death
              or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things is passed
              away.  Revelation 21:4

And when we get there, we will say, "I've come home at last! This is my real country!  I belong here.  This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it!" And it will by no means be the end of our story.  In fact, as C.S. Lewis put it, all the adventures we have ever had will end up being only "the cover and the title page."  Finally we will be begin "Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read; which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before."



   

Should Christians Boycott Boycotting?

We as Christians are supposed to be different from the rest of the world. How we operate should be a reflection of that. Others should be able to observe us and note there is a difference. Not because we are perfect, holier than everyone else or morally superior. But because we love when it's not normal to love. When the rest of the world hates, we love. When the rest of the world rejects, we accept. When the rest of the world condemns, we embrace.

The following article on boycotting is interesting because it first defines what boycotting really is. Choosing not to spend our money somewhere or on some product is not a boycott. By doing that we are simply making a decision based on our convictions. Joining others to try and coerce an outcome is what constitutes a boycott. Are Christians doing something biblical when we engage in a boycott? Is this what Jesus taught us to do? And what about our faith in God? Are we forgetting He is sovereign?

Should Christians Boycott Boycotting?

by Joe Carter

In 1873, a retired British Army captain became the agent for the 3rd Earl of Erne's estates in County Mayo. It didn't take long for the old soldier to find that he had taken the wrong job at the wrong time. Local tenant farmers, enraged at the high rents being charged by their English landlords, had begun to organize into a group called the Land League, and the movement was spreading across the Emerald Isle.
When the captain refused to reduce rents after a poor harvest season, the Land League began applying an unconventional tactic. Local residents refused to sell him supplies, tend his fields, or even to speak to him in passing. The landlord was reduced to depending on his wife and daughters to pick the crops while being protected by local constables. Eventually, he gave in and fled Ireland altogether.
The tactic was so effective that newspapers in Britain and America were referring to it by the landlord's name: Charles Cunnigham Boycott.
More than 130 years later, boycotts have become a staple of nonviolent resistance and economic suasion. Christian groups, in particular, appear to have an affinity for the measure, often using it to apply pressure to wayward corporations. In recent years, conservative Catholics and Protestants have punished Disney for various sundry offenses. More recently, liberals activists have targeted the Komen foundation for defunding Planned Parenthood, while conservative activists objected to J.C. Penny because the company hired a homosexual woman, Ellen DeGeneres, as its spokeswoman.

Who Would Isaiah Boycott?

When deciding whether to use the tactic of boycotting, we tend to fall back on the pragmatic question, "Will it be effective?" Rarely do we weigh the more pertinent consideration: Should Christians even engage in boycotts? And, if so, when can they be legitimately used?
For many Christians in America, to even ask such questions is absurd. Because of their association with the era of civil rights and other laudable movements of the 1960s, boycotts tend to have an air of romance. But while the causes were just, Christians must always be mindful that nonviolence, like just war, can only be considered a necessary evil. As political philosopher Glenn Tinder has explained, the concept of nonviolent resistance never would have occurred to any of the ancient Hebrew prophets. It is worth remembering that while Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christian, he learned his principle techniques from the Hindu leader Gandhi rather than from the founder of his own religion.
The tactic affirmed by Jesus, as Tinder correctly notes, was nonresistance, a way of refusing all power, and completely different from nonviolent resistance, which is always stained by the moral impurities inherent in the use of power. Nonviolent resistance also rests on the assumption that human evil is not so deeply ingrained that it cannot be overcome by a display of profound moral courage. The way of nonviolence requires only strength, fortitude, and a naive view of humanity. By contrast, the way of Jesus requires a willingness to be weak, reliance on his redeeming power, and a realistic eschatological hope.
Yet in our fallen world, uses of power---both violent and nonviolent---can sometimes be legitimate and necessary. If boycotts have any lawful role, it would be as part of a greater nonviolent resistance against a government or other institution that has a coercive control over a people. The boycott of public busing in Montgomery during the 1960s is a prime example.
Using such a tactic on a corporation trivializes whatever legitimacy the tactic may have. While Disney and J. C. Penny may be in the wrong, they are not committing evils that justify the use of coercion for their correction. Nonviolent resistance should be weighed carefully, especially in situations when violent resistance would be considered an absurd option. Unless we think that Mickey Mouse and Ellen are legitimate combatants, we should carefully consider why we believe it is necessary to use such a drastic coercive measure.

Rebuke, Don't Boycott

The righteousness of a cause cannot be imputed to the tactics. Even when we have legitimate concerns about a corporation's activities, boycotts are almost always an improper abuse of power. Rather than being a loving rebuke, boycotts become a form of moral extortion. By cutting off economic ties with a corporation or business, the boycotters are using coercion to force people to do something they would not willingly do on their own. While Christians may have legitimate reasons for not using a certain product or associating with a particular business, banding together to cut off commerce to an otherwise licit venture has no obvious biblical warrant.
To clarify, the term boycott here refers to the act of refusing to use, buy, or deal with a business as an expression of protest or as a means of economic coercion. The concern, for Christians, should be with the coercion part. Simply refusing to participate in an economic transaction with an individual or company is not a boycott. Our choosing not to spend money on lottery tickets is a values-based economic decision, but it is not a form of coercion. As Alan Noble recently said, "Whether it is through votes or dollars, coercing someone to accept our position is nihilistic: it suggests that real change---change of heart and mind---is impossible, or unlikely, and so the safest bet is to make it profitable to adopt our beliefs."
Forcing someone to adopt our beliefs---whether by violence or economic threat---is a questionable use of our economic power. "Nonviolent resistance," Tinder writes in his book Political Thinking, "is a way of using power and is thoroughly political." Tinder's claim brings to mind the claim of the brilliant Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz: "War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means." Nonviolent resistance may sometimes be a legitimate political act. But by mixing in the coercive tactic of boycotts we may be turning away from righteousness toward an unjust form of economic warfare.

Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition and the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator.