How To Make Culture Bend Towards Religious Conservatives
Evangelicals can win if they are willing to do what it takes.
According to Pew, roughly 3 in 4 Americans are religiously affiliated, yet in the wake of the recent Supreme Court rulings, the “Benedict option” of retreating somewhere and just letting America take its course is being discussed by many. Why is their voice not louder? They certainly have more money and more votes. Unfortunately, we are seeing that religious conservatives as a collective group are a big, slow, lumbering beast when it comes to the speed of change in this increasingly secular world.
Religious Conservatives
Those Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus. Sikhs and Buddhists should withhold commerce from firms that oppose their beliefs. It is illogical to oppose secularization of society with one hand while helping to finance it with the other. Where one spends their money is a moral choice, and religious conservatives in particular should, where possible, spend their money in businesses that adhere to their religious beliefs if they truly want to bend the culture.
This means if the gay grocer near you offers the best produce at the best price, you would purchase the inferior product at the more expensive price from someone who was not gay. Likewise, if the best doctor or surgeon supports abortion, you should use someone else. Political donations are a matter of public record. If, afterall, both the grocer and the doctor are giving their (read: your) money to politicians and organizations directly opposed to your beliefs, how much are they helping you, or better still, how much is their product or service worth? The effort must be made going forward. When Target kicks the Salvation Army out, start shopping exclusively at Walmart. When Walmart does worse things than Target, shop exclusively at Piggly Wiggly. Life is difficult, and some things can’t be avoided. It’s sacrifice and it’s hard.
It is often difficult to decide who is using money for what, or even who is gay. Franklin Graham removed his money from one bank because it supported gay rights; only to put it into another bank which also supported gay rights. Now, one could say that Mr. Graham should have exercised some due diligence in his choices (as should we all), but expertise in medicine or banking versus morality is a decision people don’t want to make.
Amorality
It is present in that attitude. That is, if there is a price to pay for supporting decency, then one will not do so. Given a choice between price and quality, people prefer to choose both. Those are pretty small sacrifices compared to the martyrs of religious texts that many claim to adhere to. Most of us struggle with considerations regarding money and the value received for purchases. But the trade off should cause the issue to be rethought. If it is known that money spent will go to fund pro-gay or pro-abortion activities that violate your religious beliefs, aren’t you obliged to suffer even a little by forgoing the purchase?
What cost are we willing to pay on behalf of our beliefs? For some, it will be a lot. For others, any form of inconvenience will be too costly. In the end, we all reveal ourselves. As a matter of truth, previously mundane actions must be seen for what they are now: decisions with moral content.
Television and Internet
Considering that all of the large tech companies, support the gay community, limiting internet use should be considered as well as a boycott of television. Both would work if the numbers were great enough, and I think they could be especially with television. Viewing demographics are easy to find on the net, and they are startling as far as the sheer number of hours America spends watching television. I think there’s been an ongoing boycott of broadcast television for years, which explains both the erosion of viewership and the moral and artistic deterioration of primetime programming.
Religious conservatives must deny those who persecute and ridicule them the economic benefit of their patronage. Would it not be a win – win on multiple levels to get concerned religious conservatives to turn off the television, get off the computer, and read or get to know their wife and kids a little better, all the while denying advertising income to powerful adversaries?
