Why I’m Boycotting Boycotts

A few years ago, I watched a video about Christians in Hollywood. One of the interviewees asked Christians to stop boycotting movies and start praying for those making them instead. I’d never been a fan of boycotts before but couldn’t put my finger on why, until I heard this statement. What kind of impact do we think we’re making with our boycotts? Is it the message we really want to send?

A few years ago, I watched a video about Christians in Hollywood. One of the interviewees asked Christians to stop boycotting movies and start praying for those making them instead. I’d never been a fan of boycotts before but couldn’t put my finger on why, until I heard this statement. What kind of impact do we think we’re making with our boycotts? Is it the message we really want to send?

Imagine a mass of people banded together to boycott you. Would you think, “Wow, I should really think about changing my moral compass and looking at what these people are saying”? Maybe you would think this, but honestly, I wouldn’t. I would just be upset that they were boycotting me. Even more upset if they were doing it in a rude manner (is there such a thing as a kind boycott?).

Karen Covell, director of the Hollywood Prayer Network, said this about boycotts: “I am and have always been supportive of personal ‘boycotts’ or merely personal discipline to say NO to what’s not good for us. That won’t make anyone hate us, but it will send a powerful message that we don’t want to see that type of product. It’s the mass postcards that are useless. It’s trying to get people to stop going to Disneyland when Disney supports gay marriage. That’s a mass boycott that sends the wrong message. All that’s saying is that Christians are judging non-believers and we have the attitude of ‘I’ll show you.’ So, what is the natural response to that? ‘I’ll show you back!’ And the game continues.”

It’s a little crazy that we think that non-Christians should act in ways that we expect Christians to act in—let’s be honest, in ways we don’t even always act in as Christians. Jesus seemed to know who he expected to act like what. And, if I’ve got my Bible clear, he mostly rebuked the religious and ate dinner with the non-religious.

So, rather than make those people who we might want to share God’s love with hate us, rather than expect them to hold to a moral compass they don’t claim to have, we can pray for them. We should understand that this fight is not against flesh in blood anyway (Ephesians 6:12). Why are we then fighting down on the ground level anyway?

So join me in boycotting boycotts. You don’t have to support what you don’t like. You don’t have to watch it. You do have to love others though, and that includes those you disagree with. Instead of creating our own earthly impact, let’s see what God can do.

For more of the Karen Covell interview:
http://www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org/resources/westfallinterview.php