Day: August 14, 2023

Big Brands Playing Chicken with Customers, Financiers

The month of June is celebrated as pride month for the LGBTQ+ community. Corporations roll out the red carpet. Cities throw parades. But events in recent months reveal more pain than pride.

On March 27, 2023, transgender Audrey Hale killed six innocent people at a Nashville-area Christian school. The following Sunday, a transgender “pastor” in North Dakota tried to draw parallels between Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion with Audrey Hale’s transgenderism. 

About a week later, while speaking at San Francisco State University, Riley Gaines Barker was punched in the face by two men, then barricaded in a room until the protestors calmed down. Riley is a swimmer, formerly on the University of Kentucky swim team. She tied with transgender swimmer Leah (Will) Thomas in an NCAA women’s swimming championship event. Thomas got the fifth-place trophy, while Riley was given the sixth-place award. Since then, she has been outspoken against allowing trans males to compete against women in sporting events. Soon after the violent episode, SFSU released a statement claiming the protest against Riley was “peaceful.” Hardly.

Some people consider these to be isolated incidents from the fringes of society. That’s not true. Just get on social media to see how many people are engaging in this debate. I’ll make it even easier for you. Just visit any retailer during June and you will see pride on display.

Some of those businesses became battlegrounds as controversial pride merchandise hit shelves. Bud Light faced tremendous backlash when it partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. Since then, Bud Light has lost an estimated $15 billion in revenue. 

Target also became a battleground when it launched its 2023 pride merchandise line. The retail giant introduced pride products including children’s books. Images of their transgender swimsuit for males went viral. 

Target also introduced products from the Abprallen brand that included a sweater that said, “Cure transphobia, not trans people.” This same brand sells blasphemous merchandise praising Satan. While Target did not carry these satanic products, its association with this brand speaks volumes. One such product is an enamel pin that includes the satanic goat-headed idol Baphomet along with the inscription “Satan respects pronouns.” Target pulled this brand along with some other pride products after backlash from consumers. 

It is estimated that Target lost $10-15 billion in 10 days. 

Target isn’t the only retailer rolling out the red, or should we say rainbow, carpet. Kohl’s is selling pride clothing for babies. North Face proudly launched its second annual Summer of Pride series of products and ads, including some since-removed products for children. 

Even Chick-fil-A is moving in this direction. I’ll share more about them later, but the real question is, “Why?” Why do retailers feel the need to promote pride products so heavily? Why do we see these polarizing products escalate in volume and outrageousness each year? Follow the money.

What stands behind retailers’ financial motivations in making these decisions? Instead of looking at profits, retailers are more concerned with their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores. Why? Because investment groups like BlackRock want the businesses they invest in to support their efforts in agendas such as climate change and sexual identity. The higher the ESG score, the more financial backing a business can receive. 

One of the key factors certain investors look for is a high score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. The campaign’s website says this index is “the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer employees.” 

Out of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies, 15 scored a perfect 100 on this index including Walmart, Amazon, Apple, CVS Health, Google, AT&T, and Verizon.

To get a perfect 100 score on the Human Rights Campaign’s index, companies must offer inclusive workforce protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. They must also offer inclusive benefits to fund items like transgender-inclusive health insurance. Further, the companies must actively engage and support the LGBTQ+ community through philanthropic giving. 

But if you want to get a perfect 100 score, you must go a step further. Corporations could be tempted to play both sides with their charitable donations, so the Human Rights Campaign will not give a perfect 100 score to any company that donates to a non-religious organization with a written policy in opposition to the LGBTQ+ cause. 

This explains why these companies cannot remain neutral. If they do not actively support these causes, their ESG score will be impacted and investors will switch alliances to the competition. Companies are no longer making their decisions based on profits. Now they must make decisions based on the social values that will increase their ESG scores. As long as they get a high ESG score, they know investors will be there to help them succeed in the marketplace. 

That brings us back to Chick-fil-A. In 2012, they stopped supporting a plethora of Christian organizations. In 2019, they dropped their support of the two faith-based groups that survived their 2012 cuts—the Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. They began giving donations to pro-LGBTQ+ groups. In 2021, they hired a vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. While Chick-fil-A is not listed on the Human Rights Campaign Index, its corporate actions seem like they are actively seeking a higher ESG score. 

There is tremendous social pressure to conform. The Los Angeles Dodgers experienced this recently. As they geared up for their 10th annual Pride Night at Dodger Stadium, they invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to participate. The Sisters are drag queens who mockingly dress as nuns and whose official motto is “Go forth and sin some more.” The president of the organization CatholicVote responded to this invitation by saying the Sisters are a “blatantly perverted, sexual and disgusting anti-Catholic hate group.” Thus, the Dodgers uninvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence amid the strong backlash. 

You can probably guess what happened next. Other LGBTQ+ groups threatened to withdraw support of the Dodgers’ Pride Night if the team did not reinstate the Sisters. So, the Dodgers reinvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and issued a public apology for withdrawing the invitation.

The recent rise in vitriol and violence is alarming. Corporations are caving. Tensions are escalating. People are getting physically assaulted and, as we saw in Nashville, killed. We are in a war. However, the LGBTQ+ person is not the enemy. The Bible is clear in Ephesians 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

We are in a spiritual battle against the devil and his emissaries. One of Satan’s all-time favorite tools is to get people to worship themselves instead of God. He’s done a marvelous job of that in America. We pursue what we want and abandon God in the process. We try to identify ourselves without God in the picture. When we make that choice, it’s like choosing to be lost in the woods without a flashlight. We grope in the dark to find our way out, but we fall into the devil’s trap. We cannot know our true selves until we first know God.   

Only the marvelous light of Jesus Christ can guide us to true freedom from Satan’s snare. He rescues and transforms us into the beautiful person He created us to be. There is no greater feeling in all the world than the freedom found in Jesus Christ! 

There is great joy and peace in knowing God didn’t mess up when He created me. I wasn’t born in the wrong body, to the wrong parents, in the wrong place, or at the wrong time—and neither was anyone else in all of human history. 

The escalating corporate actions, social tensions, and acts of violence will worsen if we refuse to step out of the darkness into the light of Jesus Christ. 

I pray that God will open the spiritual eyes of those who are taken captive by Satan and sin and that His followers would shine the light of Jesus into the darkness around us with a Christ-honoring attitude as we rescue the spiritual captives.

FOURTH IN A SERIES

This is the fourth in a continuing series on Abraham. In this piece, we will focus on key biblical texts that demonstrate covenantal faithfulness to the descendants of Abraham and the land God has given them. It refutes Replacement Theology and answers the question, “Who owns the land?” In this piece, we are going to look at key scriptures from both the  Old and New Testaments. Indeed, the Abrahamic covenant reaches into the future.

Olam Is “Everlasting”

There are several scriptures that tell us of God’s love for His chosen people. His love is “everlasting” (olam) (Jer.32:40). Does olam really mean “everlasting,” depicting God’s eternal love for His chosen people? 

God is olam. “And Abram planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting [olam] God” (Gen. 21:33).                      

God’s Word is olam. “For ever [olam], O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” (Ps. 119:89; see also Isa. 40:7–8).

God’s covenant is olam.  “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee [Abraham] and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting [olam] covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Gen. 17:7).

God’s name is olam. Scripture tells us that Moses asked God His name. God replied, “I Am that I Am” (Exod. 3:14). Then the Lord said, “this is my name for ever [olam], and this is my memorial unto all generations” (vs. 15).

A Legacy of Blessing

In Genesis 12:1 the Lord calls Abram to leave home and go “unto a land that I will show thee.” In verse 2, the Lord promises several  things, and says, “and thou shalt be a blessing.” Abram did not realize how much of a blessing he would be. He would be a conduit of grace to untold multitudes.

When I jettisoned my belief in Replacement Theology, one of my former Replacement buddies thought I was crazy, and said: “So, now you believe that salvation is tied to genes.” It was his way of saying that now I believe that Jews are a special people that God had chosen simply because God is a racist.

Do I believe that salvation is tied to genes? Yes and no. Yes, because God chose Israel to be a special people. No, because His plan is to work through Jews to bless everyone in the whole world, Jew and Gentile. Yes, God loves Israel, but His love for Israel is not the kind of love that was intended to be limited to Jews. God would bless them in a special way so that divine love could extend to all people.

We see this in several Scriptures. Isaiah  45:22: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” Matthew 4:13-16 ties this into Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, an area populated by Gentiles: “And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up,” cited from Isaiah 9:1–2.

A similar truth was uttered by Simeon, who took the baby Jesus up in his arms and said, “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:30–32).

We must never forget, however, that the broadening of the scope of God’s grace to reach great numbers of Gentiles never cancels God’s plans for Israel. It is “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). “I say then,” we read in Romans 11:1, “Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Many Replacement theologians see it as an either/or matter—either Jews or Gentiles—but Scripture presents it as a both/and issue: both Jews and Gentiles.

God’s Earthly Promises To Israel

I often challenge Replacement theologians to study Ezekiel 36. They claim we “Christian Zionists” glorify Israel’s millennial blessings which, they claim, are earthly and carnal. Let’s examine Scripture to see if this claim is correct. And I must point out that Dr. Charles Ryrie helped me see this whole question in the light of the Word many years ago.

First, we must remember how the blessings upon the Jewish people and blessings on the land of Israel are a marvelous unfolding of the Abrahamic covenant which involves: 1) the return of the Jewish people to their covenantal land; 2) the restoration of the land itself; and 3) the spiritual quickening of the Jewish people. Ezekiel 36:24–28 focuses on these points: “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:  from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Here we see the land promise, and we see a radical change of heart in the people. They will “loathe” themselves for their sins (vs. 31). I see nothing carnal and fleshly about this.

Dry Bones Will Come To Life

In Ezekiel 37, the prophet is carried in the Spirit of the Lord to a valley that is full of dry bones. Bones left out in the hot sun become bleached and white. They are dry and lifeless. Has God forgotten His promises to Abraham? Did the ritual of the slain carcasses and the pillar of fire moving between them mean nothing? Has God gone back on His unbelievably wonderful promises regarding the land of Israel and Abraham’s seed?

“And he said unto me,  Son of man, can these  bones live?” (vs. 3). The natural answer is “no,” but the prophet knows the power of God: “And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.” In verse  5, God lays out His plan: “Behold, I will cause breath [ruach; breath, wind, spirit] to enter into you and, and ye shall live.”

Is this just some kind of weird dream, or is there some significance to it?  “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of our graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord …” (vss. 11–14).

So what’s happening? A miracle of staggering proportions. A nation that was not a nation, and now is a nation, that is cursed by the Palestinian and Shi’ite militants, “that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden” (Ezek. 36:35).

But what about Ezekiel 38 and 39? We read about an overwhelmingly huge invasion from the north, coming upon God’s land, strengthened by allies that are Muslim and hostile to Israel. Is this the end of the Jewish State? Has God forgotten His unconditional promises to Abraham? Not at all. Yes, friction between Israel and Russia seems to be causing sparks and perhaps an outbreak of war. We can see what’s happening. Recently Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, former chief rabbi of Moscow, was charged by Russia for disseminating “false information” about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.

How does this Russian invasion turn out? In Ezekiel 39, the Lord promises to knock the bow from the left hand of the invaders and the arrows from their right hand. The invading armies will die in the mountains of Israel. God will feed them to the vultures and wild animals. It will take seven months for the people of Israel to bury the bodies of the invaders and cleanse the land. 

“And I will set my glory among the heathen [“nations”] and all the heathen shall see my judgment … the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward” (Ezek. 39:21–22). 

God is faithful. He has not forgotten His promises to Abraham.