Think it through
Yesterday, I talked about some SBC people who would not pass out water to hurricane victims because it had Budweiser on the label.
Now, I understand the rationale that goes behind this, "Beer is bad, budweiser makes beer, budweiser is bad, therefore if it has a Bud label, whatever it is is bad" and the folks who were given this water did not want to pass it out because they did not want to be associated with "evil". (for the sake of my argument budweiser is evil)
Now, some questions.
Does your grocery store sell Bud?
Do you watch NASCAR?
Do you eat at restaurants that sell beer?
Do you go to professional sporting events?
Now, let's get out of the arena of, "yes, but because we shop at Walmart does not mean we buy beer" because my logic is a bit naive.
Let us then think about the future. What does your stock portfolio look like? Do you own stock in a company that makes money in areas that you would never support? Most major US corporations have stakes in companies and support policies that the average Christian evangelical would not agree with.
Do you use AOL? If so, you have given money to a company that makes money off porn.
Do you have cable? If so, chances are that cable company makes millions off porn.
Do you use yahoo or google? They allow access to gambling websites, unchristian messageboards, etc, etc,....a world of pain and sin is at your very fingertips.
Do you spend money at companies which alllow "same-sex domestic partnerships" under their insurance plans?
That seems to sound different than seeing a Bud label on a can of water. You see, the water was tangible, but paying money to a company that supports anti-Christian goods and services isn't so clear.
There are so many areas in our culture where if we nitpicked ourselves enough, we would be forced to live in complete isolation and have no impact on our culture. We're called to be salt and light, not called to duck and cover. I think the end of Romans gives a good indication of salt and light. Paul says, "to greet those in Caesar's household", which assumes that there were Christians in Caesar's house, either relatives or servants. Think about the real suffering of Christians and Jews at the hands of Caesar. Why didn't he say "leave!"
Salt and light....
Think it through.
Now, I understand the rationale that goes behind this, "Beer is bad, budweiser makes beer, budweiser is bad, therefore if it has a Bud label, whatever it is is bad" and the folks who were given this water did not want to pass it out because they did not want to be associated with "evil". (for the sake of my argument budweiser is evil)
Now, some questions.
Does your grocery store sell Bud?
Do you watch NASCAR?
Do you eat at restaurants that sell beer?
Do you go to professional sporting events?
Now, let's get out of the arena of, "yes, but because we shop at Walmart does not mean we buy beer" because my logic is a bit naive.
Let us then think about the future. What does your stock portfolio look like? Do you own stock in a company that makes money in areas that you would never support? Most major US corporations have stakes in companies and support policies that the average Christian evangelical would not agree with.
Do you use AOL? If so, you have given money to a company that makes money off porn.
Do you have cable? If so, chances are that cable company makes millions off porn.
Do you use yahoo or google? They allow access to gambling websites, unchristian messageboards, etc, etc,....a world of pain and sin is at your very fingertips.
Do you spend money at companies which alllow "same-sex domestic partnerships" under their insurance plans?
That seems to sound different than seeing a Bud label on a can of water. You see, the water was tangible, but paying money to a company that supports anti-Christian goods and services isn't so clear.
There are so many areas in our culture where if we nitpicked ourselves enough, we would be forced to live in complete isolation and have no impact on our culture. We're called to be salt and light, not called to duck and cover. I think the end of Romans gives a good indication of salt and light. Paul says, "to greet those in Caesar's household", which assumes that there were Christians in Caesar's house, either relatives or servants. Think about the real suffering of Christians and Jews at the hands of Caesar. Why didn't he say "leave!"
Salt and light....
Think it through.
posted by Bobby's blog at 1:38 PM
2 Comments:
I THINK that the problem was that the water was in cans labeled with the Anheiser-Busch logo, and could have been confused with beer. Not 100% sure about that, though -- everything I've heard about it has been third person.
If that was the case, I can understand a little better the problems that the SBC people there had with giving out the water.
OK, I just saw a picture of the can at http://sbcoutpost.blogspot.com/2005/11/offending-can.html and I can now safely say it was a lame decision. So ignore my previous comment.
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