One Christian's Response to Target: There Has to be a Better Way
I WROTE A BOOK 2 YEARS AGO THAT I NEVER PUBLISHED…
Until this past week, I was convinced that it would just live in Google Drive for all of eternity.
If you know me, you know that I don’t concern myself with news, politics or really anything that would be considered mainstream media. However, in regards to Target’s most recent stunt, I have become increasingly aware of this due to it making its way into conversations with strangers, shared posts from friends and family, and the occasional social media influencer sharing their opinion.
The first chapter of my book (started back in 2019), discusses something that prayerfully and thoughtfully I would like to publish on my blog in regard to the Target phenomenon.
An Excerpt from Chapter One of
“THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY”
One of my least favorite things about my generation is how quick we are to boycott a person/place and how quick we are to jump on bandwagons.
Before you get too defensive, just know that I am all too familiar with the idea of bandwagoning as I watched many friends all of a sudden become Golden State Warrior fans in 2016. It doesn’t just stop at sports though, my middle school involved being surrounded by girls who had a different color of feather in their hair every day and your popularity depended on how many silly bands you wore on your wrists. As we grew up, the bandwagon itself changed, but the desire to jump on and off at convenient times did not.
As we got older, the bandwagon represented bigger issues like racial injustice, politics, freedoms, family, sexuality and more.
Sidenote: Most times we jump on a bandwagon before we’ve even done our research to figure out what is true vs what is not. We also see this play out when someone boycotts a place/person without knowing why.
It’s at this point where most people think:
“No, I jump on bandwagons because I want to draw a lot of attention to the cause.”
That’s great, in theory. But, have you ever seen a crying child in the store flailing in every which way while their parent tries to calm them in any way possible? They drew a lot of attention, but it was negative attention. Here’s the cold, hard truth:
No amount of attention is worth the degradation of humanity.
Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m in the business of loving you by showing you the Truth. I believe to truly love someone you have to be willing to have tough conversations. I’ve always been the guy that valued people who were willing to talk about things deeper than the surface level.
Christians don't just stop at riding a bandwagon. Often times, we choose to boycott a place of business or a person simply because they have a different view than us.
Christ walked this earth for 33 years and came across a lot of people who He disagreed with. How does He show up in situations such as this? He invites them into a conversation. Sometimes, He even invited them to dinner.
Let’s just hit the pause button for a second. Think about how big of a difference it would make if you knew that every time you disagreed with someone, before writing them off, you had to invite them to your dinner table.
I can already hear some of you saying. “I do engage in conversation with them already and they are a lost cause”. Typing on a keyboard doesn’t count as inviting them into a conversation. Raising your voice and refusing to actually listen does not count as a conversation.
Disclaimer for this next part: I love my parents and grandparents’ generation to death and very much appreciate how I was raised.
With that being said, I specifically remember growing up how we would all of a sudden stop shopping at a store or how we would stop watching the St. Louis Cardinals on the night they celebrated something we disagreed with. Is that wrong in and of itself? Probably not. (They were most likely trying to control exposure at a young age.) However, I distinctly remember being very confused as a certain amount of time would go by and then we would start watching the games again or shopping at that store again.
This brought up a bigger question. Were we only passionate enough about that disagreement to last a few weeks or did we honestly have a moral issue?
You also have to ask yourself if choosing to withdraw from engaging with that person or brand was the best way to express the discontent you felt towards their decisions.
I would answer with an adamant cry that there has to be a better way.
There is a better way… THE WAY. In John we read that Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life. I’m still unsure of why I always put so much of an emphasis on truth and life and somehow forgot to emphasize the first item on the list. If we’re being honest, most of us get in to trouble at one point or another. The trouble can almost always be pointed back to a specific time when you decided that your way was better than God’s way.
Seriously, let’s drop the act as Christians that we were already “good people” before we came to know Christ. I really relate to Paul’s writings in the New Testament where he’s like “of all the sinners, I’m the worst.”
Growing up I remember the NOTW movement being a big thing in my youth group. While I hold nothing against that movement and I know the motives were pure, I think it created a sense of pride in the body of believers.
NOTW stands for ‘NOT OF THIS WORLD.” It’s based off of the Scripture in John when Jesus says “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” I’m not arguing that the movement was wrong and I’m definitely not arguing that Scripture is wrong, I’m saying the way Chrisitians went about it was wrong.
The primary word that I have been able to identify that has caused this is “DISTANCE.”
Christians have used this verse as an excuse to distance themselves from sinful people.
You might ask, what’s the problem with distancing yourself from sinful people? In a moment when you would be tempted to ask such a question just remind yourself that Jesus didn’t distance Himself from you.
You should not distance yourself from sinful people because you are a sinful person.
Most people think that the problem with the world is anyone but themselves.
I find it comical how Christians are still surprised by the awful things happening in the world. Part of me thinks they only read the parts of the Bible that they liked and skipped over the rest. In fact, let me take the opportunity to make a Public Service Announcement.
PSA: Christians can stop being surprised by evil things happening in the world.
I’m convinced that Satan doesn’t wake up in the mornings with the intention to derail you. Instead, he loves the tiny missteps. He wants you to slowly drift. The enemy rejoices when you slip, trip, and miss the mark by an inch. He is obsessed with getting his foot in the door. He doesn’t have the desire to take control all at once, he just wants to have a role in your day. He doesn’t care to be in the driver’s seat, he just wants to be sitting in your car. He laughs when he gets you to take a wrong turn. He loves watching you have to reroute. He gets joy watching your emotional, physical, mental and spiritual tank run out of fuel.
Ephesians 6:12 says, 'Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.”
I’m praying a big prayer over this book but I’m also praying a big prayer for the person reading this. You are in a war whether you know it or not. The enemy doesn’t play fair. We’ve already talked about his strategy but you better believe he is terrific at lying. He’s known as the prince of darkness and father of lies. I pray that you would have ears ready to hear, feet ready to stand firm, a mind focused on truth, a mouth ready to boldy proclaim the Gospel, and heart ready to love. Trust me, there is a better way out there… you just have to be willing to find it.
I tried to be extremely thoughtful and empathetic about the wording of the title. Note that it says One Christian's Response and not 'The' Christian Response. Why? Because I believe there are multiple ways to respond to this specific issue.
To make an absolute statement such as "If you're a Christian you should stop shopping at Target" or the opposite, "Ignore it… it's no big deal" would be a HUGE mistake.
A friend I really respect in Ministry, @NoahHerrin, said it better than I could say myself:
1. I believe Christians must get better at articulating why we disagree while simultaneously demonstrating that we can continue to love the people we disagree with. If we can't love through disagreement, we are just noisy gongs.
2. As a family [THe Herrin Family], we probably won't be shopping at Target anymore. Not out of hate towards Target or the people who work there but simply because we don't believe a toddler should be encouraged to explore their gender identity while looking at clothes. Our no longer shopping at Target is not out of vengeance. It's our attempt to protect the minds of our kids at the age they are most vulnerable."
(You can find his post and account here: @NoahHerrin)
So maybe this isn’t the blog post you were expecting. Maybe you completely disagree. This is not me telling you to keep shopping there. This is also not me telling you to stop shopping there. I’m not claiming to have the answer or perfect response. However, I am claiming that there has to be a better way than the way we see most people going about it.
Truthfully, a blog is not even the best vehicle for this to be communicated. Now that I’ve taken the time to do a lot of listening and discerning, I hope to have conversations around the table or a bonfire… and guess what? It probably won’t even be about Target.
I hope it’s more about how to walk humbly with God.
How to be a light in a very dark place.
How there must be a better way.
People who don’t know Jesus aren’t going to act like Jesus. Distancing yourself from those people while you have the best news in the world would be a shame.
I’m still learning this as well. Thanks for being patient with me.
You are so loved!
Always in your corner,
-LM
