The Alex McFarland Show-61-Should a Christian Boycott Woke Companies?

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of Scripture.

Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. In the New Testament book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 11-14, Ephesians 5, 11-14, the Word of God says this, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Hi, Alex McFarland here, and on this edition of the program, I want to talk about woke corporations, what wokeness is, which corporations right now appear to be the most woke, and what might be the Church's response to the companies like Target and Heizer-Busch.

They're probably the most prominent in the news right now, but there are many more, and I want to talk about and I want to do what Ephesians 5, 11 says and expose some of the wokeness of current corporations. But regarding the Church's response to darkness, sin, immorality, iniquity that are present in any age and contribute to the unraveling of society and the condemnation, the damnation of the souls of people, the Church is not to have fellowship with works of darkness, and the King James says reprove really means expose, uncover, show forth the darkness. I mean, if you knew that there was a sinkhole and cars driving down the road were in danger of falling into this hole and being severely injured if not killed, you would have a moral responsibility to maybe wave down traffic and say stop, stop. I remember some years ago I was at a place where there was a danger in the road and cars were piling up and we got out and we were frantically waving to cars to stop to try to prevent people from driving around a curve and injuring themselves. We felt like because there was mortal danger ahead, we had an obligation to try to warn people. And indeed, we do. Knowledge of a situation really implies an obligation to react. The philosophers of ancient times have said that ought implies can. Ought implies can.

So if you ought to do something, chances are you can do something. Now Ephesians 5, 11 through 14, speaking of immorality, says it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. The workers of darkness, whether it be spiritual darkness, occultism, paganism, or sexual deviancy, and I think about the corporations that for some bizarre self-destructive reasons, so many American corporations have decided to get on the bandwagon of wokeness. Now as I record this broadcast, spring of 2023, it's been noted that there are, as far as some of the ministries and culture watchers can tell, out of the top 2,000 companies in America, at least 428 are very, very woke. Now I'll explain what that is, but Target, with June of 23 Pride Month, they've got the Pride merchandise out there, and we've taken pictures. I don't shop at Target, haven't spent one nickel in a Target in probably seven or eight years, and I don't plan to anytime soon, but Pride, transgenderism, gender-bending, queer, and drag queen. These t-shirts promoting Pride Month LGBTQ trans are in the children's section. Now it would be bad enough for adults to be so deceived and so committed to that which is immoral, self-destructive. The LGBTQ trans movements, same-sex attraction, gender dysphoria, all of these things are the results of pain and molestation and abuse and lack of bonding with the parent of the same sex.

Homosexual activity, gender confusion, all of these things are a means of trying to deal with pain. Now why companies would feel led, and I'm sure many of these things are just done in absolute ignorance, just to placate the gay mafia that comes around, support this or else, and I'll talk more about that. Target is probably the most well-known company that's suffering the slings and arrows and the $13 billion loss in the stock market for having kowtowed to the ultimatums of the gay mafia. But why companies would feel the need to get on the Pride bandwagon for just a very vocal but tiny infinitesimally small minority of the American population, I don't know.

But I want to talk about this, and I want to give a response that I believe a Christian, and even if you're not a Christian, just a citizen that cares about the United States of America, what the response might be. And I think about the Dodgers baseball team that have been having this drag queen group mocking Christianity, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Isn't that something? These drag queens dressed up as nuns, a caricature of nuns, and at best white mime face paint, and at worst, very lewd and suggestive outfits. But the Bible says of such, and when I'm reading Ephesians 5-12, I couldn't help but think of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. And I used to be a big Dodgers fan, Tommy Lasorda and the great glory days of the Dodgers.

I don't even want to think about that team anymore, that I used to be a big follower of the Dodgers. But Ephesians 5-12 says it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. The Bible says immorality, paganism, blasphemy, putting talk of God and the Christian faith in terms of orgies and sexual activity. It's shameful to even talk about this, says Ephesians 5-12, and yet it's the halftime show now for a Dodgers baseball game.

Baseball doesn't have a halftime, but it's the crowd entertainment. Verse 13, though, says all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. Whatever makes manifest is light. Now, what is to make manifest? The Church is to, based on the Word of God, based on truth, based on intercessory prayer, and yes, wielding the spiritual power that God invests to his Church.

We're to expose these things, and we don't have to spend our money and help finance these things. Ephesians 5-14 says that we are to call out to the world, Awake, you who sleep, rise from the dead and Christ will give you light. Now, who is asleep? The Church. Who's dead?

A lost world. And in Jesus Christ, the Church can be revived and awakened. We can be a tool in the hand of God, and we can call a dead, lost world heading toward eternal condemnation.

We can turn them to Christ, who will give life and light. Well, stay tuned. We're going to talk more about wokeness and a Christian response to the woke world when we come back on this edition of the Alex McFarland program. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Over the last several decades, it's been my joy to travel the world talking with children, teens, adults, people of all ages about the questions they have related to God, the Bible, Christianity, and how to know Jesus personally.

Hi, Alex McFarland. I want to make you aware of my book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. You know, we interviewed hundreds of children and parents and families to find out the questions that children and people of all ages are longing to find answers for. In the book, we've got practical, biblical, real-life answers that they have about how to be a Christian in this modern world.

My book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, you can find it wherever you buy books or at resources.afa.net. It's been called Trusted, Truthful, and Timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. As I come back from camp, the first of our six summer biblical worldview camps, I'm holding in my hand the Equip Retreat workbook. I'm so proud of this, just proud, and I can say that because it wasn't me that really created all of this, although I wrote much of the content. But Kelly in Ohio, who so beautifully laid out these articles and these workbooks, and then got it printed, Kim McMillan, Amy Meyers, Chuck Wallington.

Who are these people? These are the staff that you help support. And this summer we'll be in front of a total of 1250 teenagers in our biblical worldview camps. And let me tell you just the camp that we're wrapping up this week, the first week of June. We've had several dozen kids accept Christ, be saved. We've had kids that have just come and they're committed to pray for this nation and to pray for their schools. It is so exciting to see young people so enthusiastically take their stand for Christ. And so we're trying to woke-proof America's kids, and I thank you for your prayers and support in helping us do that. My website for all the work that we do, events, publishing, broadcasting, it's AlexMcFarland.com. And then of course the clubs that we're starting all across America, Viraltruth.com.

Viraltruth.com. Well, in addition to Ephesians 5, 11-14, about the church's mandate from God to expose the unfruitful works of darkness, let me tell you what the Word of God says about worldview and our interaction with this world. The Bible says of the church, Romans 12, 1 and 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing all things we may discern what is the will of God, good and acceptable and perfect.

Now, testing Romans 12, 2 there, it really means discernment through the lens of Scripture. Now, what is the will of God? What is good? What is acceptable?

What is perfect? Do you really think drag queens, the hyper-sexualization of children, encouraging children toward gender confusion, surgery to mutilate their young bodies, hormone replacement therapies to cause boys to transition to girls and vice versa, which will give 17 types of cancer in one form or another at young ages? Do you think this is the will of God? I was just reading this morning about a pride festival here and Pride Month, and let's remember the original sin on the part of Lucifer, on the part of Adam and Eve, disobeying God and thinking out things for themselves rather than trusting the Word of God. The original sin is pride.

I just think it's so ironic that homosexual activity, which the Word of God says is abhorrent, the Bible says it's filthy, the Bible says in the eyes of Almighty God who will judge all people, that it is an abomination. Here, the month that some have dedicated to the promotion of that which God says is abhorrent is named for the original sin which has brought so much misery to the human race. Pride.

Pride Month. The Bible says pride is the precursor to destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. So the world is trying to make people woke. The world is trying to convert young people to these false belief systems. So I want to talk about for a moment what woke-ism is. Let's remember Target and Trans-Heuser-Busch, as they now call it jokingly, and other companies that I'm about to name. I want you to stay tuned because I'm going to talk about some of the major woke retailers that are promoting a philosophy and a worldview that is against God and is incrementally destroying America. And you with your tax dollars and you with your retail spending are supporting it, folks. So we're going to call it out. But what is woke-ism?

Let's talk about that for just a moment. Because woke-ism, really the origins of woke-ism, it was a term that came from former slaves on the run sleeping with one eye open to try to stay alive. And that's very sad. And I thank God that because of the church in America, slavery was ended and equal rights for all were fought for and legislated. But woke-ism threatens the family, the church, the United States, and your personal liberties. That's what woke-ism is all about. It's the left, the progressives, the socialists, the Marxists, trying to basically eradicate Christianity from the world, and certainly from America.

And so young people are being really programmed into woke thought. There was a book published in 1930, Charles F. Potter. He was a secular humanist and a Unitarian minister, quote unquote. And he published a book, and it's still being sold, called Humanism, a New Religion.

It was published by Simon and Schuster, of all things. And Charles F. Potter said this, and it relates to a sleeping church. Remember Ephesians 5.14 says, Awake, we that are sleeping. But nearly 100 years ago, Charles Potter, who was a precursor to the modern woke world, he said, quote, Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching? That was his question.

Well, as it is right now, very little. A theistic Sunday school is Sunday school. And Potter mockingly asked, you know, what can an hour a week for a fraction of the children do to stand against the five-day-a-week program of humanistic teaching? Well, that's what the public schools have become. And sadly, the retailers, where we buy our groceries, and we buy many of the random items that we need, they have bought in to the wokeness that stands against family, stands against moral boundaries, stands against God and truth. And folks, that's why we have to, if you love God and country, you've got to begin to be discerning where you spend your money.

Where you spend your money. Now it's just an amazing thing that companies would lose billions of dollars and still dig in their hills, double down, and stay woke. Oreo is making pride cookies right now.

Did you know that? Oreo pride cookies. So, no more Oreos in our house. Now you can go to an app, there's a new app, and I don't know everything about it so I only recommend this app guardedly, but Public Square is an app that tries to list the businesses that aren't woke. But some of the companies that are woke, and I think you'd probably be very surprised to know all of them, like 1-800-Flowers.

These are companies, and I can't list all 428 obviously, but 1-800-Flowers, Advance Auto Parts, Albertsons and Safeway, Amazon, we know that, Anheuser-Busch, they've shown their colors. But when we come back, I'm going to talk about what I believe should be the Christian response to the woke movement, especially as it relates to our discretionary spending and our retail dollars. That's the only language in which we can speak that Corporate America will understand. And I've got an illustration of why what's going on with Target may be the beginning of their undoing. Stay tuned, we're going to come back with more on the Alex McFarland show after this. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert.

Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics. Living in more than 2,200 churches around the world, schools and college campuses, Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, visit alexmcfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com.

He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarland show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here, very honored that you're listening. We're talking about a Christian response to wokeness in the public square. And let me remind you folks that this program and all of our conferences, and we're working on major conferences for 2024, our publishing, broadcasting, which is changing lives, thousands of people a year that are praying to accept Christ, young people that are getting the confidence to speak up for their patriotism, their love of this country, their belief in Jesus and the Bible. We are equipping and educating and doing our best, I say this, to woke-proof American youth, but really to evangelize and equip. Folks, we couldn't do it without your help.

So please pray. And also, I want to ask you if today you would consider a gift you can give securely online at alexmcfarland.com, give securely online at alexmcfarland.com, or you can mail a check and you can just write TNG, as in Truth for a New Generation, TNG. And you can mail that, if you would please, today to P.O.

Box 485, Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. Our ministry is working in all 50 states. We're also raising up these viral truth clubs, you know, a video, something goes viral.

Well, the website for our clubs, viraltruth.com. And what we do, we provide talking points, we equip and we train and we embolden young people to reach their friends. And yes, the movement is growing. So stand with us. This is all about winning souls for Christ, of course. But it's also about saving our nation, because our nation, this is where we live. To me, I think it's only rational that we would want to take a stand and do what we could do to help preserve these foundations of our country that are getting so fervently destroyed, and many professed Christians or even conservatives are letting it happen. We can't do that. We must do what we can do to make a difference.

And I thank you, and I ask God to bless you as you help us do this. Well, let's talk about wokeness. Because, folks, for really 60 years, since the sexual revolution of the 60s, and really, it seems like a spiritual switch was flipped around the time of Kennedy's assassination. In the 60s, it was so turbulent, the breakdown of the family, the sexual revolution, the pill, sex outside of marriage, then removing legal protection for the unborn in 1973. And that's what abortion was. It was not that women ever had a right to abort babies for convenience, but there was legal protection for the unborn removed. And of course, liberal academics saw that that was their open window to lobby for and adjudicate for things that previous to the abolition of morals would have been unthinkable. Gay marriage, pederasty, laws banning the public display of the Ten Commandments. And now we are seeing all this legislation for taking away the rights of parents, urging children that can't possibly be in a position to know what they want for their future, yet urging children to transition. It's so sad. At our youth camp just this past week, we had middle school and high schoolers, and I was talking to kids, always in groups, never alone.

We do everything above board. But this group of young girls that were sixth, seventh graders, this young girl that was just a child, was talking about how people at her school were urging her, you're not a girl, you're a boy, you need to transition. And this child looked like she was like seven or eight.

She actually was going into seventh grade. But can you imagine? Children that age shouldn't even know about such vile, filthy, deviant ideas. But we're seeing our children lose their innocence and be cut loose from the solid ground of truth. And corporations are helping stand for this.

And it really, besides being ungodly and unspeakably dark, it's child abuse. Now let me tell you some of the companies that have fallen over in fear of the ultimatums, the lines drawn in the sand by the gay mafia. Companies like Google, we know that, but General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Hanes, these are woke companies. As far as we know, they stand against family values, they stand against conservative politics, they stand against the moral boundaries that are the foundation of our Constitution, they are for the LGBTQ pride trans movements, they're standing against American sovereignty, and they're standing with the pride, the LGBTQ trans, the proselytizing of our kids into basically a world without morals and ultimately a world without God.

And here's the irony, the bitter irony of this. Companies like Intel, Jenny's Ice Cream, companies like Kate Spade, companies like KitchenAid that sponsored Dylan Mulvaney, who's the Anheuser-Busch aberrant spokesperson, Kohl's department store, Kroger, Legoland out in California. Legoland has one of the world's largest pride parades.

The Dodgers, which I already mentioned. Another sponsor of Dylan Mulvaney is the Love, Beauty and Planet. Lowe's Home Improvement, yes, Lowe's.

North Carolina-based hardware retailer. Gone woke, I'm so sorry to say. So much more that I could say, but here's the sad reality. These companies that give money and give shelf space to pride, and they think, well, I better placate rather than risk losing the market share of less than 1% of the American population. Saying to the 99 plus percent of American consumers, your views, your values don't matter. But to placate less than 1% of the population, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, Ralph Lauren, Reebok, Safeway, Sam's Club, on and on I could go.

Here's the thing. What they don't know is, thinking they're making a good business decision, they're ultimately contributing to what will cause the implosion of America. Hey Target, you think you're going to guard the few pennies you're going to get from the gay demographic? Well, what are you going to do when there is no more America and all of these bricks and mortar stores and all the overhead, the deferred maintenance cost?

You can't be a billion dollar company when there is no America to engage in commerce with. Let me take you back to the late 70s, early 80s. We know Kmart is dead and gone. And we all shopped at Kmart growing up. There were Kmarts. It was Walmart before there was Walmart. It was Amazon before there was Amazon.

But do you know what? In the history of retailing in America, it's a fascinating study. I would urge you to watch movies like The Founder, which is the story of McDonald's.

Michael Keaton gives an Oscar worthy performance in that movie. Very fascinating. The demise of Montgomery Ward. Eddie Lampert killing off Sears. Sears and Roebuck. But you know it's a fascinating story, the death of Kmart. Because it relates. People are already drawing a parallel between Target and Kmart.

Now what does this have to do with wokeness? I don't know if you recall, but Kmart bought Walden Books. Remember that? Remember when we would go in malls before malls were the places where drug deals and shootings go down. Nobody goes to malls anymore. But back in the day of malls, there was Walden Books. Well Kmart owned Walden Books. And Walden Books, at the urging of a tiny minority, began to display pornography way out front on the magazine racks. So Walden Books would display porn magazines.

Meanwhile, the secularists, the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Norman Lear, the TV producer who's contributed so strongly to the un-goddening of America. They don't want Billy Graham displayed. The inspirational books. Put those in the back and bring the pornography way out front. Well there was a little bit of a skirmish, but ultimately Walden Books, owned by their parent company Sears, kowtowed and they said, away with the Christian books, we'll put those in the back. To the back of the bus, Christian authors. But porn will keep it way out front, because we don't want to offend the atheists.

Well, they struggled, they went bankrupt, and ultimately the demise of Kmart, there were other factors involved, but largely the hill they decided to die on was that they would, doggone it, sell porn. And no moralists can tell them otherwise. Take a note, Target. And folks, I want to challenge you.

On and on we could go. But look, we need to pray. We want people saved. We don't wish any ill to Old Navy, Paramount, Oreos, Planet Fitness, all of these companies that are woke.

We don't wish them ill. But let me say this, at the very same time, we're not going to let them destroy the soul of our country, undermine our Constitution, and contribute to the unraveling of America, which is what they're doing. So, let's take our money and we'll shop elsewhere. If Target were to go out of business, if they will not change, and they're basically saying, we stand against God and truth, the American family, American children, and the welfare of the nation that's made us rich, we stand against all of those things, well then, I say good riddance when they finally do go bankrupt.

And I'm not going to spend my money there. Because woke is everything antithetical to what made America great, and what our moral compass and soul was about. I close by quoting President Woodrow Wilson, who, 100 years ago, he said, quote, I'm sorry for men who did not read the Bible every day. I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and of the pleasure. It is one of the most singular books in the world, for every time you open it, some old text you have read, and a score of times suddenly read over, takes on new meaning. There is no other book I know of which is true and this true. There is no other book that yields its meaning so personally and fits itself so intimately to the very spirit seeking its guidance.

The Bible. End of quote. Folks, we better turn back to the Bible or we're going to die as a country. And I hope you know the Lord, and I hope you're standing for truth and standing against the woke direction of so much of our country. An awakening to truth? Absolutely. But wokeness?

Not now, not ever. You may also reach us at Alex McFarland, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina, 27404. Or by calling 1-877-Yes-God-1. That's 1-877-YES-GOD-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarland Show.