If Sam Walton could speak to his board
What happens when money talks and Christians grow silent?
Sam Walton never denied that his passion in life was his work. He had grown up on a farm and learned what it meant to work hard. He succeeded in school, in sports, and later in business. He died six days before his seventy-fourth birthday with a net worth of almost twenty-five billion dollars.
During the years Sam Walton led the Walmart franchise, the stores were known for low prices and their service to smaller communities in rural areas. One Entrepreneur article described Sam Walton as “part P.T. Barnum, part Billy Graham.”
Walton taught a Sunday School class but was quoted as saying, “I don’t see myself as a particularly religious man.” I think Sam Walton had a deep respect for the Christian faith and for the American country. I am not sure if he would say he had a personal relationship with God through Christ.
If Sam Walton were still alive and could speak to his Walmart board now, what would he want them to know?
Walmart has followed Target’s bad decision.
While we were celebrating Memorial Day weekend, Walmart began running ads to promote its new gay pride apparel on social media. A Fox News article quoted their Instagram post which said, “Not just a slogan. #PrideAlways is a reminder to lead with love.” According to that same article, the CEO of Walmart, Doug McMillon said, “We’re a retailer. We want everybody to feel comfortable and excited about working at Walmart.”
Target meanwhile has announced they are scaling back their Pride Month merchandise after the backlash last year and the millions of dollars lost during that time. Only certain Target stores will carry the Pride products. Bud Light is still trying to recover from the angst their ad cost them. Honestly, I didn’t expect Walmart to jump into this murky pond, but in they went.
How is it that Walmart wants “everybody to feel comfortable and excited” about Walmart, yet they don’t consider the vast majority of this country is going to be uncomfortable and offended by a lady’s tank t-shirt that says, “Lez is more” or a man’s t-shirt that says, “Sounds gay. I’m in.”
I’m not comfortable or excited about shopping at Walmart anymore. Are you?
When money talks and Christians don’t.
Bill Clinton declared June “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month” in 1999 and 2000. A Washington Post article titled, “Pink Money Flowing to Democrats” reports a long list of the LGBTQ donors and pride organizations who have given millions and millions to campaigns. Money talks and politicians need money to win an election.
Is money talking more loudly these days than those who are concerned about morality and faith?
I understand why politicians need donations to roll in. We are a donor-based ministry and we raise money from people who want to support our message too. But, is the biblical message making as big a difference in our culture as some of the world’s messaging?
The world is talking, are we?
Walmart’s message versus God’s.
Walmart’s Pride theme for June is “Love for all.” Interestingly, love is God’s theme too. The biblical message of the rainbow was adopted and altered years ago by the LBGTQ community, and now God’s message about love is being perverted as well. It isn’t difficult to discern truth if truth is really what you seek. If love has no rules, love has no meaning.
If love is the only criteria for a sexual relationship, where are the boundaries? If a man “loves” his stepdaughter? If an uncle “loves” a niece? If a boss “loves” an employee? Again, if love has no rules, love has no meaning.
The way to recognize counterfeit is to study the real thing.
Galatians 5:13–14 says, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
God loves us so much and wants us to have the best life possible, so he gave us his laws. Many of God’s laws govern sexual relationships. God knew they would be a huge issue so he provided the necessary boundaries to govern human weaknesses.
Tragically, many homosexual people, especially women, were sexually abused earlier in their lives. That’s why the God who loves us made sexual boundaries clear saying, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them” (Leviticus 20:13).
That’s why the apostle Paul told the church in Rome, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:24–27).
The book of Romans has long been considered the most important book of Christian theology in Scripture. Paul’s words have been true for two thousand years. They still are.
Are we Rome?
Paul wanted to go to Rome and did, via a prison ship. Rome was the world leader and the greatest nation in the world. So great in fact, the politicians of that day didn’t worry about their enemies. Their culture, however, eventually declined into rampant immorality. The great nation of Rome imploded from within.
In a recent article, my husband quoted these prophetic words from President Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
No one believed Rome could ever fall, but they did. Is America Rome?
Money talks, so can we.
Our country, our children, and even those who have bought into our culture’s recent ideas about right and wrong deserve to know there is an ancient path that leads to eternal life. God loved this world so much he gave us Jesus. Anyone who makes Jesus their Lord and Savior will have eternal life. Will you share that truth with love for the people around you?
If Sam Walton could speak to his board today, I am certain he would tell them to pull that merchandise from the stores because it is just wrong in every way. Sam Walton can’t speak to his board, but we can.
You can send an email to: [email protected]
You can sign a petition at: https://www.afa.net/activism/action-alerts/2024/walmart-goes-all-out-for-pride-month/
We have a voice. Let’s use it to speak our truth to a culture that needs it.