North Carolina’s Backwards Boycott

By: American Decency Staff

If you've been with American Decency long enough, you know that our roots spread deep into the soil of activism.

Originally a grassroots organization dedicated to keeping pornographic material out of our geographic vicinity, ADA (then Citizens Against Pornography) cut its teeth on the wooden handles of protest signs.

We've picketed, contacted advertisers, and managed boycotts with the understanding that organizations supplying goods to customers ought to be concerned with what's good for their customers.

We're certainly not the only organization that has used these tactics; as we speak, there are liberals who won't eat at Chick-Fil-A or shop at Hobby Lobby, because their executives have supported traditional marriage or refused to fund abortions.

Boycotting is not an unusual response when consumers are not happy with the way a business is run.

What had been unusual, until recently, is corporations turning that tactic on their customers – threatening to withhold services until consumers bend to their way of thinking.

Yet, this tactic has proven effective in states where the duly elected representatives of the people have chosen to stand for religious liberty or, more recently, common sense bathroom laws, as Ryan T. Anderson notes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"We’ve seen this play out in state after state. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), vetoed a religious liberty bill in 2014 after the NFL threatened to move the Super Bowl out of her state.

In 2015, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed a religious liberty bill into law—and then promptly worked with the legislature to gut it—after Salesforce, Inc. threatened to pull out of the state.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R), vetoed a bathroom privacy and safety bill earlier this year after a similar uproar."

Companies are no longer even pretending to be concerned for the preferences, let alone freedoms, of a large section of their customer base – Christians.

Some of them are quite forward about it, like Starbucks where the CEO in 2014 told supporters of traditional marriage they could "sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company, thank you very much."

Most recently, in just the past week, entertainers Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams have cancelled shows in North Carolina and Mississippi out of protest of these States' recently passed bathroom privacy law and religious freedom protection, respectively.

Paypal has also pulled out of NC, and – a little silver lining here – a major pornography company has blocked access to its site from the state as well.

Add to this the travel bans enacted by the Ohio cities of Dayton and possibly Cincinnati and Cuyahoga County, including Cleveland, and New York state, San Francisco, and Washington state, which restrict non-essential travel to North Carolina for city/state business.

Keep in mind that these boycotts and travel bans are in response to the deeply held religious beliefs of the voters of North Carolina and Georgia.

It seems like there's a word for refusing to do business with someone because of their religion…

Oh, yeah, it's "discrimination."

And unlike, "sexual orientation" or "gender identity," discrimination against a particular religion actually is a violation of federal law – the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I'm not suggesting these are grounds for a lawsuit. I'm not Donald Trump and the courts are stacked against us anyways, but Christians should recognize these offenses for what they are – signs of a culture turning against us. More importantly, they are signs of a culture turning against GOD.

That makes our call to be "salt and light" that much more important, God help us. He's the only One who can.

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