Once characterized by middle class, mid-America values and character, Walmart has apparently abandoned its conservative roots and taken on the LGBT cause.
This came to light for me after receiving a phone call from a Walmart employee asking for advice. This person, who is a long-time friend and supporter of our ministries, explained that the employees at her store, without comment, were just given new vests to wear.
What caught her attention was that the vests contained the colors of the rainbow, the adopted colors of the LGBT movement. Upon returning home, she did some online research. Sure enough, she discovered that Walmart has aligned itself with the LGBT cause.
She was stunned and wondering how to respond. She is a good, decent person and does not want to create controversy. However, to wear the vest and thereby promote the LGBT lifestyle would violate her conscience and sincerely held religious beliefs.
After listening to her concerns, my wife, Susan, and I suggested the following two options.
Option No. 1
Tell the Walmart manager that you cannot wear their new vest, for to do so would violate your conscience and sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage and sexuality. You, therefore, would like to wear the same vest you have worn in the past.
I told her I suspected that they would agree, for to do otherwise would show their own prejudice and intolerance. If, however, they refuse, you can honestly say that you were let go because of your religious/Christian beliefs. In such a situation, if you wanted, you could sue for religious discrimination and/or file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
It is one thing for Walmart to decide as a company to support the LGBT cause. It is another thing for them to put their Christian employees in a situation where they have to choose between their God and their job. They should not have to make that choice.
Option No. 2
Wear the new vest but find a button or label you can wear on it that identifies the rainbow with God’s covenant in Genesis 9:12-13. In other words, take back the rainbow, which actually belongs to God and His people.
This is the approach of Ken Ham who created the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. Ham announced that the massive replica of Noah’s ark would be lit each evening with a rainbow. This is appropriate for it was after Noah and his family came out of the ark that God gave the rainbow as a sign of His covenant.
In Ham’s first tweet concerning this, he said, “The @ArkEncounter is lit permanently at night with a rainbow to remind the world that God owns the rainbow & is a sign of His covenant.”
Stand for Truth and Pray for Boldness
As modern culture abandons objective truth and biological reality, we as God’s people must take a stand for truth. Show love to all people, but never compromise truth. Only the truth will make us free. As Jesus said in John 8:32, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
Our Lord will always tell us the truth, even when it hurts, because He wants the very best for us. That is why He said to the lukewarm Laodicean church, “Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19). Should we not be like our Lord and love people enough to tell them the truth?
If the modern church will repent for compromising truth for cultural acceptance, and pray for boldness to declare God’s truth, it may happen for us as it did for the early church. When threatened and pressured by their culture to compromise truth, the early church prayed for boldness. “Grant that Your servants may speak Your word with great boldness” (Acts 4:29), they prayed.
God was obviously pleased with their prayer, for Luke says, “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). {eoa}
Dr. Eddie Hyatt is a historian, Bible teacher and ordained minister with almost 50 years of ministerial experience in many parts of the world. He is a prolific author and his latest book, 1726, documents America’s Christian birth out of a great spiritual awakening. His books are available from Amazon and his website at eddiehyatt.com.
