In Saint Patrick’s Square, Soho, there is a Hindu Temple; a Krishna Consciousness temple, if I am not mistaken. On the ground floor of this temple complex is a vegan restaurant. I want you to imagine, as we are walking past it, that I suggest to you that we go and spend our money in the Hindu Restaurant which is supporting a Hindu Temple. What would you say? I think most Christians would become irksome at the idea, stating that they would not want to spend their money in support of another religion; and rightly so. However, not all my Christian friends would have the same problem going to a bar with a pride flag or going to a halal restaurant. There is, I would suggest, a disjointedness in our thinking about how we spend our money as Christians. I want to make the case to you that any business that is outwardly opposed to Christianity should not be supported by our money.
Now I know what you are thinking: Well, Bob, if I boycotted everything that supported the LGBTQA(silent P) agenda, I would not be able to shop anywhere. I want to put in a clear caveat, if there is no other way to get what you need and your only option is to eat at the vegan restaurant supporting a temple, or buy from a supermarket parading a rainbow flag; then obviously go there. However, I am speaking about the need that can be fulfilled when there is a choice. I also want to be clear; I am not saying that you need to research heavily every shop you buy in; but – if housing agents are on a high street and one of them is sporting a trans flag and the other is not – or even better, has a Christian symbol in the window, go to the one with the Christian symbol. We need as Christians to throw our economic weight around Christians; and believe me – we do have economic weight; but we are not thinking like a people.
Let me go back to vegan Hindu restaurant; I remember whilst with a group of Christians, suggesting to them – that we should not go to a restaurant with a Halal sign in the window nor buy halal meat. To which they scoffed; and said I was being ridiculous – and that I could just pray over the meat; and it would be ‘kosher’. Now, if I had tried to play the weaker conscience card:
1 Corinthians 8: 10 For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; 11 And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. 13Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
…they would have made their excuses and carried on anyway; as most Christians have never been taught anything about this; the idea of not using ones liberty around things like halal meat; to cause your brother; who may see something spiritual in it; to stumble by you scandalising their weaker conscience… it would have also been a lie; as I understand the idea of the freedom of the gospel.
Roman 14: 1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on his opinions.a 2For one person has faith to eat all things, while another, who is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One person regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who observes a special day does so to the Lord;b he who eats does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Christians believe in only one GOD and therefore the sacred objects of other religions have no power; but they do offend some – who think that they do have power – and we should not abuse our difference; but be conscious of our weaker brethren and not scandalise them. I must confess I use to have a Buddhist Statue in my room that you could see on camera; which caused upset; for some Christians who see it as possessing power to influence my life. I do not believe it does, however, I conceded that a) I should get rid of it and b) it should not appear on my live streams. I inherited it, if you want to know. I was once out with friends – one of whom – saw pubs as dens of pure poison and sin; due to his own personal story; and did not want to go to a pub – with the rest of us; so we all decided to go to a hotel instead; as to offend his conscience.
My objection to halal meat and other anti Christian businesses has nothing to do with that (though for some other Christians it may – and you should consider their conscience when making group choices in their company). My objection to eating Halal is because it creates an exclusive Islamic economy; only Allah’s name can be said over the animal, which apart from the Arab speaking world effectively limits the role to a Muslim; and Islamic business – which Muslims are openly encouraged the preference over non Muslims businesses (in exactly the same way I am doing in this article) give zakat a redistributive tax 2.5% to Islamic charities – that can only help Muslims – some of that money finds its way to Dawa; or to Muslim evangelism to use Christian parlance. The more you feed that economic cycle the more it will grow.
This is a matter already alive in many schools; and prisons; and other institutions in which it is assumed – that you just will eat halal; because no one ever says no! Do you know what your children are eating at school; have you asked for a non halal provision for your child? We need to say no; as Muslims are saying no; and their no is become a default yes assumed on our part. The irony is – and always has been – Muslims can eat the meat of Jews and Christians: I quote from Islam QA a salafi website:
I [Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen is speaking] say: They were new in Islam, and they did not know whether they had said the name of Allaah or not, so he said: “Say it yourselves, then eat.” So eating it is permissible even if we do not know whether the one who slaughtered the meat mentioned the name of Allaah or not. Similarly it is permissible to eat even if we do not know whether the meat was slaughtered in the proper manner or not, because if the action is carried out by the right people then the basic principle is that it is valid, unless there is evidence to the contrary. So if some meat comes to us from a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian, we should not ask about it or ask how it was slaughtered or whether the name of Allaah was mentioned over it. It is halaal so long as there is no clear proof that it is haraam. This is a way in which Allaah has made things easier for us. Liqaa’aat al-Baab il-Maftooh, 1/77
You see the push in our country done by agents within the Islamic community is more about creating a distinct and different Islamic community; that has clear boundaries of demarcation; as a way of strengthening Islamic identity – that it does to not being able to eat meat slaughtered by Christians or Jews. It is about Islamification:
“Whoever prays our prayer and faces our Qiblah and eats our slaughtered animals, is a believer who is under Allah’s and His Messenger’s protection.” (Recorded by Imam al-Bukhari on the authority of Anas ibn Malik (Allah be pleased with him)
When we shop and eat Halal food; or shop at an overtly Islamic business; we are helping with Islamisation. It is the same logic behind Islamic finance; and the ideas of interest; it is an invention of Muslims, to create an artificial distinction between usury and interest; so as to demand space in the financial markets; and encourage Muslims to use those ideas; to create and strengthen Islamic identity; and to encourage Muslims then to use Islamic financial institutions – as a way of those with an agenda, influencing in ever increasing circles the lives of the average cultural Muslim – who tend to live out their faith by a few cultural markers; it draws them into the influence of those pushing Islamisation.
I want to be clear, I am not condemning the Muslim community that their leaders were ahead of the curve in terms of sociological facts; that either the Liberals (who go after the schools, courts, and HR) or the Christians who literally are colouring in crayon on issues like this whilst our opponents play chess against us. I am saying that we Christians need to learn about the sociological impact of our choices on the world around us. We need to be better informed; and part of that being better informed; is saying to yourself, that you can and should buy from a Christian business if you can and you should boycott businesses where ever possible pushing an anti Christian agenda.
When you buy from a Christian business; you help to help to build up the Body of Christ; you strengthen some little part of it; and you help that Christian business have more influence on society. When you buy from a Christian business; you create bonds of fellowship – when you forsake the closer, cheaper non Christian business, to help the wider body of Christ. This creates in you the practice of sacrifice for your brethren; which is part of what it means to be a Christian. I know; this is all a mile away from soy-boy limp wristed, me and my comfort Christianity; but that is the truth; just read the Bible – I mean literally – its in every book! The Christian business will then use its money and tithe, to help with other Christian charities; one hopes; and should if the owner reads this article; as what is good for your business; is a rule that should be applied to causes and charities more generally; and thus is helps in the Christianisation of the world.
Boycotts do work; and we should be clear the evidence is also clear both progressive and Muslim scholars/militant encourage economic preference, boycott, and cancelling against Christians. So feel no shame in behaving like this, because they do not! They will cry foul but your answer to that is just to find the various examples where their ideology has lead to the same – think of Chic Fillet in the UK. Christians in America try regularly to organise boycotts; but they do not often catch on; when they do; rarely, Christians are usually a part of the movement. The recent and very successful destruction of Bud Light; Christians and a wider conservative culture synergised to do real harm to this business – after it pushed woke ideology to the wrong crowd; Christians are fighting Disney in Florida; helped by a Christian Senator. The economic struggle is very real and should be part of our faith. This struggle would be helped and magnified in a number of ways.
The first, best and most important of these – is the Benedict option; which is the idea of Christian moving geographically into the same areas; this would then allow us to dominate the local market; establish and support Christian business, to replace the ones that go bust – because they supported an anti Christian agenda and no one shops there; and to influence all aspects of those cultures due to our sheer weight of numbers.
In the absence of that; perhaps we need little shop window flags of our own; and certificate scheme – not for nonsense – like those folks who try to parody the LGBTQ by demanding a heterosexual pride month (well I hope its parody – as its dumb if they are not) but rather for real base issues, like: pro – life, pro – family, pro – church! Saying things like ‘pro – God’; ‘Pro-Bible’ are not actually helpful; these need to markers of values – where the battle lines are drawn. So perhaps someone could start a network; that checks business to see if they are sufficiently; life, family, freedom, church affirming places; and give them a reward certificate, put it on a website; and hand them a little flag sticker! These flags and symbols then re-enforce a certain message in the culture. It also identifies to Christians; which companies they can safely go and work for; and that again helps the church. I am sure a muslim and a jew if they had a choice to shop at a pro family printers over a pro LGBT printers, they would choose the pro family one; and visa a versa; if that were the choice. Yes, the wild fury of the cultic fanatics of the Religion of Humanity will rage – as they did against Chick Fillet in the UK; and closed it down; and yes, that is why as Christians need a benedict option; so we can better support such Christian businesses.
The other thing that would help in this regard, is for better teaching around vocation in general; and the Christian vocation to business in general. I’ve seen good Christians – feel a vocation to business – and say they want to do it to help the kingdom of GOD; but then compromise; they compromise spiritually as the seduction of riches makes them spiritually soft! They compromise on the what the where the when and the how of their business. Don’t get me wrong, I realise that in an imperfect world, we all make compromises to get by – yes you and me both. However, when I am talking about this kind of compromise, I mean they compromise on their vocation to build a Christian business; that supports a Christian purpose, and is part of how they draw closer to GOD. A Christian can be called to be a business man/women; and they should use that as their vocation to draw themselves closer to GOD; and use their business to help support and build a more Christian society.
Halal meat
Islamic finance Muslims can eat meat by Christians and Jews
Christian Finance
