Citizenship Confusion: Should We “Vote with Our Dollars”?

As Christians have sought to engage culture for Christ, one popular idea is that we should “vote with our dollars.” By supporting movies, music, TV shows, clothing, video games, art, and athletes that contain or promote a “Christian worldview” we are actively contributing to the popularity of our faith and therefore increasing the likelihood that more “Christian” works will be made. And the more Christian our popular culture is, the more blessed our nation will be, the more moral our neighbors will be, and the more God will be glorified. In two articles written in May of 2008, I critiqued this philosophy of cultural engagement:

Should We “Vote with Our Dollars”? Part 1 and Part 2.

Expanding on what I wrote in these early CaPC articles (with their typos and gratuitous bold text), I would now say that the idea that we should share the Gospel or defend the faith by voting with our dollars comes from the model of validation found in the market and in democracy, rather than from the Word and Christ’s model of evangelism through sacrificial love. In other words, the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christianity is entirely independent of its popularity, cultural acceptance, profitability, or media visibility. Quite to the contrary, we should expect our faith to be mocked, misunderstood, uncool, unprofitable, and dangerous.

As citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we are called to a different rhetoric or strategy of contending for the faith. Where other worldviews, religions, and ideologies evaluate their success and truth based on their popularity in the world, the success of Christianity is established in Christ, already completed, already done, regardless of how many or how few acknowledge Him. So our posture towards the world is one of joyously sharing the good news of Christ out of gratitude, not in order to persuade ourselves of the validity of Christianity by making it popular, not to defend our faith by economically supporting Christian-y things, but to selflessly share our joy with our neighbors as people. Whether or not it “the Christian” wins American Idol or Survivor, our assurance of truth is in Christ and our obedience comes from our love our of neighbor.