But Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the LORD.

Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the LORD our God, or partiality or taking bribes."
(2Ch 19:2,7)

January 2012 a very famous global retailer of stimulating drinks emphasized a corporate position of blessing capital sex crimes and testified in favor of a law that affirms that anyone who would execute humans for committing homosexual acts should themselves be deserving of penalty for murder.

Corollary to that would be that law should punish anyone proportionately (lex talionis) who would defame, derogate, criticize, discriminate against, or harm anyone who committed homosexual acts, or approved of homosexual acts.

What is the proper response of Christians to this philosophical position, and, more specifically, to Starbucks corporation management, employees, and products?

Remember, it is not about Starbucks, because of this particular corporation, its logo, its name, or the people who find their vocation in maintaining its operations (I’m sure they are all very nice, friendly people at times) – this is all about a principle, a truth, and ultimately about whether Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God. If He is the lawgiver and judge, we know that we will all eventually inherit the blessing or cursing that He apportions to us based on His own law that He uses to judge.

The dumpstarbucks.com site maintains, in 8 languages today, that 48,578 people have signed the petition (which says we are not going to buy from you because we are offended at your cultural war against our moral values).

Many are saying that the cultural conversation over this has resulted in increased sales for Starbucks products, since such a large section of Americans and Europeans (those that can afford to spend 3-$10/day on luxury beverages) think the law should punish those who criticize or harm anyone who approves of homosexual acts, and/or calling the legal solemnization of such relationships – holy marriage.

What happens when we trade with Starbucks? We are benefited. By our thinking and actions we are calling this trade: good. The quality of a Starbucks product is better than what we could obtain from a non-Starbucks provider. The distance is less, the taste is better, the atmosphere is more desirable, the customer service is more pleasant, the monetary cost is cheaper – there is something about that trade that is more “good” than the comparable trade we could make with any number of other drink-sellers, or the thermos we could bring from our home coffeepot.

The Bible says this is shortsighted, at best, and wicked and rebellious at the worst. Would Jesus shop at Starbucks today?

I find a strong theme in Scripture, that if a culture refuses to execute humans who commit capital crimes, God will kill that culture. It says in Genesis 9:5,6, that God maintains our human lives in a post-Noah’s-Flood civilization upon the condition that we take the life of those who strike at God through taking away the life of an innocent human who was created in the image of God. I will require, He says.

Other stories in Scripture detail out for us what this means, in all the case laws of the Books of Moses, the history and the prophets, as well as the New Testament. Both mankind’s historical record and last-night’s movie demonstrate this for us, in that we all approve of taking away the guilty man’s life (property/freedom) after he has taken away the innocent man’s life (property/freedom). We even approve of minimum force being used to preemptively take away the guilty man’s life (property/freedom) as soon as it becomes evident that he is committed to a crime.

If this is true, then it is not going to be good that our culture contradicts God, in this matter, and so stoutly maintains that “We shall not surely die” if we bless homosexual acts. It stands to reason, then, that if we are obligated to execute capital sex criminals, according to God’s definition, as unpopular, icky, and dangerous as that might be; it will not be as icky as getting incinerated by burning sulphur (Genesis 19), or by getting stabbed by swords and being burned up in a big pile of all your earthly possessions (Judges 20). It follows, that we would do well to minimize public approval of what God guarantees will be painfully destructive to our civilization.

When you buy a Starbucks product you are benefiting from it, profiting from the trade. It is quicker or cheaper than getting the same item from another vendor. (You would have to pay more, drive farther, get inferior product, etc). Do you want God to know that you are willing to profit from this type of vendor? If you are going to abide in God’s tent, you are going to have to despise reprobates who despise those who fear the LORD. Part of your honoring those who fear the LORD, is to benefit those vendors who don’t approve of tearing down your civilization upon your heads. In a way, this little benefit, profit, and increase – you are getting from Starbucks is functioning as a bribe. A Bribe is something you get, that you want, in exchange for defending or giving your approval to someone who is doing something wrong. You do it for some kind of personal gain – consisting of the difference between the lesser cost of trading with Starbucks than with an alternate provider. You would rather have the gain with bearing false witness, than to give a faithful witness and lose that tempting advantage. These are the implications of the personal gain to yourself – from trading with those who bless capital criminals.

What about the gain to Starbucks because you traded with them? People benefit when you re-assign $3.50 the bank says they owe you – to Starbucks. The stockholder-owners, the managers, and all the employees and venders that do business with Starbucks make their living through selling you that drink. Their situation is that it is more profitable for them to make their living through a business that encourages capital criminals and slanders the righteous – than if they worked for, served, or invested in – another business who didn’t defy God’s law. For that little profit/advantage, they are willing to give a false witness towards the Righteous (“You guys hate, discriminate, and violate the equal rights of those who just have a preference different than yours, or were perhaps just born that way”), and a false witness toward the Reprobate (“You guys are just fine, upstanding, contributors to our diverse society”).

These your-gain/their-gain issues come together if you both fear the LORD and make your living by serving Starbucks. You are gaining by trading your labor to Starbucks to the degree that your other optional employment opportunities wouldn’t pay as much as your situation as their employee.

If this issue is a capital issue in law, these tiny, advantageous profits are blood money. In the early days of America, the majority of the culture rallied to the task of making their own clothes and beverages at home rather than profit the British Corporations by having to pay tiny (by modern comparisons) taxes on tea and imports. Are you going to keep that kind of America? Or lose it?

That Starbucks dares to take such a stand at this moment in history, and now gloats over actually profiting from it (if that is true) – should be a loud wake up call to those that fear the LORD and His enforcement of His law. This is yet another sign that our society is reaching a critical mass that immediately precedes God’s action-taking. It is not like we lack warning signs shouting at us from every quarter. There comes a point, before the sickle sweeps through, when almost everybody has taken their stand against the LORD and against His Anointed, and there is only a tiny fraction of “rebels”.

Gen 19: ⁴ Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;

Judges 20:  ¹² Then the tribes of Israel sent men through the entiretribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this wickedness that has taken place among you? ¹³ Now then, deliver up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove this wickedness from Israel.” But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel. ¹⁴ The sons of Benjamin gathered from the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the sons of Israel.

It is not like there is any place to hide from this. If you take as the Biblical view that homosexual acts are capital crimes (never mind that Sodom and Gibeah had no Christian denominations that were saying it was holy matrimony) you are setting yourself up for very serious consequences in this culture. God’s law written on the hearts of men (however incomplete or corrupted) knows that a false accuser should suffer penalty. The Bible teaches both that you must testify (in certain cases) and that the false accuser should suffer the same penalty his testimony tries to pin on the accused.

Lev 5:1 ‘Now if a person sins after he hears a public adjuration to testify when he is a witness, whether he has seen or otherwise known, if he does not tell it, then he will bear his guilt.

Dt. 19:16 If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. 21 Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

How long are we going to halt between two opinions? If Jesus is Strong (to reward or punish), and Good (we prefer His definitions of good & evil, sin & crime), then follow Him, but if Democracy (majority of committee or voters) then follow Them. Just remember, you have to have the election to decide the moral ethic of how you should vote in the election before you can vote in the election the right way.

Either way, when a capital crime is involved, you risk giving a testimony that can get yourself killed. If you accuse them of committing a capital crime, and you are wrong, you are supposed to be put to death. If they accuse you of being worthy of death, and they are giving false witness, you are responsible to put them to death, “that all Israel might hear and fear”. If nobody takes up their responsibility to put the capital criminals and false accusers in such capital cases – to execution, The LORD says, “I will require it.”

Your vote for God’s standards in this tiny matter may end up being more important than your vote for the US President.

Do you want this kind of Company to profit from you?

Do you want to profit from this kind of Company?

Nov 2012 the Washington Petition to normalize homosexual marriage passed.

A few cups of coffee is the charge of the mosquito.

We are about to be subject to the charge of the Elephant, in the unfolding provisions of the "Affordable" Care Act.

But both of these pale in light of the magnitude of the world-wide dominance of the Central Banks over all  our trade.

If the fractional-reservere fiat-money creation can be proven to be theft through deceit, what is the responsibility of Christians?

If any see any more Biblical applications that should improve this approach to these current moral dilemmas I would welcome any feedback on gmail: honestmeasures, or yahoo: leperwatchman.