Years ago, Walmart ran a clever marketing campaign. The mega-discounter displayed the cost of items sold by other major retailers alongside the “rollback” price offered by Walmart. The ad was clear: Walmart offers the lowest of low prices.
Walmart recently issued another rollback—its biggest ever. Not of lower-priced paper towels and peanut butter (as much as we all could use deflation of inflation!) but a rolling back of Walmart’s woke policies. Through the activism of conservative Robby Starbuck and others, Walmart announced it would do the following:
- Cease partnering with the Human Rights Campaign (a notorious LGBTQ+ watchdog)- Stop selling some LGBTQ+-themed items to children
- Quit using “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion) terminology
- End Walmart.org Center for Racial Equity (after 2025)
Calculating the cultural significance of this course correction is nearly impossible. In recent years, America has seemed as though it’s been a different country, a nation ruled by “social justice” ideology. Deviant sexuality has been platformed, the family has been under grave assault, and racial division has been perversely encouraged.
Many Christians felt (understandably) as if they had lost the America they had always known. Fast forward to late 2024. The ground beneath our feet is shifting. Walmart’s woke rollback represents a stunning repudiation of this ideology. After all, the vendor is no mom-and-pop shop undertaking transformation; Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, renouncing its compromised policies.
We need to reflect theologically on that metamorphosis. One of Satan’s most effective lies is to convince us that our defeat is inevitable. However, as we see with Walmart’s about-face, we must not believe the devil, for much that looks discouraging is not nearly as fixed as it may seem. Our culture is in play.
Knowing this, we must continue to stand for truth, expose lies, and love our neighbor with the grace of God’s love. We can do so with the highest confidence and hope. As Scripture spells out, lies will not win in the end. God and all His truth will triumph.
Indeed, the greatest rollback is coming. On God’s appointed day, we will not witness a mere cutting of prices; we will have a front-row seat to see Jesus Christ utterly destroy all darkness and make the whole world right.
Come, Lord Jesus!
