This is from the “people need to get a life” file. It will be my only statement on this uproar over Starbucks’ red coffee cups.
My faith is well documented in this blog. I go to church just about every Sunday, and my family is heavily involved in parish activities. To me, the “War on Christmas” rhetoric has always been a stupid distraction — just another thing for people to get whiny and self-righteous about. This coffee cup controversy is simply more of the same.
Starbucks has never put anything religious on its cups; its holiday cup designs mostly focus on winter themes and Santa Claus. Nor should it venture into religious territory: Starbucks customers are of all creeds and colors. There’s no Star of David or Buddha designs on the drinkware, either, but you don’t hear about that from Christian extremists. All they care about is that their personal brand of faith be present in the marketing.
Exhibit A is this guy. He claims to be a big evangelical personality online, though I’ve never heard of him before this. He’s very proud of himself because he went into a Starbucks and told them his name was Merry Christmas so they’d write it on his cup. He even brags that he brought his gun into the store, because nothing drives home the Christian message of “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men” like a firearm.
Even Donald Trump is getting in on the action, telling supporters to boycott Starbucks over this. Because, you know, Trump has always worn his faith on his sleeve.
https://youtu.be/E54DAlBqiFM
“If I become president, we’re all going to be saying Merry Christmas again. That I can tell you,” Trump declared. He must have discovered some way to control our minds and make us say certain things.
Fortunately, most people in my network are seeing this for what it is: a non-issue.
It’s telling that while I’ve seen a bunch of headlines about Christians freaking out about this, I haven’t seen s single Facebook post with Christians actually raging about Starbucks cups.
And therein lies the problem with social media: One or two lunkheads make a fuss about something, and the good people of Facebook and Twitter translate it into a fuss by whole movements and organizations.
The human race is a puzzling one.
One should be thankful they can afford to buy a Starbucks coffee. Period.