I’m hoping that someone in the media fabricated the story that “Christians” – people who are supposed to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ – are whining and bellyaching about the new Starbucks Christmas cups. (Or perhaps Starbucks fabricated it to garner publicity?)
The whole thing is so convoluted I cannot imagine any follower of Jesus expending time and energy on it.
Not when there are things going on in this world that the Lord really cares about.
I’m pretty certain that He couldn’t care less about the color of Starbucks’ coffee cups, and I have money hidden in my shoes that says He prefers the red cup over the other images that were plastered on their “Christmas” cups of the past.
Pray tell, when did snow flakes, sleds, elfs, and Santa Claus have anything to do with Jesus Christ or authentic Christianity?
Yet we’re being told that “Christians” are experiencing apoplexy over the red cups.
I’m not a Starbucks devotee, but I like the red cups MUCH better than those other images which detract from Jesus Christ and conflate the celebration of His birth with American consumerism, childhood fantasy, and science fiction.
Add to that, when did Starbucks become a Christian organization in the first place?
(As far as I know, they’ve never plastered a Nativity scene on their cups.)
All told, I could care less if their coffee cups are red, blue, green, or plaid. And frankly, to be frank (and I am), why should any Jesus-follower?
I really want to believe that this whole “controversy” is an invention spawned by anti-Jesus followers, making them look like village idiots who can’t figure out the difference between Santa Claus and Jesus of Nazareth.
But sadly, I’m probably wrong here. Sigh.
Johnny Mac’s reaction sums up my feelings on the matter. How about you?
Also, I recently interviewed Dave Baroni on his new book Creative in the Image of God
Here’s an excerpt.
Dave says,
“One of the most important factors in being creative is having the ability to listen well. In the book I share how to listen: to God’s voice through the Scriptures, through creation, through a movie or a novel, through interaction with a child, a spouse or a stranger.
I describe an encounter where I “heard the inaudible” and a heavenly song was born. Part of learning to listen is merely believing that God speaks today (always consistent with the written scriptures).
If God loves, then He is passionate about relationship. If He is passionate about relationship, God is passionate about communication. One of the very names of Jesus is…THE WORD. God broke 400 years of silence from the heavens by sending His very VOICE. God speaks today. Audibly? Rarely. His voice is louder than that!
Another aspect of creativity is learning how to nourish ourselves with words and songs. There is a creative power inherent in the Word of God. Practice singing the Word. Open up to your favorite Psalm or scripture and read it out loud. Then SING it! You will be surprised at the life and the power of that. I go into that in much more detail in the book. The audiobook version has the actual recordings of some of my songs, it is an added dimension that I think listeners will appreciate.”
Read the entire interview here
Which Video Do You Like Best?
Red Cups: The new face of Christian persecution. Make the madness stop.
As you already guessed, there is a chance it was done on purpose. Among social media managers there is a pretty general consensus the whole thing may have initially been prompted by someone at Starbucks as a publicity stunt. What’s that saying? “there is no such things as bad publicity” It certainly worked.
It’s a sign of things to come. The only way to get noticed is to be louder, angrier and more offended than the next person. We’re going to see a lot more of this kind of nonsense and the best way to counteract it is to ignore it.
I agree that it is preposterous for Christians to be upset about red cups. But could I share just one thing that I’ve heard about that you don’t mention? My understanding is that it was not Christians in general who were upset, but that the whole thing started with one man’s video rant – and his challenge to others to try to get them on the bandwagon. I don’t even remember the guy’s name – maybe because I’ve tried to forget it because I do NOT want to give him any more publicity! Evidently this is what he does: he makes controversial videos to try to stir people up. And evidently it worked with his “followers.”
However, I was delighted to observe that virtually all of the Christians that I heard about or heard from were instead pointing out the absurdity of his challenge. So that’s good news. At least, most people recognized the lunacy this time.
I deliberately chose not to mention the man or his video, but instead, to focus on the absurdity of the campaign.