red solo, er, starbucks cup

ok, seriously?  jeff foxworthy once said, "it's not that southerners are dumb, it's just that we can't keep the most ignorant amongst us off the tv."  i'm beginning to feel the same way about those who profess to follow CHRIST.  one of my seminary professors said that few things are as dangerous as a CHRIST-follower with too much zeal but too little education.  that was before the advent of facebook, and so now you factor in the zealous undereducated CHRIST-follower with a bullhorn the size of the world, and every little cause that over-privileged westerners feel is somehow attacking their faith draws a huge bullseye and the news media has a field day with the flaming arrows fired at it.

the latest target is the red starbucks cup.  for those of you that missed it, lift up your rock and listen up and i will fill you in on the situation.  apparently starbucks decided this year to try to be as accommodating as possible and to not isolate any particular people group and made their cups red.  no trees, no snowmen, no manger scenes, no stars, just red.  like a paper red solo cup, holding a beverage that costs just as much as anything you'll buy in the bar, but without the negative redneck stereotypes that go along with it.  make that cup plastic, with some ridges, and not only will you get a super hot hand from holding it, but you will instantly start to grow a hipster mullet the minute you sip out of it.  but i digress.

now, you think this would make everyone happy:  those who don't celebrate CHRISTmas won't have any religious pictures staring judgmentally at them as they sip their coffee (never mind the fact that the color red at CHRISTmas traditionally represents the blood of CHRIST,) those who do celebrate in some form or fashion still gets the festive red color, and those who feel that society has secularized the holiday don't have to be mocked by secular images stealing their joy in their religion.  however, we have learned that this is not the case.  a group of CHRIST-followers are upset because they say that starbucks "hates Jesus" and the plain red cup is one more step in removing CHRIST from CHRISTmas.  sure, starbucks has made some statements disparaging towards those of a conservative ilk, but i fail to see the problem with the plain red cup.  i know that many have already taken to the blogosphere to address this topic, but allow me to elaborate on why i don't see the problem with the hipster version of the red solo cup.

first off, starbucks is a business, a business that caters to people all over the world of every faith and every culture.  believe me, i have been all over the world and have rarely been anywhere i couldn't find a starbucks.  it would make sense that a business of this sort would seek to be welcoming to all patrons who choose to seer their tastebuds with their burnt coffee.  if anything, i, as a CHRIST-follower, am less offended by a business choosing to be neutral rather than trying to quasi-embrace a farcical version of a holiday that they don't really believe in for the purpose of increasing sales.  so i say, "bravo you hipneck-serving, barista army!  great marketing strategy!"

secondly, i find the hypocrisy in a CHRIST-follower who chooses to deride an organization committed to making money for attacking the holiday that they claim to hold in highest regard, out of some sort of pseudo-observation of the Saviour's birthday for which it was created, to be sadly hilarious.  let's be honest, when is the last time that you celebrated your dad's birthday by buying a present for your brother, a present bought not for the purpose of meeting a critical need, but just to say "happy birthday dad, so here's a present brother"?  i personally think that if we truly wanted to take the holiday to focus solely on CHRIST, we would take our money that we blow on presents for others that they don't need, and do as CHRIST compelled and feed the hungry and care for the homeless (and don't give me the garbage on how we are honoring CHRIST by mimicking the giving of gifts by the wise men, blah, blah, blahbity, blah, blah.)  however, i do not begrudge the celebration of both the secular and religious elements of the holiday, as we all do every year with lights and trees, alongside church services and CHRISTmas carols.  but, don't have the audacity to mock a secular organization for not holding your particular holiday in as high of regard as you do (as you sip your $6 coffee that you could have enjoyed at home in your keurig for .50 and then donated the other $5.50 to provide a meal for a homeless family, but again i digress.)  we don't get outraged at the lion for killing other animals and not being a harmless vegetarian like a giraffe, so why do we get outraged at a secular society for not being CHRISTian?

you want a reason to not drink a mucho grandioso ventricle mocha macchiato latte for a small fortune at your local starbucks?  how about their coffee tastes horrible so they have to hide its taste with copious amounts of cream, sugar, and artificial flavors?  or how about how overpriced it is, and how you can buy a cheaper and better cup of coffee, and use the money you save for a house payment?  or better yet, you can go to dunkin donuts and get a good coffee for cheaper, along with donuts!  donuts, people!  that's reason enough there!  no donuts at the starbucks.  just some fru-fru crumble cakes soggy from being microwaved out of frozen frigidity and maybe some sort of gourmet chocolate.  so don't go there, but stop blaming a cup for it, and worry about your own relationship with CHRIST and how it is being viewed by others and what kind of witness you are presenting.  

*****update:  it appears that warbucks, er, starbucks is not as "anti-Jesus" as the internet trolls claim.  upon a visit to one of their stores, you can find not only the "merry CHRIST-mas" blend of their coffee, but an actual advent calendar to count down the days till CHRIST-mas.  so could it be that this was all cooked up by a guy that either a)didn't have all the facts and was therefore making an uninformed, and consequentially ignorant, knee-jerk reaction? or b)just thought of a way to get millions of blog hits to his blog? or c)some combination of both?  i wager the latter, but decide for yourself.  either way, it further behooves each of us to research and make sure that what we are sharing and propagating to others is, in fact, valid, and doesn't make us look as dumb as the person who posted it in the first place.  (that includes this blog.  my bride will tell you that i sometimes ramble, and sometimes am even *gasp* wrong!  test the spirits!)