It's after Halloween, which means businesses everywhere are releasing Christmas decorations, food, music, and themed products. Among these products are the iconic red Starbucks cups that the popular coffee chain uses every year around the holidays. In the past these cups have featured winter-themed illustrations such as reindeer, mittens, snowflakes, and others. This year though, the cups are a red "ombre design" blank of any adornments.
The release of the plain red cups sparked a surprising amount of backlash on social media, with a lot of people claiming that the cups were a hamfisted attempt at political correctness, and claiming that Starbucks didn't decorate the cups because they don't want to recognize Christmas as a Christian holiday by putting Christmas symbols on them. One of the most extreme examples is the reaction of Joshua Feuerstein, a former pastor who posted a video harshly criticizing the plain cups that went viral earlier in November. In the video he claimed that, "Starbucks removed Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus." He also walked into a Starbucks with an unconcealed firearm to order a drink, telling their barista his name was "Merry Christmas" in order to "trick" them into writing that on his cup.
Most people criticizing the cups accuse Starbucks of removing the illustrations because they want to disassociate themselves from a Christian holiday. But religious symbolism has never been featured on Starbucks cups at all. Snowmen and reindeer may be associated with the commercialized Christmas aesthetic we've become used to in this country, but they are not Christian symbols. We don't put snowflake statues on the back wall of our church sanctuaries. Looking at all the negative reactions from Christians I've seen to these cups, I can't help but think that we are ones removing Jesus from the equation, not Starbucks. What does Scripture tell us about responding to secular culture? "Whoever belittles his neighbor lack sense, but a man of understanding remains silent" Proverbs 11:12. "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions" Romans 14:1. "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses" Proverbs 10:12.
What if we did exactly that? What if we treated issues like this with love instead of immediate judgment and hostility? What if instead of spending our time and energy on persuading people to boycott Starbucks for the holiday season, we urged them to volunteer their time on something that mattered to them? What if instead of retweeting a scathing remark about political correctness, we sent an encouraging message? What if instead of carrying a gun into Starbucks to "trick" the baristas into writing Merry Christmas on cups, we bought ten cups of coffee and handed them out to people on the street with a loving word and holiday wish? What if instead of making the Christmas season about criticized nuances of secular culture, we actually made the holiday about Christ and the way He taught us to live?
