By Todd Brady
Todd Brady, Vice President for University Ministries, Union University, Jackson
Since Starbucks released its plain red 2015 holiday season cups, a social media storm has been brewing among two groups of Christians — those who find themselves offended and those who couldn’t care less. Starbucks has said that simplicity motivated their seasonal design while one news agency responded to their latest style of holiday cups by exclaiming, “War on Christmas: Starbucks Red Cups are Emblematic of the Christian Culture Cleansing of the West.”
Each year at the beginning of the Christmas season, Starbucks changes the color of their coffee cups from white to red (a genius marketing idea). After enjoying several Pumpkin Spice Lattes throughout the Thanksgiving season, I always look forward to drinking a Peppermint Mocha in a Christmas cup — complete with whipped cream and dark chocolate curls.
Throughout the years, I have looked forward to how Starbucks will recognize the season. Cups have been decorated with stars and ornaments and snowflakes and snowmen and even a sled dog. This year, such is absent.
The change from formerly festive holiday cups in previous years to a new plain red look with the Starbucks logo has some concerned. Some are more than concerned. They are angry and offended. Joshua Feuerstein posted a video claiming that Starbucks wanted to “take Christ and Christmas off their brand new cups” and that they “hate Jesus.” Although I don’t remember ever drinking from a Jesus-themed Starbucks mug, I do find Feuerstein’s #MerryChristmasStarbucks campaign interesting. He encourages Christians to tell Starbucks employees to make a drink for a person named “Merry Christmas” so that the cups have “Merry Christmas” written on them. According to Feuerstein, such an approach will stick it to Starbucks and keep Christ in Christmas.
Really? Should any of us get this worked up over the graphics of a coffee cup? Moreover, is an approach like what Feuerstein mentions what Jesus meant when He said that we are salt and light? Is this the way that we are to let our light shine?
Christian College student Nate Lake seems to be right on when he speaks of the #MerryChristmasStarbucks campaign and says that this is another thing that is “wrong with American Christianity.” He says the former approach is an “…improper, miscalculated expectation of Christian values from a non-Christian entity. Simply put,” he says, “Starbucks is not a Christ-centered company.”
Not only is Starbucks not a Christ-centered company. Christ-centered living is not on display when Christians publically register offense and condescendingly complain about the look of coffee cups.
Rather than viewing these cups as an affront to the Christian faith, what if we said nothing about the cups, but engaged the barista behind the counter in conversation about the love of God? Instead of us wearing our Christian feelings on our proverbial sleeves, what if we shared the gospel with others in Starbucks while we sipped on our expensive caffeinated brew? What if we looked beyond the cup to the person who is handing us the cup?
“God rest ye merry, gentlemen let nothing you dismay. Remember, Christ, our Saviour was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.”
Christians offended by coffee cups — we have certainly gone astray.