Some people believe Starbucks is using red coffee cups to declare war on Christianity and Christmas.
In years past Starbucks celebrated the holiday season by using special red cups with wintery Christmas-themed designs. Snowflakes, Christmas ornaments, caroling snowmen, and reindeer adorned cups of Christmases past. But this year the coffee chain chose to celebrate the season with a plain red cup.
“Starbucks has become a place of sanctuary during the holidays, said Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks vice president of design in a company statement. “We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it.”
Some people, including former pastor and Facebook loud-mouth Joshua Feuerstein, claim that Starbucks is out to remove Christmas from society.
“Starbucks wanted to take Christ and Christmas off of their brand new cups, that’s why they are just plain red,” Feuerstein said in a video he posted to Facebook.
Starbucks has never placed a nativity scene, cross or any other Christian symbol on the holiday cups. In the past the design has been a generic, commercialized theme.
Christmas has gone from a simple day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, to a commercialized three-month-long season. The average American will spend $700 on holiday gifts and decorations, according to an estimate by the National Retail Federation.
We already lost Christmas to consumerism and an unquenchable desire for bigger, better and more Christmas stuff. Feuerstein, your need to have a decorated coffee cup to celebrate the birth of your savior is part of the problem.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus admonishes the Pharisees to be more concerned about the inside of a cup than the outside. Jesus was not talking about coffee, but the lesson transfers.
Why should we care what a coffee company puts on a cup?
We should be more concerned about what’s in it.
The average American worker spent $1,092 at coffee shops every year, according to a 2012 Accounting Principals’ Workonomix survey.
Imagine what would happen if we took the money we spend at coffee shops and put it toward making Christmas special for those who can’t afford it.
Well said, John Hiller! So true…yours are wise, wise words. You are a young man filled with wisdom and faith…and your witness brings hope and reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas! Thank you!