OK, folks. Most of you know that I'm a Christian. I mean, I've got "theologian" right there in the title of the blog, right? In particular, as far as the sphere of Christianity goes, I am a fundamentalist (gasp!) Baptist (double gasp!) evangelical (swoon!). I'm a Sunday school teacher. I do a Bible study weekly up at a local veteran's center.
I bring that up to point out that (a) my faith is important to me, and (b) as a teacher, I do quite a bit of reading about it. Online, I follow a bunch of blogs and news sources that focus on religion in general and Christianity in particular. Lots of theology and apologetics. Folks talking about putting faith in practice. Discussions about current events and how they relate to living as a Christian, and so on.
Now, a few days ago, some pastor in Arizona got all bent out of shape over Starbucks using red cups for Christmas. This is, apparently, an extension of the War on Christmas!!1!11eleventy1!!, and as a Good Christian, I am of course supposed to be Stupidly Outraged, or something.
Yeah... about that.
Mind you, this video seems to have gone viral, albeit in a strange way. You see, while I've been hearing about it a lot on the Book of Faces recently, it has all been from a certain segment of people - those friends of mine who are generally antagonistic to the Christian faith. [1]
From what I can see online, that seems to be the only reason this whole red cup thing gained any sort of notice whatsoever. All the top results from a search on "red cup starbucks" returns... mainstream media articles talking about the video and how Christians are outraged.
Actual instances of outraged Christians? Zip.
Remember all those online sources I read? I have yet to see a single person discuss the horror of red cups at Starbucks.
My Christian friends on Facebook? Not a peep, really, except for "Wait, what's this red cup thing now?"
Please understand - we generally have far more important things to talk about. Abortion? Oh, yeah. Racism? Sure. Culture issues? You betcha. Apologetics? Absolutely. Reaching the lost? Top o' the list. ISIS, Israel, and the future of Christians in the Middle East? Yup. Challenges in marriage, in raising kids, in working and living in the modern world? Tons.
Red cups? Please.
Oh, I'm sure there are some Christians out there sweating over red cups, because Reasons, and because there are enough people in the world you can always find someone who's outraged about something. On the other hand, I'm also confident that 99.999% of Christians don't really care in the least what color cups Starbucks is using, just as long as they come filled with something resembling a hot, caffeinated version of a liquid candy bar.
Seriously, guys. All those articles about this? About how "Christians are OUTRAGED!"?
Dude. It's clickbait, man. You've been trolled. Hard.
[1] Yes, I have a wide variety of friends. That we have differing opinions, some significant, does not mean that I love them any less.
4 comments:
Response from Christian-baiters: "But if you aren't outraged, you aren't a REAL Christian, because all REAL Christians have to conform to MY stereotype of them."
Oh, yeah. See also: the mocking of Michelle Bachman for articulating a 2000+ year old doctrine of the Christian faith (the imminent return of Christ). Another instance of "Here's what we imagine Christians to be, now let's mock it."
I thought that was because she FORMERLY belonged to a church whose official doctrinal statements say the Papacy is Antichrist. Like they have so much respect for the papacy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87vo2jkmJUg
And it is not just Christians. Look at the Village Voice's treatment of Dan Halloran. (And the ensuing neo-pagan comments of "That's DIFFERENT from sneering at Michelle Bachman, because SHE deserves it!") I told him. as Oscar Wilde would say, the only thing worse than being caricatured in the Village Voice is not being caricatured in the Village Voice.
"And it is not just Christians." Oh, absolutely. It's not a matter of theological differences (unless you happen to be one of those folks who argue that statism is effectively a religion). It's a matter of finding a nice, sturdy club to start whacking your political opponents with. I suspect that targeting an opponents Christian beliefs is just a bit easier, since there's so *much* they can pick and choose from.
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