A small and vocal group of Evangelical Christians are protesting the latest holiday cups from Starbucks; the company offers a new design each year, and this year, they’ve avoided the busier, snowflake covered designs of past years by simply placing their logo on a red cup.
Outlets like Breitbart, a self-styled conservative news site, have called this latest design another attack against Christians and Christianity, but many Christians disagree, seeing this as simply a new coffee cup design and not something to worry about.
Fox news reports that even a senior figure at conservative Christian group Focus on the Family disagrees with the outrage. From their article:
“I wonder if we’re not overthinking or overanalyzing this,” he said. “Christmas isn’t found in a cup or in a snowflake. Instead, it’s found in the hearts and minds of those of us who believe that God sent His only son to earth in the form of an innocent, helpless baby.”
Rev. Emily Heath, of the United Church of Christ, posted a critique on the Huffington Post blog asking fellow Christians to simmer down over the latest brew from Starbucks, and to focus instead on the upcoming American holiday of Thanksgiving. From the post:
But it’s even more ridiculous to me because of the timing this year. I’m kind of baffled because it’s early November. And it seems to me that people of faith, people who should be keenly aware of the grace God has given us, should be focused on the holiday that is coming up in just a few weeks: the one where we say “thank you, God”.
Heath finishes the post by asking us to go to Starbucks and, in an act of gratitude and sharing, buy a coffee for a neighbor.
Have you seen much outrage over this? The lack of corroboration from major Christian groups, and the dissenting opinion voiced in the Fox article, makes it seem like a much smaller phenomenon than Breitbart suggests; do you think Breitbart got this wrong?
Will you be buying a neighbor a cup of coffee regardless of the red design?