Starbucks is the Flavor of the Week!

The modern church goes through this cycle frequently. I like to call it "The Flavor of the Week". Someone, somewhere raises an alarm. It doesn't really matter if the alarm is valid or based on fact or even practical for everyone to heed, it becomes the mantra to follow. It is usually accompanied by some sort of insinuation that "we all" have to do this, protest that, go here, support them, boycott those, yada, yada, yada. 

We've seen it happen with good and just causes, as well. They come in an overwhelming flood of tragedies, many of them truly heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. We all sincerely want to help the victims of some far flung disaster or some humanly dreadful situation. We are profoundly thankful for those that can actually go and lend a hand.  We pray for them, we support them financially, we worry about them. But here is a never-ending stream of them and we hear the alarm on every one of them, each one becoming the cause of the moment, the flavor of the week.

Please don't mistake my intention here. The cry for help is valid and needed in every way, necessary to recruit the aid so desperately needed. We all want to help out. We all want to have a part but active participation at ground level is not always possible for everyone. Yet, frequently, along with alarm comes the undercurrent that, if this is not your flavor of the week, you're not being a very good Christian...you may not be a Christian at all! 

I love that you're passionate about something, brothers and sisters. Why is it necessary, for some, that we all have the same passion?

The evil cups for 2015

The flavor of the week, this week, is Starbucks. Starbucks has, by every alarmist-overly-reactionary measure conceivable, committed blasphemy by not putting something about Christ on their holiday coffee cups this year. They are, according the hue and outcry of those whose lives and faith revolve around this sort of thing, guilty of trying to "remove Christ from Christmas." *insert collective gasp here* Let's mobilize, sign a petition, express our indignation on fb, take selfies of ourselves with our cups marked "Mary Christmas!"

Everyone take a breath. 

Starbucks has NEVER had Christ on it's cups. Every holiday season in recent memory, they have had cups with snowflakes, pine trees, snowmen, reindeer, Christmas carolers, Christmas ornaments, Christmas trees and people having fun. Christ has NEVER been in the mix, blend, or latte, as the case may be, at least as far as Starbucks cups are concerned. Why are so many upset this year when the design is a simple red and green cup being offered around the holiday season. 

Did you get that? A red and green cup offered around the holiday season? 

Hmmm...Sounds like...Christmas! At least, it does to me. Should we doubt Starbuck's intention to recognize the largest retail season of the year by catering to the world's notion of what it entails, there is further proof.  

That woefully understated festive cup is handed to the heathen supporters of such a godless company over a counter that displays Starbucks "Christmas Blend 2015" coffee, available in secular caffeinated only, quite possibly another clear affront to someone, somewhere

"The nerve of Starbucks, trying to sneak in an endorsement of Christmas on our protest of their not endorsing Christmas! They're nothing but a bunch of profiteers, trying to commercialize Christmas!" 

Very few see the irony of protesting against secularizing the holiday while complaining about a retailer not cashing in on it. 

Rather than pondering the motives of a multi-national heated-bean-drink chain, perhaps this might be a better question, or two, or three, to consider. "Where is the gospel in the indignation over all this? Who are we witnessing to when we climb on someone's uninformed bandwagon and go along for the ride without any thought to where the wagon is taking us? Is the love of Christ magnified

in trying to force someone to write 'Christmas' on a coffee cup we are going to toss in the trash in a half hour?"

Starbucks is not a vehicle we can force to use for our efforts to evangelize the lost. They are a company that sells coffee. They have made it very clear where they stand on the issues of the day. I don't agree with them. But I like their coffee and my Bible tells me I am to love their people. We can and should, bless the people who work there by being polite encouragers, dispensers of grace, expressions of compassion...by sharing the gospel.

But, then again, I'm not sure sharing the gospel is what's behind the flavor of the week, whatever the flavor or week may be. More frequently, it seems to me that the goal is to get as many people behind a particular cause that a few are very passionate about. The all-too-common problem is that those

passions are frequently misinformed or only partially informed. Starbucks has always had a "holiday cup." This year's is no different other than it has no decorations on it. You would think the anti-Christmas tree crowd would be pleased. Yet, the flag goes up the flagpole and we are all expected to salute, band together and stand in unity to squash the latest threat to the church like a bug.

The same thing is true of those dreadful situations throughout the world. It sometimes seems as if we are all expected to drop all we're doing and run off to help clean up some mess, assist some group of afflicted people, resist some human degradation and so on. When we don't, there are those who seem to think that we don't care or lack compassion. Once they've determined we don't care, we are judged for being insincere, unauthentic, narrow minded, not a true Christian, etc. Bless you for your compassion for that group of people. I'll pray for you and help however I can. Please don't judge me for not having the same passion. I have my own. I pray that God is glorified in both our passions. 

It seems it is easier for some to love the people in Rwanda than it is to love the people they live with. It seems it is easier for some to rail at Starbucks than to pray for their baristas. It

seems it is easier to judge people for not supporting our cause than it is to examine ourselves.  

What's hard, for all of us, is simply being the body of Christ. Each of us has a unique gift meant to edify, encourage and build-up (1 Cor 7:7, 1 Cor 12:12-20, 1 Pet 4:7-10). Yes, it's hard. Yet, this is clearly what we're called to do. As Christians, we are actually told not to judge, not to point fingers (especially at each other) and not to legislate faith and love, but to demonstrate it.

Starting up a bandwagon seldom makes being the body any easier. So, I acknowledge your right and privilege to have a bandwagon. Just don't give me a hard time if I'm not inclined to climb aboard.