https://vimeo.com/55641900
I don’t know what is more disturbing as I approach another Christmas Holiday Season…people making a fuss about the Starbucks red cup without the usual Christmas / Holiday images or Donald Trump weighing in on it in his presidential campaign speeches.
Who cares what Starbucks, a company, chooses to print on their own cups? Why do we Christians get so obsessed about Starbucks’ corporate decision to be more inclusive of other faith expressions, celebrations in December? After all, many other communities around the world celebrate their own “Christmas” in December: Kwanza, Bodhi Day, Winter Solstice, Hannukah, Saturnalia, Soyal, Yule, Id-al Adha, Zartusht-no-diso, etc.
For Trump and those who bitch about Starbucks’ Christmas cup to impress their conservative Christian base… here’s another option. You are perfectly free to walk about from Starbucks and don’t buy their coffee. Go on to other Christian-friendly establishment.
Or better yet, stop drinking coffee all together and lend all that money you’ll save to your kids (or at least $25, that’s approximately 6 lattes x $4.75 each) and inspire them to lend that money through Kiva.org to those who are working hard around the world to climb out of poverty. That seems more social minded Christmasy.
If your kids need a Kiva lending team to join comprising of other kids who are doing that very thing (less the java boycott), then sign up your kids join the Aloha Kiva Kids (alohakivakids.org) team. I guarantee you your kids will have a better chance to express your faith in action. They’ll learn how to think about others globally who have more pressing needs than what’s printed on our cup o joes.
Perhaps we should lighten up fellow Christians, December belongs to everyone. If you really think about it…there is no mention of Santa Claus, elves, snowflakes, mistletoe, and stringed colorful lights in our bible…the things that were printed on Starbucks coffee to represent the Christmas Spirit. So why should we worry that these images are no longer printed on some damn red cup?
For me those images hardly represent what Christmas means to me as a Christian. To me Christmas, Dec. 25th, represents what the song above is about…a baby infant Jesus born in the humbleness of a stable to poor struggling parents. That child grew up to radically talk about love instead of the old school violent message of an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
LOVE onward people! Love onward!
