A Very Starbucks Christmas

Starbucks continues to take Christmas criticism from various quarters but I don’t think it is deserved. Donald Trump even wants to create a government register of every Red Cup, or something like that. I don’t visit the place often but when I did over the weekend, I felt positively festive.
I got a tall Vanilla Bean frap and so I got a clear cup instead of The Red One. But I did notice that Starbucks is selling a Christmas coffee blend and markets an Advent product. Check it out.
Starbucks Advent CB
Seems like Starbucks is sending cleverly coded Christmas messages to their customers. I know what Advent means.
And then I saw this gift card option:
Starbucks MC Gift
Merry Christmas!? How could that be? I had to check my location to see where I was enjoying crushed vanilla ice and alternative music. Sure enough, I was still in Starbucks. Confused, I asked myself how can Starbucks be engaged in a war on Christmas with all of this Christmas stuff around?
For a moment, I wondered if all of the Red Cups and references to Christmas and the Advent Code had lured me into some kind of trap from the pit of Seattle. I waited to see if anti-Christmas subliminal messages would bombard me from the sound system. I kept hearing the same music and names being called out by the baristas.
While I waited, the most evil thing that happened was the temptation from the Christmasy-looking baked goods. I settled on the snowman doughnut and peppermint cake pop as souvenirs from the front line of the Christmas wars.
All in all, the whole situation seemed pretty tame, just a business commercializing the Season, which may have been the point in the first place.
 
 
 

Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the Barton-Starbucks Fuss

Columnist Bud Kennedy serves up some thoughts on the controversy brewing between David Barton and Starbucks. Turns out Bud doesn’t find much happening in the greater evangelical world, at least if the Southern Baptists are any guide.

At the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting this week in Houston, the manager of the convention center Starbucks said lines have stayed long.

As Kennedy points out, Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president Russell Moore has discouraged boycotts and if the manager of the Houston convention center Starbucks is right, his brethren are following Moore rather than the boycotters.
Yours truly is quoted about half-way through the article, making a similar case as I presented here. Hope you’ll go read Bud’s column.

David Barton: No to Starbucks, Yes to Amazon

Update: Now (11/19/13) Barton says drinking Starbucks is treason to God.
I grew up occasionally attending a church where one might hear the following: “We don’t go to movies even if they are G rated because even those movies support Hollywood.” While I didn’t buy that kind of thinking, I knew a lot of people who did.  The impulse to retreat to the monastery is strong in some Christians and often is voiced by boycotts of various entertainments and products. Recently, our old friend David Barton has gotten himself into one of these controversies by telling the Whitesburg Baptist Church that Christians shouldn’t drink Starbucks coffee since the company supports gay marriage.
Lots of people seem upset or amused about it. To me, it just sounds like a silly fuss about which conservative Christians debate.
Barton’s case, he wants Christians to avoid Starbucks, but he is apparently fine with selling his books on Amazon.com. Amazon, like Starbucks is gay friendly and committed to support for gay causes. And Amazon’s founder and leader, Jeff Bezos, has made a pretty hefty financial commitment to gay marriage. By Barton’s logic, I guess he is contributing to gay marriage every time The Jefferson Lies or Original Intent sells on Amazon.