As the title reads, it has come to my attention that those who claim to follow Jesus and label themselves Christians should really take a closer look at what they believe as well as what they say before they open their mouths and begin to attempt to talk. More often than not I find Christians to be the ones who are screwing themselves over more than the general populace, and here is an example that flew across my computer screen for no reason today.
The Christian right is up in arms over a recent marketing campaign by the czars of coffee we know and love as Starbucks Coffee Company. The company’s campaign replaces their usual cups with new and improved cups with phrases on them to cater to the pseudo-intellectuals that frequently set up in their local shop with their laptops, pdas, iPods, and papers filled with manuscript ideas so that people will notice them writing whatever it is they are writing and will feel an undeserved swelling of pride in their chests that will validate their existence… clearly another rant altogether. One phrase that, in the words of the Christian who was offended by it, “flabbergasted everyone [they] showed it to” is as follows: “Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can’t wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They’re basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell. — Joel Stein, columnist for the Los Angeles Times.” Consequently after reading one cup out of the entire campaign, Florida resident Ken Peck blew up. And then rallied a boycott of the coffee shop. Good lord Christians love themselves some boycotts!
I myself am a Christian. I despise the term because so many “Christians” act like Ken Peck. I personally love the quote that caused Ken Peck to blow up because it shows a deeper issue: American Christians forgot what it was like to own a pair of balls. They also forgot their main religious text, the Bible. I do not see the cup as a persecution of Christians, but even if it was any Christian who has actually read the Bible would realize (if they had a brain larger than a cotton swab and half as dense which I doubt there are many such Christians) that Jesus said we would experience persecution. I am sorry, but to claim this as persecution belittles the thousands of Christians who celebrate their faith when they are told at gunpoint to leave it.
Sure, boycott Starbucks and miss the bigger picture. But that is the Christian way these days. Let’s all unite about this stupid little issue and whine about it until we get our way. But when it comes to issues like children in Northern Uganda being brain washed to fight a war that is unjust, you will be hard pressed to find a Christian who even know Northern Uganda from their own anus. The Christian response to this new Starbucks campaign should be this: we have clearly not communicated what heaven will be like, and part of this may be because we do not know ourselves.
Isn’t it sad that Christians can unite to defeat the big ‘ole mean coffee cup but not actually do something useful for other people? Or forget that, useful period? Heaven forbid we do something that makes us uncomfortable.
In case you want to read the article for yourself (and see the other tasty nugget where the Christian says: “Paleeze! Isn’t it funny how every thing is considered hate speech unless it’s directed at the Christian God? Starbucks should try putting a derogatory remark about the Muslims [or] Allah and see what kind of response they get.”(<–not realizing that Muslims pray to the same God)) visit http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55627
