There are a bunch of Christians out there who really have to get a life. They really have to get a life. As proof, I submit the “controversy” around the Christmas take-out coffee cups produced by Starbucks.
Unlike cups produced in previous years, this year’s model is plain red, and does not include some of the holiday-themed iconography that Starbucks has produced in the past. This absence has apparently offended one Joshua Feuerstein – a self-described American evangelist, Internet, and social media personality” – who is out there railing against “the age of political correctness.” Feuerstein has apparently produced a video that’s going around the Internet.
Geez, this guy needs to get a life. And everyone who follows him.
First of all, may I just point out the following:
The entire month of December and much of November is already devoted to Christmas. You can’t escape it. The holiday songs. The holiday lights. The holiday displays. You just can’t escape it.- Christ was taken out of Christmas when the holiday became the major driver of annual retail profits, and that happened a long time ago. It’s just more accented every single year.
- All of the “happy holidays” rhetoric is so transparently about Christmas. It’s so not about Chanukah, which as anyone with even a passing familiarity with Jewish culture knows, is not one of the Jewish high holidays. It’s been elevated primarily by its proximity to Christmas on the Calendar. And who the hell celebrates Kwanzaa? Not a person that I’ve ever met.
There are Christians out there who think that they are “oppressed” in some way here in the United States. They really, really, really, really, really do not know anything about oppression. As an alternative viewpoint, I submit the following:
- Gays have really been oppressed in the United States. They used to (and sometimes still do) get the shit beat out of them. Just from 1970 alone, Wikipedia has cataloged 141 separate incidents of violence, many of which resulted in murder. And those are just the incidents that made it into Wikipedia.
- Jews have, of course, been the victims of the Holocaust. But even since the Holocaust, Jews have been regularly discriminated against in the United States. Although this discrimination is no longer as nakedly violent as the ongoing discrimination against gays, there is a long and sordid history of antisemitism in the United States, also nicely chronicled by Wikipedia.
And Christians? They can be upset about Starbucks not putting Christian iconography on their holiday cups.
Or about judicial decisions disallowing the state of Alabama to put the 10 Commandments into their court houses.
Or about generic holiday displays being included in manger scenes.
Get a life people!
So true!
I think that a lot of Christians don’t understand their role any longer .Its not about using the consonant “Ah” after everything you say. For example “Jeee-sus-ah!” in the manic baptist style. Although for the most part the bible has been diluted and torn apart, then put back together again. Its been buried ,uncovered, new parts rediscovered changing everything we thought before. Whole sections being torn away and discarded, like ones describing Jesus as having a wife, and possibly children. Double gasp ,isn’t that terrible?
The main point I am trying to make is, before becoming a Christian, I used to hate the arrogance, the pageantry ,the fact that it didn’t seem to make these people better. I was judging all these people that made me think god was false. I was focused on that instead of what I was in church for. So now I study on my own. Anyhow, you may think we need to loosen up, and you may be right. As my relationship with god is mine, and Humbleness is a seriously overlooked trait in big biz, Crystal kingdom churches, I understand why other groups are offended, or feel hurt by Christians. I feel god in me as hard as I was trying to deny it. Perhaps I am schizophrenic and live in a made up reality, but hey if its better than the one before, then fooling myself is worth it for me. Not all of us are all preachy or think that god wants others to feel uncomfortable . If some of these A-hole pastors read any part of the bible beyond the section to do with tithing and “Giving to the lord” they would see that passing judgement is wrong, secular things don’t matter, god doesn’t care about the pageantry , he cares about whats in your heart and how you use it. Not just speak it. When challenged by the Romans,Pharasies, and an entire religion, Jesus smiled. the main lesson there is. Life sucks, but why make it worse, be nice. Ostracizing anyone, repressing anyone, or making anyone feel less for the comfort level of another is exactly the opposite of a christain. Thanks. Everyone misses the whole point. God sent Jesus to tear up the man made rules, and make it about love universally. No one could believe that, that it was possible to love everyone, and the fear of that made them kill off the one saying it. Sounds like today too don’t you think? Those that are saying Love everyone and accept everyone, are throwing opposition into the faces again of the rich Earthly Men that hold money and power over others in the name of a god that abhors wealth repressing the poor and the hoarding of it. Paper cup worries. The tip of an ice berg ,of how stupid some Christains can be.Get annoyed at a Starbucks, tell a bum to fuck off when he asks for change as you are on your way to Christmas shop at Bloomingdales.
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I love love Ellen’S rection to the Starbuck’s x-mas cup issue: https://youtu.be/TJyfQS3Pb9g
I expect that there are many Christians, in countries all over the world, who quietly get on with their lives, trying to live by the basic tenets of their faith without getting in the faces of everyone else. And the same will be true of Jews, Buddhist, Muslims et al. But every faith has its fundamentalists who spoil it for the others. And when it comes to oppression on the grounds of religion, how does the experience of Christians in America compare with the experience of Muslims?
By the way, on the subject of your blog in general, can I say from the perspective of a European (OK, a semi-detached British European) how refreshing it is to read views which do not reflect the dispiriting trash which the prevailing wind seems to waft across the Atlantic these days. I was beginning to believe that Jon Stewart was the last sane man in the US!
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