This whole Starbuck's "red cup" controversy boils down to ...

[Shawnster]

This was shared to me on Facebook,.  It appears the original person who posted this, Michael Goodnough, is not a Witness.

 

As someone who enjoys a faux-controversy as much as the next guy (ok, more than the next guy...) I've been following the "Starbucks Red Cup Outrage" with total and complete bemusement. Ohhhh, the irony! Oh, the layers!

 

A few years ago, I did a little work for Starbucks. Visited their HQ. Got to do a coffee tasting thing. Yadda yadda.

 

Long before that though, way back when my idea of a good cup of coffee was that tepid, flavorless abomination they sell at Dunkin Donuts, I was an English major.

 

Now, I'll bring those two together in a second...

 

First though, in case you've missed what the whole faux-troversy is all about, apparently some devout Christians are mad that this year's holiday cups don't have drawings of things like Christmas tree ornaments as past cups have. (See pics... 2014: decorated... 2015: plain red....)

 

With the setup complete, here is what makes this whole thing so very Jon Stewart-worthy:

 

Christians didn't start the whole "drag an evergreen into the house thing." The Romans did... and then the Druids got on board...

 

A couple dozen centuries can give ya time to really think though - and eventually European Christians came around to the idea - in the 1600's.

 

Americans though... we were having none of it. We stood our ground!

 

Today's fun-fact (completely true): for the first two hundred years after we double-parked off Plymouth Rock, Americans considered Christmas trees to be pagan symbols. They were the very opposite of Christian.

 

Americans didn't start putting up trees until the 1800's - 200 years after the Germans - and a few thousand after the Romans first started sprucing up the place with some spruce (well, cedar, technically but you get the point).

 

Ironically, only a couple centuries earlier, some dude totally turned the world on to another new thing... coffee. It was big where he came from and he could get ya a really good deal on some...

 

What was that dude's name again... Oh, I remember... Muhammad. Coffee was introduced to the world by Arabs. It was first cultivated in the Muslim world.

 

Fast-forwarding a bit... and then along came Starbucks - a coffee chain named after a character from Moby Dick - Starbuck - a devout Christian - whose perhaps best line in the book was:

 

"I [fear] that I disobey my God in obeying him."

 

Let me pour all of that into a mug for you:

 

This whole "red cup" controversy boils down to some Americans being so mad that their Arab drink isn't decorated with pagan symbols that they're going to boycott a chain named after a guy who worried that the way he was practicing Christianity might not have been what god had in mind. Now there is some serious irony for you...

 

You can't make this stuff up.

 

 

 

[bohemian]

Really well put together.

[Womandriver]

Is there a link to this article?

[Shawnster]

No, it's a post on Facebook, not an article.

 

https://www.facebook.com/goodnough/posts/10207666350233942?pnref=story

[CHecker]

The best! That was great! THX Shawn

[kejedo]

One of the posters hashtagged a rebuttal  that included this: "I sure hate it when facts get in the way of my preconceived notions." Yup, many we meet are on a fact free diet. 

[Tortuga]

One of the posters hashtagged a rebuttal  that included this: "I sure hate it when facts get in the way of my preconceived notions." Yup, many we meet are "on a fact free diet". 

I need a T-shirt that says "I sure hate it when facts get in the way of my preconceived notions."

 

and the back of it says "I'm on a fact free diet"

[kejedo]

[audio4tv]

I find it hard to believe with all the "causes' in the world that people get embroiled over, it is a red coffee cup. White, Red, Black...just give me my coffee!  What is really interesting is the one who started it all is pretty much a scam artists and a bit of a bully. The Washington Post, NY Times, and other outlets have somewhat exposed his tactics and history. However, like anyone wanting 15 minutes of fame, others have attached themselves to this "heralded" cause of the anti-christian rant, including presidential candidates! Imagine if all that energy was channeled into something worthwhile. I found this article interesting. http://www.vox.com/2015/11/10/9707034/starbucks-red-cup-controversy