Starbucked: Lessons From the Imaginary War on the Imaginary War on Christmas

It was a strange week in social media land. If you somehow missed it, here’s the twenty second version: a controversy erupted after the coffee chain “Starbucks” unveiled its 2015 “holiday” cup. Unlike past years, when the cup was adorned with snowflakes or reindeer, etc., this year’s cup is simply solid red, and devoid of graphics other than Starbucks’ normal logo. A self-professed “social media evangelist” publicly criticized Starbucks in a video, asserting, among other things, that Starbucks changed its cups because it “hates Jesus.” The video went viral, sparking countless others to react to the backlash by mocking those purportedly “outraged” by the cups. So it has gone all week. 

It was a bizarre controversy from the outset. Was our nation really arguing about disposable coffee cups? Were masses of Christians truly upset about the lack of secular imagery like snowmen on Starbucks’ cups? Had the “War-Against-The-Imaginary-War-Against-Christmas” truly devolved into such triviality?

It didn’t seem to add up, although it did appear to have the makings for a possibly interesting fight. It was as though Starbucks had inadvertently stumbled into a “brew”haha that had been percolating for some time— between evangelical Christians on the right, lamenting their perceived persecution, the rise of tolerance for other religions, and the demise of all things Christmas— and (presumably) liberals on the left, who embrace religious diversity and think that things like Christian persecution and the “war on Christmas” are mostly the stuff of delusional Fox News commentators. The battle lines, if nothing else, seemed fairly well-defined.

But then things got even stranger. The battle never materialized. While the “left” responded strongly to the supposed “outrage” on the “right,” there was noticeably little in the way of actual return fire. It was as if shots were being fired into the air, against some imaginary enemy. Where were the outraged evangelical crusaders— the sword-wielding defenders of Christendom, who would sooner perish than utter Satan’s seasonal salutation, “happy holidays?”

I wasn’t the first or only one who noticed the bizarre lack of engagement. On Tuesday, the Washington Post ran a column entitled “Most Christians Don’t Actually Care About Starbucks Cups,” which can be found here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/11/10/most-christians-dont-actually-care-about-starbucks-cups-heres-what-we-do-know/

The same day, the Federalist ran a piece entitled, “Nobody Is Actually Upset About the Starbucks Cup – Stop Saying Otherwise.”

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/10/nobody-is-actually-upset-about-the-starbucks-cup-stop-saying-otherwise/

What was going on? Was it possible that we had all been duped? By the end of the week, it appeared so. And therein lies the real story: that a non-story as small and uncontroversial as this one could become so large and controversial in the first place. How did this happen, and what lessons can we derive from it?

1.     The Squeaky Wheels are Getting All Our Grease. In both corporate and social media circles, the squeaky wheels our getting all of our collective grease. In the case of the Starbucks cups, a single evangelical Christian activist with a minority viewpoint and a willingness to make an outrageous public assertion (“red cups” = “hates Jesus”), was able to send the entire nation into a tizzy. The minority fringe— and in some cases, the lunatic fringe— are framing all of our issues, and dictating our public discourse. We need to stop taking the bait.

2. When Voices of Reason do not Participate in the Conversation, the Only voices Heard are the Unreasonable Ones. I admittedly jacked that line nearly verbatim from my friend, Sue, who posted it on her Facebook timeline. But It sums up perfectly my next point, which is that that much of what we are seeing in the Starbucks case, and numerous other cases, can be attributed to the conspicuous silence of large masses of reasonable-minded people who don’t actually believe the narratives driving our political discourse, but say little or nothing to contest them. Their/our silence leaves a void which is happily consumed by those driving such narratives. The voices of reason need to stand up and be heard, else we will all soon be governed by a small-but-vocal, rabid minority. Worse yet, we will eventually become what we acquiesce to through silence and inaction.

3. We Must Get Out of our Silos and Re-Engage. The information bubbles we now live in have left us predisposed to believing exaggerated claims about other groups of people. We need to get out of our silos and engage with people we might not normally engage with, or whose views don’t neatly align with our own. What I am almost certain we would learn is that most Christians are okay with saying “happy holidays;” that most police officers are not racist; that most liberals support our troops; that most Muslims condemn violence; that some conservatives are pro-choice; that some liberals are pro-life; that we don’t all fit in neat little boxes, mindlessly conforming to some radicalized, cartooned stereotype that the media, both corporate and social, would have us believe.

It’s been said that a miracle is merely a meaningful shift in perspective. As I observe how divided we are as a nation, fueled in large part by the false and sensationalized narratives being perpetuated by a zealous few, I can think of no miracle I would rather see than for the rest of us to finally break free of the spell of this nonsense and begin to re-engage with each other on a human level. That is my wish and prayer this holiday season.

My best to all,

T