Concerning Red Cups, Coffee Companies, and Pseudo-Christian Things

By Nick Napier - Posted at The Confessional ARP:

Dear broadly evangelical friends,

There is a video going around on Facebook of an outraged, Christian man who is proud that he has cleverly “outwitted Starbucks.” The premise of the video is that if you are a real Christian, you are offended that Starbucks doesn’t say, “Merry Christmas,” or have it written on their cups. The video opens with the man making some trite statements about being “open minded” and how Starbucks wants to take Christ & Christmas off their cups—more than that, their employees are *gasp* not allowed to say, “Merry Christmas.”

He then says that instead of boycotting Starbucks, he wants to start a movement of patrons who answer that their name is Merry Christmas. Clever. Wow! What a wonderful way to demonstrate that you are a Christian. Doing this obviously means that you love and serve Jesus more than others. Obviously. (Because lying in order to carry on a holiday that He did not command, is exactly what God wants.)

The trouble with such thinking is that it is wrong. Is saying, “Merry Christmas,” a test of love for Jesus? (Leaving aside the fact that the church’s only holy day is the Lord’s Day and that Christ never partook of any mass,) [I]s having “holiday cheer” and making sure that everyone holds to and celebrates your cultural traditions what Jesus called His church to be about?

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