Oh, the outrage!!! Starbucks is persecuting Christians now. What to do? What to do?

[Skidmore]

John Roberts on CNN was just interviewing their religion reporter about something written on a coffee cup at Starbucks. Apparently they print stuff on their coffee cups and this statement was from a customer and was wondering why people didn't look inside themselves when they have problems because humans case their own problems. Roberts asks, "But if you're a person of faith, and sitting down to your coffee, you have to put up with this?" (Please note this is pretty close to what he asked, off by maybe a word or two).

I'm sitting here thinking that, at moments like this, I'd like to cue the lions and then let's talk persecution.

Enough, already!

There is enough room on this planet for all belief systems to be honored and respected.

[RedCappedBandit]

1. What exactly is he "putting up" with?

What kinda quotes are on the cups?

[Philosoraptor]

3. Looking within for self fulfillment is too Zen for them.

They take offense because to them, Christ is the ONLY way to God, all other paths suck.

[Skidmore]

4. Apparently, they put all kinds of comments on cups about

all sorts of things and they are meant to stimulate conversation. This particular one was about why people invoke an imaginary God when they make their own troubles. Roberts was working hard to gin up Christian feelings of persecution because we all know one message on a cardboard coffee cup will mean that Christianity will be wiped out.

What I was po'd about was that there appears to be no recognition of the fact that many peoples do not believe as Christians do, and you have a right to not believe in a diety at all. There is no recognition of this but the constant drumbeat to support the orporate church, which is as far removed from the teachings of Christ as you can get. In fact, you might as well be in the 9nth Circle of Hell as attend a box church these days.

[Philosoraptor]

5. No Christian should have to suffer like these donut dippers have.

Oh the agony, Oy the ecstasy!

[rfranklin]

10. Go to Dunkin Donuts...they're all Hindu there....ooops!

That's an insult to all Christians too!

[jakem]

31. bad cop. no donut!

:spank:

[Javaman]

53. AND they are owned by the Carlyle group. nt

[jakem]

30. Putting up with Zen is a lot easier

than outting up with starbucks nasty burnt coffee.

[Philosoraptor]

2. Certain zealots are easily offended.

When my fundie relatives visit, we used to hide certain 'offensive' items just to keep the peace, but no more.

[Kber]

6. Like what? (What did you need to hide?)

Just curious.

[Philosoraptor]

7. Little Buddha statues, a Virgin Mary figurine, funny pics of bush.

Little things like that would set them off, my wife and I collect religious figurines, especially antique ones, but to them eastern religions and Catholicism are Nosferatu.

[Clark2008]

14. Just curious: they do know that Catholicism is one of the OLDEST

Christian - yes CHRISTIAN - religions, don't they?

And, even if they're like a lot of fundies and don't care for facts, they do know that the Virgin Mary was Christ's mother, don't they? How can they be offended by the Virgin Mary?

Geez - I'm glad they don't know me. I'd hate for them to visit me and my soon-to-be-born baby at the hospital. See, it's a Catholic hospital, you know, since I'm Catholic, and there are statues and figurines and paintings of the Virgin Mary (with her child - considering it's a birthing unit) all over the damn place.

Wow!! How odd, Philo. Sorry you have relatives like this.

[rosesaylavee]

15. I hear you folks have 'canons'

in the basement ready to take over the world?

:sarcasm:

Or that was the line we heard growing up catholic... you know, canon of the Mass? Silly.

[JHB]

37. That's the point: they're the sort that doesn't consider Catholics "real" Christians...

Don't ask why, or you'll have the jarring experience of hearing 16th century Protestant propaganda coming out of 21st century mouths.

[Bridget Burke]

39. Here's how they can be offended by the Virgin Mary.

Jack Chick explains it all: www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0040/0040_01.asp

I was raised Catholic but abandoned The God Concept many years ago. However, I still find myself Defending the Faith by explaining stuff. (Especially down here in the Bible Belt.)

[RB TexLa]

46. Gotta love how they'll talk out loud to their dead relatives but don't dare want to talk

to Mary.

[Donnachaidh]

42. err -- they DO know that Fundie sprung FROM Catholicism, yes?

And how CAN anyone be offended at a statue of Buddha? Did you offer to let them rub his belly? Did they recoil as if from garlic?

You really should get a vibrant LARGE poster of Kali for the next visit. A snarling Kali. :evilgrin:

[zbdent]

32. I've heard plenty of fundies saying that the only book they need to read

is the Bible, so I would suspect that "books" might offend Philosoraptor's fundie relatives ...

[xchrom]

8. yes -- it's a contemporary tactic used by

those in positions of power -- like roberts -- to fire up the base.

tell them they are under assault -- when in fact they aren't -- and to {literally} come out with guns blazing.

jesus wouldn't have a problem with self examination -- so why would an intellectual like roberts claim he would?

[Donnachaidh]

44. Joe Scarborough threw an amazing HISSY about being picked on

on Maher's show a few weeks ago. Evidently he was offended by the book American Fascist. I honestly thought he was going to throw himself on the floor, kick his feet and hold his breath until he turned blue.

Big Baby Mode. :eyes:

[Clark2008]

9. These people are stupid.

Some of the quotes on the cuts come from evangelicals - not all, of course, there's a variety, but I've heard complaints from liberals because one of the quotes was from the guy who wrote, 'The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design'!

Can no one be unoffended?

They're QUOTES - not directives.

Geesch.

(Note: I'm not slamming the OP. I'm slamming Roberts and others for their inability to be tolerant for five seconds).

[The Count]

11. Oh, no! Thay said "imaginary" - will their suffering ever cease?

[B Calm]

12. If the public schools aren't persecuting them, it's Starbucks.. Poor

stupid fools...

[Iris]

45. and they say liberals are whiny.

sheeesh!

[maine_raptor]

13. It's called "The Way I See It"

Starbucks has quotes from various individuals on their cups, titled "The Way I See It".

I have one on my desk I got recently and like:

The Way It See it #230

"Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds,listening to people play harp. It should be something 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 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



--------------------------

To me, it's damn funny, but if this is what the Fundies are objecting to, then I pity them, for with no sense of humor, the world must be a dark place to them.

[rosesaylavee]

16. 'cue the lions'

:rofl:

Mind if I use that for future xtian nonsense?

[Skidmore]

17. Help yourself.

You know, to add to my general state of irritability over this, some selfstyled "born again" former Italian "Democrat" who changed parties because the party had been taken over by gays, called CSPAN and went on about the "Biblical mandate" we have for dealing with the ME, and the Republics are the people who can carry that mandate out.

[rosesaylavee]

19. I have a tendency to think

anyone claiming to be a former DEM is just making sh** up when they follow it up with nonsense like that. When would this fool have been a democrat?

Cue the lions!

[Norrin Radd]

18. I've got a phrase for them:

[iamahaingttta]

20. Starbuck's is persecuting Christians?

Oh... goodness... maybe it's time for me to start drinking coffee again!

[tanyev]

21. Oh, no! Who is forcing those poor Christians to buy coffee at Starbucks?

The horror, the horror.

[GeorgeGist]

22. Get a better faith, if ...

a coffee cup is too challenging to drink from.

[Fleshdancer]

24. You just gave the perfect response to this nonsense n/t

[blueworld]

23. Thinking & talking could lead to something bigger

Like wisdom (gasp)! Or tolerance (eek)! OR fercrispussakes - PEACE ON EARTH!

Much better to have mindless branding, slogans & lies printed on every available surface (including urinals) so we can be assaulted with what really helps us be better people & enrich the planet. :sarcasm:

[papau]

25. Starbucks can print whatever - and if it offends - lose customers. Indeed CNN's Roberts is right -

- and if the gain in "it's funny to dump on religion" customers exceeds the loss of the religious who take offense, Starbucks makes more money and their decision to go this route was profitable.

For most people I suspect what Starbucks has on its cups is never read.

Meanwhile there are other coffee shops - and even tea shops in some areas of the country.

[Bluebear]

26. On what do you base your claim that Starbucks thinks it's "funny to dump on religion"?

Maybe you can give us more perspective on how the cups are offensive to your faith?

[papau]

28. Post 11 if true - and my statement was not a review of their "quotes" n/t

n/t

[Bluebear]

29. Oh good grief, all I can find is "Concerned" groups thinking Starbucks promotes homosexuality

http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Sep05/Art_Sep05_17.html

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After nearly a decade of lying low, Starbucks has reentered the homosexual rights movement in a few ways that have put at least one conservative watchdog group on alert.

The world’s most famous coffee shop chain has begun a program called “The Way I See It,” which is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on Starbucks coffee cups, according to the chain’s website.

But one particular quote — #43 -- blatantly pushes the homosexual agenda. It’s by Armistead Maupin, who wrote “Tales of the City,” a bestseller-turned-PBS drama advocating the homosexual lifestyle, and it reads:

“My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too short.”

Concerned Women for America, one of the nation’s leading conservative public policy organizations, is sounding the alarm about the cups after one of its employees received one when she purchased coffee from one of the stores.

[papau]

54. Now that we can agree on - it does deserve a "good grief" - it puts down no one :-)

:-)

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

33. CNN gave Starbuck's some free advertising

n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. That is it, exactly. It breaks the rule of

"Lean not on your own understanding". Fundies must have that rule.

[youthere]

34. Oh those silly Fundies! What DOESN'T get their panties in a wad?

There's a fundie lady here in my town who I talk to frequently..."talk to" is really a misnomer...she talks and I let her. I think she's just really lonely or else she thinks she's making some headway in "saving my soul" or something. Anyhoo..she was pissed yesterday because someone in her prayer chain had the nerve to ask her to prayer for a family that happened to be Mormon *gasp* !
She said "I'd no sooner pray for a Mormon than I'd eat soup with a Methodist!" (I have no idea what that actually means...but apparently eating soup with Methodists is a bad thing indeed).

She was outraged at the prospect of actually having to pray for those Mormons though. She said "those Mormons" are "injecting themselves into everything!"

LOL...well we all know how uppity those Mormons can get.

[Horse with no Name]

38. She is probably fearful you know?

Fundies are so against pleasurable, consensual sex just like Mormons were against drinking soft drinks.
Well...until the Mormons bought Coca Cola. Now they can drink up.
I guess she feels if that happened to them...that Fundies are on a one-way ticket to an orgy.

[youthere]

43. Personally...

I've always felt the fundies biggest problem was that they didn't get laid nearly enough. A couple good O's might color their world view a bit rosier...know what I mean? Say no more..a little "how do you do in the cracker barrel"..wink wink...nudge nudge.

[Neecy]

35. oh, those poor baby Christians

I had no idea that we needed to scrub our society completely of anything that might remotely offend their tender sensibilities.

We'd better get right on the job, because how terrible for them to have to 'put up' with anything that doesn't fit exactly into their 12th century worldview. Can't have these delicate petals feeling persecuted, can we, even if it means that the rest of us are?

[AlCzervik]

36. Oh please won't someone think of of the christians----won't you?

[OilemFirchen]

40. Prolly this

Woman expresses indignation at quote on Starbucks cup

SPRINGBORO — – Michelle Incanno was an admitted Starbucks addict.

She'd buy the company's coffee beans every week. Whenever she'd get the chance to drop by a Starbucks, she would, placing the same order every time: a large, house brewed coffee with nonfat milk and two Splenda. When the Seattle-based chain opened a drive-through near her Springboro home, she was in java heaven.

That was until she got an unexpected jolt last week from her coffee cup.

Printed on the cup was: "Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."

More at link. The comments are a hoot, BTW.

[JHB]

41. Now he know how atheists feel about hotel rooms...

...with those ubiquitous bibles in the nightstand drawers.

[Beelzebud]

47. So in 2007, a quotation on a coffee cup about self-reflection is "persecution" against Christians?

These dumb fucks don't know what persecution is...

[rosesaylavee]

49. Roh oh

'Beezlebud' is a strangely appropo moniker for a thread about persecuting Christians.

:rofl:

[triguy46]

52. Yes, in the fundie world...

dissonance, in the form of a thought or idea that is not matched with that held by others of their ilk, is heresy of the highest form.

[Bluerthanblue]

48. the Starbucks issue is pretty stupid- silly actually- but this thread is sad-

It is one thing to point out how desperate some are for a 'news- spot'-
or how eager to play victim-

But watching people climb on the "dying horse" thats the center of this post and then proceed to beat it to death and roll on the carcass is even stupider.

Most "people of faith" i know would be the first to agree that WE do make our own problems as individuals- but the mob mentality seems to have its own special attraction too.

:evilgrin:

:shrug:

[Arugula Latte]

50. Hey, their stupid Bibles in motel rooms are persecuting me.

Now we're even.

:D

[triguy46]

51. Approaching urban legend status

Boortz went on a rant yesterday about a "phone call" he had from a "listener" complaining about how the cup/mug had some quotation deemed critical of religion.

First, let me explain that I don't listen to this crap with any regularity, its just he's on the only local channel that has live weather and we're in the middle of a flood.

Second, my recollection of these quotations is that they are just that quotations, meaning someone expressing a thought. So the criticism is about reading someone's thought with whom you disagree. Its about having, in a free world, to be exposed to a breadth of ideas, some you don't care for. But this is anathema to the fundies. Free thinking is a MAJOR problem.