From A Christian Barista…

I never post about controversies, because it’s not something that I like to talk about on social media, but this one, this one gets on my nerves just a bit. So I’m going to dive right in…

Recently in the news, it has been stated by a former youth pastor, Joshua Feurstein, that Starbucks has declared a “War on Christmas” because the red cups are plain red cups without designs on them. He also stated that Starbucks was taking Christmas out of their company and telling customers to go in and order their drink with the name “Merry Christmas” on their cup to try to prove a point. Me being a barista for Starbucks have a few thoughts about this whole situation. As well as me being a Christian have some other thoughts as well. So let’s get started.

Barista standpoint:

1. Starbucks has NEVER had cups that had the word Christmas on it. They have had symbols of the winter season. ie. Snowflakes, Snowmen, mittens, etc.
2. We have a blend of coffee called “Christmas Blend”. It’s actually quite popular and a HUGE hit during the holidays.
3. No one has ever told us that we can’t tell customers “Merry Christmas” during the holiday season, that’s at our own discretion.
4. We personally don’t care what you ask us to write on your cups. It’s YOUR cup.
5. Coming in and complaining to us that you’re offended won’t get anything changed. Honestly, I’m a barista trainer. Do you think I have the power to go to corporate and tell them to change the cups because of something silly? No.
6. You can ALWAYS bring in your own cup and we can put your drink in there. Hey! You even get a 10 cent discount. That can always be an incentive right? 😉
7. If you didn’t realize, Joshua is still telling you to go and give your money to Starbucks even though you’re “infuriated” with our decision this year. So, who’s really winning here?

Christian Standpoint:

1. Starbucks has NEVER declared themselves to be a Christian based company, which many of you should know by the things that they support.
2. In-N-Out and Chick Fil A have verbally declared that they are Christian based companies, but have never changed the design of their merchandise or products to resemble the Christmas holiday.
3. If you are a Christian and believe that Christmas trees, snowmen, snowflakes, etc are your definition of “Christmas” then you obviously need to reevaluate your thought process. That’s not the meaning of Christmas and no matter what country or religion you are, It’s still most likely going to be cold and possibly snow during the winter time. Those symbols have nothing to do with Christmas, just the time of year that the holiday falls.
4. As humans, we have to choose to take offense to different things. The exact same thing goes for Christians. If we take offense to everything that someone says is wrong in this world, then we won’t be bettering ourselves.

Honestly, this whole “controversy” is just really flat out annoying. There’s so many more things to be worried about in this world.

So please people, if you’re going to take a stand on something. Do it because you know all the facts about it, not because some man on the internet is yelling into a video trying to make it a bigger deal than it actually is. Because he’s leading you to do things that you weren’t thinking about before. Or just boycott the entire company for the ENTIRE year, not just November through December.

Since I work for this company, I just wanted to throw my opinion out there as well.

Sincerely, A Christian Barista.