Tempest in a Coffee Cup

I've found in life there are many, many things we become better people by having patience about. Crazy Christians who want to make a coffee cup a symbol of their "oppression" are not one of those things.
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Red paper cups are stacked in view of the company logo behind the counter at a Starbucks coffee shop in the Pike Place Market, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, in Seattle. It's as red as Santa's suit, a poinsettia blossom or a loud Christmas sweater. Yet Starbucks' minimalist new holiday coffee cup has set off complaints that the chain is making war on Christmas. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Red paper cups are stacked in view of the company logo behind the counter at a Starbucks coffee shop in the Pike Place Market, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, in Seattle. It's as red as Santa's suit, a poinsettia blossom or a loud Christmas sweater. Yet Starbucks' minimalist new holiday coffee cup has set off complaints that the chain is making war on Christmas. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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I've found in life there are many, many things we become better people by having patience about. Crazy Christians who want to make a coffee cup a symbol of their "oppression" are not one of those things.

Color me flat out of patience with people so blind to their own entitlement that they see a Starbucks cup as a war on Christianity while black churches are being burned, Christians are fleeing for their lives in Pakistan, Syria and Sudan, and Muslims in this country live with the daily scourge of Islamophobia.

Religious persecution is a very real thing -- a thing way too real to be diminished by this kind of foolishness. And if Christians who get that don't speak out then the ones who don't get it will speak for us.

So here's my "final answer" on the Starbucks Cup Controversy as a priest, a pastor and a life-long fan of Christmas: It's a cup. For coffee. And if you find yourself getting whipped up about it you might consider switching to decaf -- and volunteering somewhere to work to address actual oppression. (I've got a list if you need it.)

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