If you read the title of this post, then right about now you're probably thinking, "Bri, aren't you just making yourself part of the problem by posting this?" The answer is yes, I am, but it's been almost a week since this whole debacle began, and it shows no signs of going away, so I felt the need to say something.
For the benefit of those who have thus far been spared the outrageous kerfuffle that is the Starbucks Christmas Controversy, I will summarize it for you. Starbucks used to have a holiday coffee cup decorated with various winter/holiday type images. Snowflakes, sleighs, Santa hats, that sort of thing. Starbucks went from their previous design to a solid red cup this year. Paired with their trademark green logo, it's a pretty obvious Christmas cup. I mean, red and green, that's obvious, right?
Well, a guy who's pretty universally known as a troll decided to make a video insinuating Starbucks had launched a war on Christmas. This in turn became a social media storm, which in turn caused almost every Christian to jump on Facebook and say their two cents.
Now, the problem a lot of people appeared to be ignoring was the fact that Starbucks, which isn't a Christian company, has never had any overtly Christian symbols on their holiday coffee cups. They didn't go from a manger scene to a red cup, they went from a red cup with some holiday designs on it to a plain red cup. Wow, what a controversy.
If you've got friends anything like mine, then your Facebook has been full of people raging against the controversy and how ridiculous it is. I've seen more people upset about the controversy than I have people actually engaging in the controversy. The reason for that is simple - Christians don't actually think Starbucks is waging a war on Christmas.
The bigger issue is with the people berating anyone who did care about the Starbucks cup by explaining how many other things are worth caring about more. Issues like abortion, human trafficking, and global poverty. I'd like to know who exactly thinks that people don't care about those issues. Who genuinely believes that there are groups of people who legitimately think the Starbucks cup design changing is as or more important than human trafficking.
All this conflict has done, both those engaging in it and those denouncing it, is turn Christianity into a laughing stock. Everyone agrees that the controversy over the Starbucks cup is ludicrous, but the sheer scope of the response from Christians denouncing the controversy is just as bad. You know what will make people stop talking about Starbucks and start talking about the "real issues" that keep being shouted about on social media?
Stop. Talking. About. Starbucks.
Just because Christians are calling out a ridiculous controversy doesn't mean we're making ourselves look any less ridiculous. If you stop talking about it, it will stop attracting so much attention. By giving the fire your oxygen, you're only making it worse.