WANT to know what life is like for Christians being persecuted for their faith? Click here and here
and here and more on Christianity in the U.S. and around the world here and here . Real Christians know we have it good here in the U.S. and it would get better if Christians tried harder to actually be Christian, because what better witness, what better testimony than actually living the life that the words of Jesus Christ Himself implore us to live? We are not perfect, we are human, but making the attempt to live the Christianity Jesus wants us to live is a better example than the person who is ranting and raving about Starbucks red coffee cups this Christmas season and those of us ranting and raving about him. From +Daily Kos and +Sojourners .....
The MSM jumped all over the story about a video from a "pastor" saying the red cups Starbucks is using for the holiday season aren't Christmas enough and that Starbucks literally "hates Jesus". Video goes viral and rightwing is outraged. This whole thing is beyond stupid, even for them.
Are you guys REALLY upset over the color of a cardboard cup? If the color red upsets you so much, wouldn't you logically be more upset with every other franchise out there that isn't even bothering to change their damn cup color for the holidays? Ya know, because it’s freaking expensive and stupid!? Besides, all of the past Starbucks holiday cup designs have been pretty darn secular—so why are you pissed now?
It wasn’t until I finally read one of the articles that I came across the name of the man who spawned this latest freak-out: Joshua Feuerstein. In none of the countless articles does the MSM bother to discuss who this clown is. So allow me:
Joshua Feuerstein is a self-described evangelist and "social-media personality". I recognized his name because he is the same asshat who harassed one of my local bakeries (and illegally recorded the phone call) because they refused to fill a fake order for an anti-gay cake. His followers bombarded their Facebook site with Ben Carson-like yarns of their supposed "bad experiences" with the bakery. Astoundingly, all of these reviews happened immediately after the date Joshua posted his hate-filled video. The bakery had to temporarily close in response to the harassment, which included death threats.
In response, I asked people in this community to fight back. You did. The bakery raised needed cash to offset their losses, got a lot of Likes on their Facebook page to offset Joshua’s minions, and a boatload of new customers. (The owner also made this 5-tier delicious smack down.)
As despicable as this guy was, I took him at his word that he was just a preacher with an obvious persecution complex. However, I have since learned that Feuerstein is much worse than that: he's a con artist.
First off, he is an entitled brat who according to this video apparently lives quite well sponging off of his mega-rich parents. Yet he is not above e-begging his duped followers to raise money for a $20,000 camera that he claimed he absolutely had to have to make YouTube videos. His followers, unable to think of anything better to donate to, gladly gave him the money and Joshua
On his site, you can buy T-shirts, DVDs, books, and even apparently become a monthly "partner" where he asks that you give him 50 dollars a month so he can supposedly stop people from committing suicide. I have no idea what kind of suicide prevention requires a monthly installment plan, but then again, I'm not a con-man.
None of the articles I’ve seen mention any of this, but instead take his nonsensical rant at face value and allow him a ton of exposure as some sort of representative of the discord among Christians today. It is not real. I don’t buy for a second that a man like him was driven bonkers over a stupid red cup. What he saw was an opportunity to gin up the faux outrage machine and grow his pool of poor suckers, while the media obliged without the slightest insight into his past.
I get very sick of the media’s complicity. In my own neighborhood last year, news channels swarmed at Carillon Elementary where a child was supposedly told she was not allowed to pray. Most of the media reported it breathlessly as such. The man who “broke the story” was Todd Starnes. No one witnessed the incident. The man who’s child this happened to? Marcos Perez, who was in charge of promoting Todd Starnes’ latest book that coincidentally was on the imaginary assault on Christianity.
To be sure, there is a very real threat to Christianity. Yet it is not atheists, homosexuals, Muslims, or even red paper cups that threaten Christianity.
It is shysters.
People with no soul who prey on Christian followers and rob them financially and spiritually not only hurt their flock, but give all religion a bad name by making it unpalatable for so many who see things like this and equate those seeking strength through faith as paranoid and stupid.
Want to know why religion is on the decline, Joshua? Look in the mirror. No man of faith would ever want to face the afterlife after scamming susceptible followers in Jesus’ name. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be in your shoes, and not just because they are so damn ugly.
Starbucks' Red Cups and the Internet Outrage Machine
Image via Starbucks / RNS
When it comes to outrage, the Internet abhors a vacuum.
The latest missives in the continuing culture wars have come from different sides of Christianity over, of all things, the new design of the Starbucks red cup. This year’s rollout saw a plain red cup, rather than the decorated cups of Christmas past, and one guy got mad.
Joshua Feuerstein is an “American evangelist, Internet, and social media personality.” He used to be a pastor, but has had some success now as a maker of YouTube videos, which put his raspy voice and confrontational manner to good use.
So THAT’S why he’s always wearing that backwards baseball cap.
Nearly 2 million people “like” Feuerstein’s Facebook page, so people started talking. The video got over 150,000 likes, and nearly half a million shares. The top comment was from a woman who worked at Starbucks correcting Feuerstein and suggesting that people “don’t just blindly follow things because someone uninformed says it out loud.”
Then the take machine got going. And it spawned take after take after take after take after take after take, all of which offered some version of a story that “Christians are offended by Starbucks’ generic Christmas cups.”
“Chick-Fil-A is not a Christian company. Only PEOPLE can be Christians!! Stop expecting corporations to evangelize!! Jesus didn’t call them, He called YOU!!”
Confirmation bias is the psychological principle that people seek out information that will reaffirm what they already believe to be true. This can lead to poor decision-making, and it is at the root of the hot take economy: “See? What that person did was terrible, because their beliefs are terrible. My beliefs are better, and I would never do something like that.”
None of the articles decrying some amorphous group of “Christians” for hating on Starbucks took into account that this whole thing was actually about one guy who makes his living creating outrageous content. But neither have the Christian responses, which have roundly condemned “these people” who want to put the Christ back in Starbucks, because they haven’t bothered to see if they actually exist.
The latest missives in the continuing culture wars have come from different sides of Christianity over, of all things, the new design of the Starbucks red cup. This year’s rollout saw a plain red cup, rather than the decorated cups of Christmas past, and one guy got mad.
Joshua Feuerstein is an “American evangelist, Internet, and social media personality.” He used to be a pastor, but has had some success now as a maker of YouTube videos, which put his raspy voice and confrontational manner to good use.
A
few days ago, Feuerstein went to a local Starbucks wearing his Jesus
shirt and carrying a gun (because Starbucks hates the Second Amendment,
he claimed). He told some unwitting barista that his name was “Merry
Christmas,” so that they would have to write that Christian message on
his cup, and then uploaded a video to Facebook encouraging his followers
to do the same.
“I think in the age of political correctness
we’ve become so open-minded our brains have literally fallen out of our
head,” he said.So THAT’S why he’s always wearing that backwards baseball cap.
Nearly 2 million people “like” Feuerstein’s Facebook page, so people started talking. The video got over 150,000 likes, and nearly half a million shares. The top comment was from a woman who worked at Starbucks correcting Feuerstein and suggesting that people “don’t just blindly follow things because someone uninformed says it out loud.”
Then the take machine got going. And it spawned take after take after take after take after take after take, all of which offered some version of a story that “Christians are offended by Starbucks’ generic Christmas cups.”
In response, the Christian outrage machine fired up, angry that other Christians were getting so angry.
“Starbucks is not a Christian company,” one commenter wrote on Facebook.“Chick-Fil-A is not a Christian company. Only PEOPLE can be Christians!! Stop expecting corporations to evangelize!! Jesus didn’t call them, He called YOU!!”
Confirmation bias is the psychological principle that people seek out information that will reaffirm what they already believe to be true. This can lead to poor decision-making, and it is at the root of the hot take economy: “See? What that person did was terrible, because their beliefs are terrible. My beliefs are better, and I would never do something like that.”
None of the articles decrying some amorphous group of “Christians” for hating on Starbucks took into account that this whole thing was actually about one guy who makes his living creating outrageous content. But neither have the Christian responses, which have roundly condemned “these people” who want to put the Christ back in Starbucks, because they haven’t bothered to see if they actually exist.
We
believe that there are other Christians out there who will turn
anything into a battle in the culture war, and we rush to denounce them.
(I’m including myself here in SO MANY WAYS.)
There is a very
tiny group of people out there who want to have “Merry Christmas”
written on their Starbucks cups, and more power to them. It will get
literally nothing done, and they are being very silly. But that’s it! We
don’t need to shed more ink or anguish over why those Christians are
doing a ridiculous thing, especially not if the whole point is to
separate ourselves and our evolved faith from other people and their
immature faith. Superiority is not a good look for Christians.
Starbucks' Red Cups and the Internet Outrage Machine
Image via Starbucks / RNS
When it comes to outrage, the Internet abhors a vacuum.
The latest missives in the continuing culture wars have come from different sides of Christianity over, of all things, the new design of the Starbucks red cup. This year’s rollout saw a plain red cup, rather than the decorated cups of Christmas past, and one guy got mad.
Joshua Feuerstein is an “American evangelist, Internet, and social media personality.” He used to be a pastor, but has had some success now as a maker of YouTube videos, which put his raspy voice and confrontational manner to good use.
So THAT’S why he’s always wearing that backwards baseball cap.
Nearly 2 million people “like” Feuerstein’s Facebook page, so people started talking. The video got over 150,000 likes, and nearly half a million shares. The top comment was from a woman who worked at Starbucks correcting Feuerstein and suggesting that people “don’t just blindly follow things because someone uninformed says it out loud.”
Then the take machine got going. And it spawned take after take after take after take after take after take, all of which offered some version of a story that “Christians are offended by Starbucks’ generic Christmas cups.”
“Chick-Fil-A is not a Christian company. Only PEOPLE can be Christians!! Stop expecting corporations to evangelize!! Jesus didn’t call them, He called YOU!!”
Confirmation bias is the psychological principle that people seek out information that will reaffirm what they already believe to be true. This can lead to poor decision-making, and it is at the root of the hot take economy: “See? What that person did was terrible, because their beliefs are terrible. My beliefs are better, and I would never do something like that.”
None of the articles decrying some amorphous group of “Christians” for hating on Starbucks took into account that this whole thing was actually about one guy who makes his living creating outrageous content. But neither have the Christian responses, which have roundly condemned “these people” who want to put the Christ back in Starbucks, because they haven’t bothered to see if they actually exist.
The latest missives in the continuing culture wars have come from different sides of Christianity over, of all things, the new design of the Starbucks red cup. This year’s rollout saw a plain red cup, rather than the decorated cups of Christmas past, and one guy got mad.
Joshua Feuerstein is an “American evangelist, Internet, and social media personality.” He used to be a pastor, but has had some success now as a maker of YouTube videos, which put his raspy voice and confrontational manner to good use.
A
few days ago, Feuerstein went to a local Starbucks wearing his Jesus
shirt and carrying a gun (because Starbucks hates the Second Amendment,
he claimed). He told some unwitting barista that his name was “Merry
Christmas,” so that they would have to write that Christian message on
his cup, and then uploaded a video to Facebook encouraging his followers
to do the same.
“I think in the age of political correctness
we’ve become so open-minded our brains have literally fallen out of our
head,” he said.So THAT’S why he’s always wearing that backwards baseball cap.
Nearly 2 million people “like” Feuerstein’s Facebook page, so people started talking. The video got over 150,000 likes, and nearly half a million shares. The top comment was from a woman who worked at Starbucks correcting Feuerstein and suggesting that people “don’t just blindly follow things because someone uninformed says it out loud.”
Then the take machine got going. And it spawned take after take after take after take after take after take, all of which offered some version of a story that “Christians are offended by Starbucks’ generic Christmas cups.”
In response, the Christian outrage machine fired up, angry that other Christians were getting so angry.
“Starbucks is not a Christian company,” one commenter wrote on Facebook.“Chick-Fil-A is not a Christian company. Only PEOPLE can be Christians!! Stop expecting corporations to evangelize!! Jesus didn’t call them, He called YOU!!”
Confirmation bias is the psychological principle that people seek out information that will reaffirm what they already believe to be true. This can lead to poor decision-making, and it is at the root of the hot take economy: “See? What that person did was terrible, because their beliefs are terrible. My beliefs are better, and I would never do something like that.”
None of the articles decrying some amorphous group of “Christians” for hating on Starbucks took into account that this whole thing was actually about one guy who makes his living creating outrageous content. But neither have the Christian responses, which have roundly condemned “these people” who want to put the Christ back in Starbucks, because they haven’t bothered to see if they actually exist.
We
believe that there are other Christians out there who will turn
anything into a battle in the culture war, and we rush to denounce them.
(I’m including myself here in SO MANY WAYS.)
There is a very
tiny group of people out there who want to have “Merry Christmas”
written on their Starbucks cups, and more power to them. It will get
literally nothing done, and they are being very silly. But that’s it! We
don’t need to shed more ink or anguish over why those Christians are
doing a ridiculous thing, especially not if the whole point is to
separate ourselves and our evolved faith from other people and their
immature faith. Superiority is not a good look for Christians.Starbucks' Red Cups and the Internet Outrage Machine
Image via Starbucks / RNS
When it comes to outrage, the Internet abhors a vacuum.
The latest missives in the continuing culture wars have come from different sides of Christianity over, of all things, the new design of the Starbucks red cup. This year’s rollout saw a plain red cup, rather than the decorated cups of Christmas past, and one guy got mad.
Joshua Feuerstein is an “American evangelist, Internet, and social media personality.” He used to be a pastor, but has had some success now as a maker of YouTube videos, which put his raspy voice and confrontational manner to good use.
So THAT’S why he’s always wearing that backwards baseball cap.
Nearly 2 million people “like” Feuerstein’s Facebook page, so people started talking. The video got over 150,000 likes, and nearly half a million shares. The top comment was from a woman who worked at Starbucks correcting Feuerstein and suggesting that people “don’t just blindly follow things because someone uninformed says it out loud.”
Then the take machine got going. And it spawned take after take after take after take after take after take, all of which offered some version of a story that “Christians are offended by Starbucks’ generic Christmas cups.”
“Chick-Fil-A is not a Christian company. Only PEOPLE can be Christians!! Stop expecting corporations to evangelize!! Jesus didn’t call them, He called YOU!!”
Confirmation bias is the psychological principle that people seek out information that will reaffirm what they already believe to be true. This can lead to poor decision-making, and it is at the root of the hot take economy: “See? What that person did was terrible, because their beliefs are terrible. My beliefs are better, and I would never do something like that.”
None of the articles decrying some amorphous group of “Christians” for hating on Starbucks took into account that this whole thing was actually about one guy who makes his living creating outrageous content. But neither have the Christian responses, which have roundly condemned “these people” who want to put the Christ back in Starbucks, because they haven’t bothered to see if they actually exist.
The latest missives in the continuing culture wars have come from different sides of Christianity over, of all things, the new design of the Starbucks red cup. This year’s rollout saw a plain red cup, rather than the decorated cups of Christmas past, and one guy got mad.
Joshua Feuerstein is an “American evangelist, Internet, and social media personality.” He used to be a pastor, but has had some success now as a maker of YouTube videos, which put his raspy voice and confrontational manner to good use.
A
few days ago, Feuerstein went to a local Starbucks wearing his Jesus
shirt and carrying a gun (because Starbucks hates the Second Amendment,
he claimed). He told some unwitting barista that his name was “Merry
Christmas,” so that they would have to write that Christian message on
his cup, and then uploaded a video to Facebook encouraging his followers
to do the same.
“I think in the age of political correctness
we’ve become so open-minded our brains have literally fallen out of our
head,” he said.So THAT’S why he’s always wearing that backwards baseball cap.
Nearly 2 million people “like” Feuerstein’s Facebook page, so people started talking. The video got over 150,000 likes, and nearly half a million shares. The top comment was from a woman who worked at Starbucks correcting Feuerstein and suggesting that people “don’t just blindly follow things because someone uninformed says it out loud.”
Then the take machine got going. And it spawned take after take after take after take after take after take, all of which offered some version of a story that “Christians are offended by Starbucks’ generic Christmas cups.”
In response, the Christian outrage machine fired up, angry that other Christians were getting so angry.
“Starbucks is not a Christian company,” one commenter wrote on Facebook.“Chick-Fil-A is not a Christian company. Only PEOPLE can be Christians!! Stop expecting corporations to evangelize!! Jesus didn’t call them, He called YOU!!”
Confirmation bias is the psychological principle that people seek out information that will reaffirm what they already believe to be true. This can lead to poor decision-making, and it is at the root of the hot take economy: “See? What that person did was terrible, because their beliefs are terrible. My beliefs are better, and I would never do something like that.”
None of the articles decrying some amorphous group of “Christians” for hating on Starbucks took into account that this whole thing was actually about one guy who makes his living creating outrageous content. But neither have the Christian responses, which have roundly condemned “these people” who want to put the Christ back in Starbucks, because they haven’t bothered to see if they actually exist.
We
believe that there are other Christians out there who will turn
anything into a battle in the culture war, and we rush to denounce them.
(I’m including myself here in SO MANY WAYS.)
There is a very
tiny group of people out there who want to have “Merry Christmas”
written on their Starbucks cups, and more power to them. It will get
literally nothing done, and they are being very silly. But that’s it! We
don’t need to shed more ink or anguish over why those Christians are
doing a ridiculous thing, especially not if the whole point is to
separate ourselves and our evolved faith from other people and their
immature faith. Superiority is not a good look for Christians.
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