Thanks to Will at Theologia Viatorum for this Baptist Press story. Starbucks, never a haven of conservatism has stirred the pot with a series of cups entitled The Way I See It, featuring quotes from people in varying levels of “celebrity.” The cup in question (#43) quotes Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City, a series of novels turned PBS (also not exactly a haven of conservatism) drama openly portraying and advocating the homosexual agenda.

Reading 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 [expletive] short, the cup leaves little question about its, or Starbucks agenda. We are to accept homosexuality as normative and as nothing less.

The cup forces the question of the Christian’s role in the marketplace and once again raises the spectre of economic boycott. Perhaps the most well-known recent religiously motivated economic boycott was the Southern Baptist boycott of all things Disney. In June of 1997 SBC leaders voted to boycott Disney for their “anti-Christian and anti-family direction.” Of particular concern was (is) Disney’s support of the homosexual agenda. The boycott was recently rescinded to little fanfare. SBC officials claim to have cost Disney millions; a claim Disney flatly refuses. What’s more, Disney has apparently not changed their policies, begging the question of the boycott’s effectiveness.

Think of the Southern Baptists you know. Chances are that in the past eight years, they went to a Disney theme park, watched a Disney movie, bought Disney merchandise or watched a Disney owned television program. In other words, the boycott was all show, and that only from leadership. I don’t know a single “lay-level” Southern Baptist who enacted the boycott (though I’m sure there were many).

The question remains; what to do with Starbucks? Is it Biblical for Christians to (knowingly) support economic institutions whose agendas are clearly opposed to Scripture? Are saying one thing with our mouths and another with our dollars? We (I hope) would never give money directly to a Gay Pride parade. Yet that’s exactly what we’re doing when we support such companies. As we continue to do so the weight of our message is slowly deflated in front of a watching culture.

Perhaps the deeper question is the disconnect we have unwittingly accepted. We have allowed the sacred/secular distinction to color our thinking to the point that we no longer see anything wrong with verbally condemning an organization’s push of the homosexual agenda while actively funding the same organization. Truth be told, we live as though the Gospel is for Salvation and Sundays, but not for all of life. We have lost a truly Christian understanding of life and we no longer grasp the breadth and depth and width and height of the Gospel (Ephesians 3:14-21). We no longer set our mind on things above (Colossians 3:2) and we certainly do not take every thought (much less every action) captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). We do not “think Christianly” about the implications of things such as where we spend our money. As such, an economic boycott against Starbucks would fail just as miserably as did the one against Disney because most of us don’t ever stop to think of something like coffee in light of the Gospel.

Also of deep concern is the way we have allowed our message to be mischaracterized. For example, Charles Warford, a retired SBC minister recently said “I think it’s very unfortunate that homophobia is still very much promoted in the Southern Baptist Convention.” Love for sinners ought never to be brushed away simply as “homophobia.” Where is the active Christian engagement of the culture at every level such that they will know we are Christians by our love (John 13:35) and that calling sin sin is anything but “hate speech.”

We must be clear: when many hear the catch-phrase cultural engagement, they think only of politics. Politics is indeed a vital aspect, but it is only one aspect. If it is true as Nancy Pearcey asserts in Total Truth that politics follows culture rather than the reverse, we are missing out on untold opportunities to affect positive change with a Gospel-stained lifestyle that begins with taking every thought (and subsequently every action and every dollar) captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

In the end, we must take such things as a coffee cup as a reminder of our call to be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16) in a fallen world. We are to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and we must realize that perhaps we have done neither. At the expense of a bad pun, maybe it’s time we woke up and smelled the coffee regarding our role in society.

Read the original story from Baptist Press.
Read about the Southern Baptist boycott of Disney.
Read about the Southern Baptists ending the boycott.
Read The Same Sex Controversy by James R. White and Jeffrey D. Neil.
Visit the Starbucks Website.
Visit the Happiest Website on Earth.
Visit the Southern Baptist Convention website.