Are Starbucks anti-religious comments stinky or suitable?

An interesting quote from Jay Leno (unverified...presumably from his monologue):

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

...

And why is that so offensive? It's just a random person's point of view. I go to Starbucks for their coffee and once in a while, I'll take a look at the "The Way I See It" statements on the cup. I don't always agree, but the way I see it (ha!) is that every person has the right to make his or her own opinion heard, even if I disagree with it. No one's forcing me to read it and no one forced the lady in this article to read it.

Besides, those cups have a disclaimer. You can kind of see it in the picture...and it wasn't good enough for her, naturally. If she has such a problem with it, why doesn't she submit something pro-Christian? We supposedly live in a free country.

Sure, if one of those cups said something that went against my political, religious and personally held views, I might be a little (or a lot!) offended. But I wouldn't go on a huge I'm-so-offended campaign. (Though I doubt they'll notice if she stops drinking their coffee. It's her loss--Starbucks has the best coffee I've ever tasted.) The idea of those words is to promote open-minded conversation and debate. (Coffee shops are great for that!) I'd get kind of bored if I agreed with everything I saw.

Really, I think this lady is one of those people that actually LIKES to have something to be angry about. She says, "I just want coffee." If that were the case, why was she sitting around reading the cup? There have been times that I have just wanted coffee. And when I just want coffee, I don't read anything on the cup. I just sit down and drink my coffee and then throw the cup away. It's really not as hard as she might think...

As a Christian I am surprised that you are all giving so much credence to this cup. When we do such things we are actually refocusing non believers. We defend the power of Jesus but do it in such a way that we are looked at as trouble makers, loud mouths and people who are trying to change the world. WE ARE and this type of knee jerk reaction will not work. We need to pray, not go to the place that offends you but sit down and write a note to corporate headquarters telling them why. The more letters they receive the more they see the business being hurt.

We also need to be careful, we have gone after major business because of logos and work ethics only to come back to make Christians look foolish. This will probably make some of you angry, but Jesus had thousands of people following after Him and they did it with the gentle sound of His voice. Christians are called to be gentle in spirit.

As a Christian I really don't care what Starbucks prints on it's cups. I'm all for freedom of speech and I'll continue to drink the coffees.

There are a lot of organizations out there that would love to have you as a member. They are looking for people who have knee jerk reactions to things such as this. Starbucks has simply printed thoughts of some of its customers on these cups. It would be naive of anyone to believe that every other Starbucks customer believed exactly as they did.

I, for one am not in any way offended or harmed by the beliefs of others. As far as your anti American claims isn't it anti American to take the stance that others ideas and beliefs should not be heard? After all, this comment was once mans opinion, was absolutely non-threatening and was not a slur against anyone.

Thanks for spreading the word. Starbucks stinks anyway. It's not like it's the only place you can get coffee. I only support local coffee shops. We have a couple big ones here in Minnesota too that are expanding across the Midweast & U.S.

Those little statements on the cups are opinions of various people -- not Starbuck's policy. They are intended to spur debate presumably, and seem to have succeeded in this case.

Starbucks in general is a place where a lot of people from different backgrounds congregate. So are you suggesting "God's people" shouldn't go there? Hide their light under a bush, so to speak? I am not with you there.

Although I dont think you and I would get along in real life, I agree with you on this.

I think Starbucks is trying in every way to engrain itself into American , and world, cultures.

I dont drink them for other reasons as well.

(btw- just say anything about atheists and the like and see how much they"whine" and jump up and down)

If someone wants to spend 5 bucks on a cup of coffee and milk, more power too them.

And I particularly love it when religious nutbars get offended by what is printed on the side of a cup, rather than the wars being waged in their names.

I don't drink their coffee but thanks for the info!

It seems that Christianity is the only thing left in this country that is fair game for criticism. We can't say nappy headed ho, or fag, but we can always put down the Christians.