Find a Real Problem

Normally, this blog is about education or at least the philosophy behind my teaching.  Occasionally, however, I find it useful to use this blog to respond to a current issue.  This one has been on my mind since last year.

It's November, and soon the holidays will be upon us.  They will include heavy meals, decorated malls, shopping for gifts, and animated specials.  It is also time for Christians to write Facebook posts about the most trivial issues ever.  About this time every year, several of my Facebook friends proudly announce that they will not shop at any store where the clerk has told them "Happy Holidays."  Setting aside that there are, in fact, multiple holidays that Christian celebrate within a few weeks of each other, let's address the fact that these people act as if they should get some sort of medal for their own pride.  That poor, exhausted store clerk makes about $9 an hour trying to serve as many kinds of people as possible.  She works in retail, serving a public that is increasingly entitled, impatient, and prone to offense at the drop of a hat.  She makes the effort to wish you well, but because she didn't use your preferred method of well wishing, you lash out with your angry, "It's Merry Christmas, and I won't shop in any store that doesn't exclusively say that."  Is it any wonder why the world believes we are mean.  What a witness our snappy comeback must have been to that store clerk.

Last year, I watched as 172 people argued on social media about whether a PASTOR'S Christmas greeting was heretical or Biblical because he said X-mas.  Some took the stance that he was destroying the place of Jesus while others argued that the X was the Greek letter Chi and, therefore, stood for Jesus.  The reality was that on Twitter, he only got 140 characters and was trying to save 5 of them by using the X.  Is this really something to spend our time on?

This year, we have a brand new issue for the self righteous to get bothered about.  It is about the red cup at Starbucks.  I mean, last year it had snowflakes on it, and snowflakes are clearly more Christian than solid red.  We must use our social media power to complain about this travesty.  Red cups are a the true sign that Starbucks is anti-Christian.  Never mind that Starbucks has been donating to Planned Parenthood for years and supports gay marriage, we will not drink from a red cup at Christmas time.

Do we really think these are the problems of the world that need a response?  Right now, in the world, there are 29.8 million victims of human trafficking.  There are 795 million people who will go to sleep hungry tonight and 783 million who don't have access to clean water.  There are countries of our world in which girls are executed in the street because they committed the crime of going to school and others where girls are simply left to die because they they committed the crime of not being boys.  ISIS has behead over 300 people in the past two years, and thousands of Christians are killed for their faith every year (although there is wide debate over the exact number).  American Christians have opted to turn their backs on all these issues.  No, we must take a stand on the red cup.  We must refuse the well wishes of those who disagree with us.

Starting tomorrow, when I go to the store, I will gratefully accept the well wishes of anyone.  Whether they wish me Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, Happy Hanukkah, or simply Have a nice day, I will return their good wishes.  I will also set aside five dollars.  In January, whatever amount I have accumulated will be donated to an organization that helps the truly persecuted around the world.  I am currently researching exactly which organization is best, but the ones I have found so far are: Voice of the Martyrs, Open Doors, The Persecution Project Foundation, Barnabas Aid, and RescueChristians.org.  Each of these ministries support those Christians for whom responding to persecution doesn't mean whining about the cup holding our four dollar latte or treating service personnel disrespectfully.