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If Starbucks Can Preach About Race, Can Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby Preach About Christian Values?
Christian Post ^ | 03/27/2015 | Wallace Henley

Posted on 03/27/2015 7:54:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The more the general society rejects, spurns, and ignores the biblical pulpit, the greater the preachy culture expands.

Starbucks' recent attempt to turn a coffee cup into a communion chalice is an example. The "communion" signified upon the cup was not about humans and God, but about humans "communing" with one another regarding race.

The company, a denomination within the religion of Neo-Progressivism, launched its "Race Together" campaign to get us all set right on human relations. The PR didn't work, and so Starbucks had to dismantle the "Race Together" pulpit. However, that won't halt its preachiness. Jim Olson, a Starbucks executive, said the corporation wanted only to be a "catalyst" for getting us into a conversation about race. Now, rather than the coffee cups summoning us to such a gabfest, sparked by the bright-faced barista-evangelists, Starbucks will carry on its crusade through forums, USA Today features, and plant more mission stations – that is Starbucks stores – in needy neighborhoods (where people can afford pricey coffee).

We should rejoice. Think of what this new dimension of the preachy culture is opening up.

Perhaps Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby could use bags reading, "Let's have a conversation about the Judeo-Christian roots of Western Civilization." Bible-believing bakers, bed-and-breakfast keepers, and florists could include on their product descriptions, "Let's discuss traditional marriage."

Such is not likely. The preachy culture has already declaimed conveyors of messages like that as hate-driven deliverers of hate-screeds. The proprietors and their enterprises would be forced out of polite company and forbidden entry into the public square.

Oh, I forgot: They already are.

But the preachy culture will keep thundering, needling, worming, confronting, engaging, inviting, and cajoling us all into a "dialogue" on its cherished doctrines. And if we don't freely enter in, eyes bright and ears attuned, they will find a way to strip our licenses, shut us down and silence us. Actually they don't want a "conversation" but compliance.

"Don't preach at me!" shriek the guardians of secular culture when someone suggests their belief systems might lead to disaster and their moral theories to disease and death. I don't know about you, but I get preached at by the preachy culture constantly. Take, for example, a physician's waiting room. Though an evangelical, I am convinced there is a Purgatory, and it is the doctor's waiting room where you linger until called in for an appearance before the great judgment-seat of the diagnostician. While in limbo you are forced to watch whatever TV show dominates the tight room.

We are pounded at restaurants, gasoline tanks, and ticket counters by rap music that preaches philosophies many of us find abhorrent. Parents have to hide their children's eyes at supermarket checkout counters where magazines allow the celebrity proclaimers to declare their newly developed profundities about life and behavior, their scant clothing symbolizing the moral emptiness of their messages. Diners at restaurants become captive audiences to guests on Jerry Springer extolling the glories of their personal sexual ecstasies, talk show gurus presenting New Age expositions, and Ellen sermonizing about sexuality.

There is no escaping the preachy culture.

So you can expect to hear more from the corporate and institutional sermonizers of the Religion of Neo-Progressivism. Preachy folk and their messages will remind you what a sinner you are for not embracing the full magisterium of the green movement, or for refusal to "coexist" in a lamblike state with wolfish ideologies destructive of human beings and society (meaning they can preach at you, but you cannot preach to them, or anywhere, for that matter, in the "public square").

Ironically, many who have left the traditional church because they did not want to be "preached at" have become the class that preaches loudest of all. A brief scan of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media proves the point.

The preachy culture proliferates because of something called the "moral law", which C.S. Lewis thought to be among the surest proofs of the existence of God. Moral beliefs (even if they are immoral on someone else's scale) lead to "oughtness" and "oughtness" leads to preaching. Everyone has a vision for how others "ought" to behave and how society "ought" to function. Such interaction use to occur healthily in an environment called "free speech". But after the free speech movement at Berkeley and other 1960s locales, strangely, free speech has diminished, and mostly what we have is political correctness and the preachiness emanating from it.

If there is no appreciation for the true pulpit then everything becomes a pulpit. It's because we have this relentless compulsion for the "ought". Even the atheists are compelled to preach their oughtness.

The more the biblical pulpit backs off its message or is neglected by a society uncomfortable with the message, the more will be the proliferation of other pulpits. Starbucks is a case in point.

I'm just glad this column is never preachy.

Wink.

-- Wallace Henley has been 'preaching' for some 50 years through the church, journalism, politics, and academics.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cfa; chickfila; christians; christianvalues; race; starbucks
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1 posted on 03/27/2015 7:54:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

No, and pointing out hypocrisy on the left has no effect.
They’re immune to being shamed by such logical conclusions.


2 posted on 03/27/2015 7:55:50 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: SeekAndFind
I'm always amazed at the militant atheists that say, “Don't cram your religion down my throat!”

Yet public schools cram atheism down the throats of students daily. It seems like 90% of all media is on the side of atheism.

Pot meet kettle.

3 posted on 03/27/2015 7:57:31 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: SeekAndFind

If it were not for double-standards, the left would have no standards.


4 posted on 03/27/2015 7:59:12 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: MrB

Why bother “shaming” them. That’s to play on the world’s level which ends in vanity anyhow.

I don’t know why uplifting and godly messages couldn’t be added to Chik-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby packaging. Why not propose this to those entities.

Aldi’s discount value grocery prints a biblical praise to God on the inside cover of its egg packages, just wondering if anyone has noticed. They have done it for many years. Somehow they don’t get boycotted to death by atheists.


5 posted on 03/27/2015 7:59:57 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: PATRIOT1876

It’s the false claim of “neutrality” on the part of the Humanists.

You’ll get a LOT of pushback if you make the assertion that their worldview, based on Humanism, is indeed a religion that should fall under the same criteria as they apply to Christianity,

if they were to be consistent, which they can’t be.


6 posted on 03/27/2015 8:00:28 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: SeekAndFind

A point to be made is that what Starbucks did became a public relations disaster. Despite its awful quality, coffee is what people go to Starbucks for. Few people looking for as great chicken sandwich are happy to get a lecture, sermon or whatever this messaging might be.


7 posted on 03/27/2015 8:00:30 AM PDT by muir_redwoods ("He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative." G.K .C)
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To: PATRIOT1876

Sometimes, it is a caricature of faith that the media hates.


8 posted on 03/27/2015 8:00:38 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: SeekAndFind

There are companies that do very similar things. In-n-out burger is one example - they print bible verses on their cups and other food packaging.


9 posted on 03/27/2015 8:00:40 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
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To: SeekAndFind

Of course they can. But, it was a bad idea for Starbucks (”STFU and give me the coffee in a clean cup.”), and it will be a bad idea for the other firms, because it interferes with service, and intrudes into the customer’s personal space. IMHO, of course.


10 posted on 03/27/2015 8:00:58 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: SeekAndFind

Leftist wackos are obsessed with changing society. They are convinced that all Whiteys are racist.


11 posted on 03/27/2015 8:01:25 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“If Starbucks Can Preach About Race, Can Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby Preach About Christian Values?”

No. Because in a facist/soviet state, you’re only allowed and approved to spew what they permit.

You all think you live in a free Republic, right? LOL


12 posted on 03/27/2015 8:01:33 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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To: kosciusko51

The left says you can’t discriminate. Unless its against Christians.


13 posted on 03/27/2015 8:01:53 AM PDT by henkster (Do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

In-N-Out burgers puts Bible verses on it drink cups,at least they did the last time I had In-N-Out (one of small handful of things I miss about CA).


14 posted on 03/27/2015 8:01:54 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: WKUHilltopper

And who died and made the “mess media” king.

They will be such royalty only for as long as they get treated that way by the people. The people do have the right to say no! And there would be a lot of shock, horror on the media’s part but in the end they would bend to the new state of affairs or go extinct.


15 posted on 03/27/2015 8:04:14 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: SeekAndFind

No. They can’t.

You can only preach if you are espousing the liberal view of some issue. So you can preach that you are in favor of homosexuality and homosexual marriage, but not in opposition.

Ditto any other issue, such as global warming. We are allowed to preach about the dangers of global warming and saving the polar bears, but are now allowed to preach in opposition to the hysteria we hear on that subject.


16 posted on 03/27/2015 8:05:50 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Dilbert San Diego

For as long as they are treated as kings.

It’s time to stop treating them as kings. They’ll be horrified, but they will soon realize their bluff has gotten called.


17 posted on 03/27/2015 8:11:00 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"Don't preach at me!" shriek the guardians of secular culture when someone suggests their belief systems might lead to disaster and their moral theories to disease and death. I don't know about you, but I get preached at by the preachy culture constantly.

Exactly right - and sick of it.

18 posted on 03/27/2015 8:12:19 AM PDT by madprof98
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To: SeekAndFind

“Liberalism” is a ploy: talk about tolerance, imputing malice on those who “aren’t tolerant” until your POV goes from un-tolerated to tolerated to enough influence to seize control, then legislate it as the norm and proceed to ban/punish/destroy what was the norm the self-describe “Liberals” didn’t like. It’s a tool, not an axiom.


19 posted on 03/27/2015 8:14:24 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Si vis pacem, para bellum.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Freedom of speech for them, but not for you.


20 posted on 03/27/2015 8:14:47 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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