rm6, That is your opinion and my is different.

GregL, I would disagree with you about no such thing as bad publicity. If those who disagree with what you are doing stop using your product you lose a little money, but if the majority disagree with what your doing stop buying your product you go out of business.

Are there any quotes that are "Pro-God"? If so, then it would seem that they are being fair and including all opinions. If not ,than yes their campaign is "Anti-God" in my opinion.

The comment about heaven to me was pretty juvenile. Why would you want to go to a luxury hotel when all things pleasurable to the human body will be nonexistent? Only your soul goes to heaven. The comment to me was sarcastic and NOT something that was thought provoking at all.

The other one was however. While I do not agree with the message as a whole I do agree with parts. Putting your life in God's hands is great but there comes a point where you also have to take action and help yourself. It's like the story of the man or woman stuck on the roof during the flood. It goes like this....

A woman gets trapped on her roof during a flood. The water is rising fast and she calls out , " Dear God I trust in you I know you will save me." An hour later a man on a raft floats by. He says , "Get on." She says," No, God will save me." An hour later a man in a small boat comes. He says, "Get in!" She says, "No, God will save me." Another hour later a helicopter comes and the people aboard say, "Get in! "She says," No God will save me." She drowned. When she got to heaven ( filled with clouds and the sweet melody of harps) she asked God, "Why didn't you save me?" God's response was, " I sent you a raft , a boat, and a helicopter, what more did you want?

In the end if you believe in God your faith won't be in jeopardy over a quote you read during your morning coffee.

( Sorry if I hacked the story up. It's been awhile since I've heard it. :) )

countrygirl, yes there were a couple of "pro-God" quotes shown on that webpage. Anyway if you think Starbucks is anti-God, then there's always IN-N-OUT.

GregL, I agree with you that one person verses millions is not going to make a difference if he or she only stops supporting that company. However if that one is open about his opinion and talks openly about it, that one a become millions also.

It is kind of like that insurance commercial that I have seen lately. The one where one person see a kind act take place and then does the same thing for some one else and so on. One person can make a difference if others listen or watch his actions.

Justcurious, I will be honest here, I didn't check out Starbucks page before post here. What I really wanted to do was to get people to talk about God and how they felt about the Anti-God messages some people are putting out there.

Countygirl, You are 100% correct that if you believe in God with your heart and soul, these thing are minor problem for you. However as a Christain we are told to challege things like this and promote God's word.

I don't go to Starbuck's because to me it's like the McDonald's of coffee shops, except that it is *grossly* overpriced (now that I think about it, for what it actually IS, I suppose McD's is too ... ewwww). Plus, I have some political objections with the place, but that's my thing and as far as I'm concerned, "to each [her or] his own." At any rate, I go to Bad a** Coffee down here in the swamp (our not-so-affectionate nickname for our new home). I've got to tell you though, despite my personal and political objections to Starbucks, I am going to cheat on my regular coffee house this week for the sole purpose of seeing if Starbucks is serving out of these "special message" cups down here in the Deep South. I'd betcha a shiny nickel that they're not. They'd be run out of town in a heartbeat.

My husband and I are not Christian and that has been one of The Most Difficult adjustments from Tehachapi to the deep South (you can read my profile for the abbreviated version of our story if you're interested) for us (besides the rampant and blatant racism, which I can't even say that we've "adjusted" to, just that we've recovered somewhat from the initial shock. Don't even get me started!!).

A few of you have mentioned religious messages in advertising. It is sometimes difficult for us to find businesses locally that don't make Christian references in their advertising and/or on their business cards. Don't get me wrong, neither of us would mind taking our business to a person or a company who was Christian, but both of us feel very strongly that religion is an extremely private issue and has no place in business. We are approached so frequently by people trying to recruit for their church that we really avoid those places out of fear that they'll try to pitch their religion to us. We are very satisfied believing in what we do and our religious beliefs are not borne out of ignorance.

Regarding the cup message: I don't think it's anti-Christian (I'm trying to be neutral, here), but can certainly see that it would piss Christians off. I am generalizing, but as a group, they tend to be pretty touchy about that sort of thing. That has been my experience anyways.

I don't think it's a clever or thought-provoking quote in the least. If it were shortened to only say something like, "Heaven: getting by because they only have to be better than Hell" it may have elicited a chuckle from me and made me ponder a few things for about 90 seconds or so. It is sort of funny I suppose, just very poorly written. The context makes it ... not funny or clever at all.

Starbucks isn't stupid, and their marketing department certainly isn't ... my guess is that they did this knowing that it'd stir the pot and get them talked-about -- and all for nothing. I mean; they print on the cups anyways. Now we're all *talking* about what's printed on the cups. Not only that, but people like me, who don't give Starbucks our hard-earned money? We're going to Starbucks to check it out.

Alrighty, folks. I had to look it up, 'cos I just couldn't help myself. When I got to their website, this was the quote that was being displayed at the time and the rest of the text on the page:

Sparking conversation In the tradition of coffee houses everywhere, Starbucks has always supported a good, healthy discussion. To get people talking, “The Way I See It” is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on our widely shared cups.

“Give me world politics, gender politics, party politics or small-town politics ... I'll take them all over the politics of youth sports.” -- Brenda Stonecipher City council member and Starbucks customer in Everett, Washington.

Find answers to some frequently asked questions.

Most important, join us in an ongoing discussion that has only just begun.

Please note: The opinions put forth by contributors to “The Way I See It” do not necessarily reflect the views of Starbucks.

http://www.starbucks.com/re...

And for those of you who have been offended, or would just like to comment you can do so at this Starbucks link (and there's another link to read other people's comments as well:

http://www.starbucks.com/re...

I don't know that they're randomly generated or what, but you can flip through a whole bunch of them, and I didn't spot nary-a-one of 'em that smelled "anti-god" to me.

Jeremy, I am a little confused. Why did you post this “Is Starbucks Anti-God?” post under “Wake Up Before You Lose Everything”? Do you feel like the text on paper coffee cups poses a threat to your private property?

Riceme,

The "Wake Up Before You Lose Everything" is a header for my profile. Any blog I post will have that header.

Really?  Anti-God?  I'm thinking everyone with a pencil (cayron???) can provide Starbucks with something to write on their cups under the "The Way I See It" heading.

Jer, you need to make your own contribution.

And by the way, just so you think about this a little, we are bombarded every single day with religious messages.  From sports figures praying for their own personal win (my personal favorite), to the Pledge of Allegence, and our money .... "In God we Trust."

If non-religious folk can stand all of this, I think some words on a papercup should be allowed.

Darn right, Lori. Well stated. Since you mentioned your personal favorite (and it's a good one!), I simply must mention my own: there's nothing that sets my teeth on-edge and shake my head in confusion quite like ye olde religious bumper sticker. It strikes me as the cheapest, tackiest, most desperate and low-class kind of a statement about one's faith one could possibly make. Why anyone would feel like they needed to advertise their religious beliefs at all is mysterious to me. Why someone would want to peddle it on a bumper sticker on the back of their car is just plain confounding.