Local Starbucks sippers are weathering evangelist-brewed tempest in a (red) coffee cup

Submitted by Anne H. Oman
November 13, 2015 1:31 p.m.

At 7:35 on Friday morning, all was quiet on the newest front in the culture wars, the spiffy new Starbucks on Sadler Road.

Steve Chenoweth was sitting at a table with a companion, taking his morning joe out of one of the plain red cups that stirred the controversy.

“If I had a cup as my moral compass, I’d have much deeper problems,” he said.

The brew-ha-ha about Starbuck’s choice of a plain red cup as its holiday season vessel was the brain child, or, anyway, the idea of Josh Feuerstein, an Arizona-based internet evangelist, who posted a video rant on November 5 accusing the coffee chain of omitting seasonal motifs from this year’s cup because “they hate Jesus.” Some 15 million people have viewed the now viral video.

This is not Feuerstein’s first blow against what he perceives as political correctness. Last spring, he telephoned the Cut the Cake Bakery in Longwood, Florida, and tried to order a cake with the message “We Do Not Support Gay Marriage.” When the order was refused, the self-styled “disciple of Jesus” posted the bakery’s phone number on his Facebook page and asked views to call. And call they did.

“About every three seconds,” said the bakery’s proprietor Sharon Haller in a telephone interview. “We got so many harassing phone calls, our customers couldn’t get through – it was hurting our business.”

Worse than the harassment were the threats, “against our business and against us personally” she said.

Feuerstein has also weighed in against evolution and in support the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, claiming that the “Christian Holocaust has begun.” Feuerstein suggested customers give their names to the baristas as “Merry Christmas,” so the employees would have to write that on the offending cups.

So far, no customers have given her the name “Merry Christmas,” said a smiling Starbucks barista at the Fernandina store. The manager, who gave her name only as Lenna, said she couldn’t “answer any questions about Starbucks,” a directive from corporate.

In a news release entitled “The Story Behind the Design of Starbucks 2015 Red Cups,” Jeffrey Fields, the coffee corporation’s vice president of Design & Content, said:

“In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs. This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories… Starbucks has become a place of sanctuary during the holidays. We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it. It’s a more open way to usher in the holiday.”

Here at the local Starbucks sanctuary, a couple who gave their names only as Linda and Bill were embracing the quietness sitting at the counter and sipping coffee from their own reusable cups.
“But only because we have our own cups,” assured Linda.

“We’re 100 percent into the red cups. It’s the stupidest thing – there are more important things than red cups.”

Other local residents, lining up to order their lattes and machiatos in what one wag dubbed “Satan sippers” echoed that sentiment.

“It’s much ado about nothing,” said Mike Sanchez.

“It’s ludicrous,” said Ben Cazell.

“Seriously? asked Mandy Kulbel. “It’s red – it’s festive.”

Sheila Brown, coming into the store with her granddaughter, said she was aware of the coffee kerfuffle but “it’s nonsense – I don’t pay any attention to it.”

“I think it’s ridiculous people are getting upset about this,” said Curtis Hooper. “If you’re going to get upset, get upset about Obama….Do you know some guy complained about the holly decals on the door? I guess he thought it was religious.”

The entry to the local store is decked with holly drawings. The chain also markets Advent Calendars and “Christmas Blend” coffee. These items have not drawn the same fire and ire generated by the red cups.

Starbucks has 23,000 stores in 68 countries, including one in New York City’s Trump Tower – but maybe not for long. In the most recent Republican Presidential debate on November 10, the shop’s landlord, Donald Trump, suggested “Maybe we should boycott Starbucks,” and added: “That’s the end of that lease.”

There is no evidence of the suggested boycott in Fernandina Beach.

At Amelia Island Coffee in downtown Fernandina, the barista indicated there was no surge of refugees from Starbucks, as she served up cappuccinos and expressos in the breathtakingly plain white cup the independent café uses all year round.

Anyone experiencing seasonal deprivation could always visualize a snowy white field in a winter wonderland.

Editor’s Note: Anne H. Oman relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications. We thank Anne for her contributions to the Fernandina Observer.