Blog by-the-Sea

Obnoxious Christianophobic Response? (from Starbucks)

Update 12/31/08: I was in the Starbucks near my office today, and the blackboard announced a sale price on Starbucks' "Christmas Blend."  I don't know that this post had anything to do with that, but whether it did or not: Thank you, Starbucks!

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Well, I may have found one place I can cut my budget: Starbucks.

I don't usually write anything here that is snarky or "in your face".  I am pretty sure that the e-mail that I sent to Starbucks Customer Service yesterday is the first one of its kind that I have sent to any company, at least for several years.  But it struck me, while I was in the store yesterday, that the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas" was in use where it didn't seem to serve a purpose.  It was even a little bit depressing.  And I sent them a short e-mail.  I don't think it was offensive.  It just said what I felt.

The e-mail I got back used the word "holiday" 10 times, mentioned Hanukkah 2 times, and carefully avoided the word "Christmas".  It seemed pretty obnoxious to me, but maybe I was just surprised at the tenor of the e-mail.

I have no problem with stores celebrating both Christmas and Hannukkah.  I have done that myself with Jewish friends in the past.  It is not the acknowledgment of other faiths' holidays that I find upsetting, but rather the over-the-top secularism where it serves no purpose.

I have been a regular at the Starbucks near my office for a long time, although the coffee that I drink at home is Peet's which I think is higher quality.  Peet's used to have a Christmas Blend each year, a long time ago.  I thought it was a little bit sad when they changed the name of it to Holiday Blend -- probably a long enough time ago to date me.  But I still buy it.

But here is a copy of my e-mail to Starbucks Customer Service and a copy of their entire response to me today.  Does anybody think I was out of line in saying what I felt?  Does anybody think the Starbucks response was appropriate, especially given that they are closing stores and losing customers as it is in this recession?

My e-mail to Starbucks (with my emphasis):

Your name for your gingerbread slices, Holiday Gingerbread, does not comply with your commitment to social responsibility, your mission statement promoting diversity, or your wish to be uplifting to customers. The word gingerbread is already secular. Further secularizing it by adding the word holiday seems to go out of your way to avoid the very concept of Christmas by doubly emphasizing that yours is not a Christmas Gingerbread. I found that depressing. It shows a lack of tolerance toward your Christian customers. It came across as if Starbucks is doubly emphasizing that it does not tolerate any observance of Christmas in its store.

Starbucks' In-Your-Face E-Mail Response (with my emphasis and their reply e-mail address in case anyone else would like to reply):

Hello Teresa,
 
Thank you for contacting Starbucks Coffee Company.
 
At Starbucks Coffee Company, we value and embrace the diversity of our partners (employees) and customers.  During the months of November and December, a time when various holidays are celebrated, Starbucks retail locations are decorated with fun, festive, and seasonal holiday colors and icons.  Additionally, we offer customers seasonal holiday beverages and merchandise.
 
During the holiday season, familiar icons can be seen throughout the stores.  These include festive trees, silver bells, ornaments, candles and snowflakes.  The seasonal colors representing the holiday season are also used, including bright red, white and silver.  Over the years, our customer feedback has indicated that these are the colors that exemplify the holiday season.
 
We work closely with our local operations teams to identify the needs of local customers and to offer relevant merchandise for specific holidays.  Many stores offer Hanukkah items during the holidays. Upon request, a store manager can order a specific holiday item for a customer.  Additionally, stores have core holiday items that can be used to create a nice Hanukkah gift pack.
 
Again, thank you for contacting Starbucks.  If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact us at info@starbucks.com or call 1-800-23-LATTE to speak directly with a Customer Relations representative.

Myanmar's Cultural and Religious Oppression and the Difficulties of Disaster Relief

Exactions militaires en Birmanie
Uploaded by asskforfreedom

The video contains 10 minutes from an English language documentary about the Myanmar government's oppression against minority cultural and religious groups.  The video includes a discussion of the persecution of Christian churches in Myanmar (Burma) and provides background information about the military junta in control of the country.

The best solution for cyclone relief, if possible, would be for the relief to be distributed by the Burmese people themselves with as little visible outside influence as possible.  Given the magnitude of the disaster, that is probably not possible.  The government's tolerance of the resulting deaths and suffering, and the likelihood of increasing devastation due to resulting spread of disease, will be understood in the context of the nationalism and cultural oppression already present in the country before the disaster, as shown in the video. 

The government views certain forms of Buddhism as unifying and supporting of nationalism.  It oppresses other forms of Buddhism and non-Buddhist religions along with other cultural minorities to a point that the documentary discusses whether it should be called "genocide."  The oppression increased in the 1990's, particularly after a failed peaceful uprising in 1998.

According to CNN, the U.N. is now furious that cyclone relief supplies were seized for lack of a permit.  I do not know whether other organizations have been able to get relief supplies into the country or not.  I would suppose that some small channels exist, such that supplies could be carried into Thailand awaiting local people who can carry them across the boarder for relief agencies that already have government approval.  Or simply given to ordinary Burmese citizens among exile groups in Thailand.  The exiles have contacts in Burma who could carry some amount of food back across the boarder for themselves and others . . . . although the likelihood now is that anyone who can get out of the disaster area is not likely to want to go back into it unless they are willing to risk their own lives for charitable purposes.

More Information on Cultural and Religious Oppression in Myanmar

Carey Suante's website has a Brief History of Christianity in Burma written by Rev. Khup Za Go, M.A., M.Th., written in 1993 while doing theological study in Bangalore.  According to Rev. Khup Za Go, Portuguese Catholic missionaries brought the Catholic faith to Burma in the 16th century.  They were known for their charitable works, including schools and hospitals.  Protestant missionaries also evangelized the country.  As Burma was under British control until the mid-20th century, Anglican churches still exist, including an Anglican cathedral.

Foreign missionaries to Burma were forced to leave the country from 1965 to 1966 as their permits were not renewed.  Go states:

"As a result 234 Catholic priests and nuns, 56 American Baptist, 29 Anglicans, 18 American Methodists, 15 British Methodists, 8 Salvation Army and 7 A.G. workers were expelled from the country.  Christian literatures, journals and magazines could not be printed without being officially censored. Supply of printing papers were controlled by the government, permits was required to buy papers for books and magazines." 

Christian schools and hospitals were nationalized out of a concern that they did not promote nationalism.  Christian literature cannot be printed there without government censorship, and a permit is required to obtain paper for printing books and journals.

However, the Christians who were then 2% of the population grew to 5%.  As explained by Go:

"The hand of Providence can be clearly seen as the Burmese Christians were emancipated from the strangle of the missionaries and could embark on its own programme of propagating and identifying with the people. This incident greatly changed the notion of Christianity in Burma."

The difficulty with obtaining Christian literature is something I have learned elsewhere, when I met a visitor from Burma some years ago.  He was a simple lay person who carried books back with him for use at a seminary.   

The U.S. State Department's information about Myanmar includes sections on the country's religious demography and religious freedom that are informative, including this:

"The Government has allowed a few elderly Catholic priests and nuns who worked in the country prior to independence to continue their work. At times religious groups, including Catholics, Protestants, and other Christians, have brought in foreign clergy and religious workers as tourists, but they have been careful to ensure that their activities have not been perceived by the Government as proselytizing. Some Christian theological seminaries established before 1962 also continued to operate; however, in 2000 military authorities closed a Bible school that had been operating in Tamu Township in Sagaing Division since 1976."

About 89% of the population is said to be Buddhist, 4% Christian, and 4% Muslim, according to the Myanmar government.  However, as the State Department website says, the percentage of non-Buddhist religious groups is almost certainly underestimated. 

Last year's protests by Burmese Buddhist monks seeking democratic freedom underscore that the government's oppression also affects Buddhists.  The government supports and controls certain forms of Buddhism, oppressing others.  The State Department website explains:

"The Government continued to show its preference for Theravada Buddhism and to control the organization and restrict the activities and expression of the monkhood ("sangha"), although some monks have resisted such control. Beginning in late 1990, the Government banned any organization of Buddhist monks other than the nine state-recognized monastic orders. These nine orders submit to the authority of a state-sponsored State Monk Coordination Committee ("Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee," or SMNC), which is elected indirectly by monks. The junta also authorized military commanders to try Buddhist monks before military tribunals for "activities inconsistent with and detrimental to Buddhism," and it imposed on Buddhist monks a code of conduct. Infractions of the code are punished by immediate, public defrocking, and often criminal penalties. In November 2001, two nuns at Thayet were arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison for violating this code.

"In January 2003, three nuns were arrested under the 1950 Emergency Provision Act for demonstrating in Rangoon for lower prices on basic commodities, progress in political dialogue, and the release of political prisoners. They were defrocked and sentenced to at least 7 years in prison."

The pro-freedom protests by Burmese Buddhist monks last year are discussed in a September 2007 article from the New York Times (one of many news reports about the protests).  10,000 monks demonstrated in Rangoon in support of detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Benedict XVI: On the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and Academic Freedom

Photo gallery from La Repubblica (32 photos).

Asia News reports that tens of thousands of people appeared today in St. Peter's Square to show support for Pope Benedict XVI in response to last week's incident at La Sapienza University.  Counting those present by satellite link-up from other parts of Italy, there were approximately 200,000 people participating in the show of solidarity.

Father Zuhlsdorf also has an article with photos.  Amy Welborn has a detailed post with photographs and links.  Full translations are available from the Vatican and Zenit. 

After greeting the crowd, the Holy Father moved quickly into his reflection on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, given before praying the midday Angelus.  He mentioned the Brothers and Sisters of the Atonement, who began the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 100 years ago.  At the end of his reflection on Christian Unity, he spoke about the importance of reason, freedom and dialogue in the university environment. 

Here is an excerpt from the Asia News translation:

"As a professor 'emeritus', so to speak, who have met so many students in my life, I encourage all, dear university students, to be always respectful of the opinions of others and to seek truth and goodness in a spirit of freedom and responsibility."

Esteem for the Truth and Goodness of Other Religions

Asia News has an address with quotes from Pope Benedict XVI's address today to the bishops of Italy.  Father Zuhlsdorf has an article with quotes and analysis.  A full translation is available from Teresa Benedetta at Papa Ratziner Forum.

He praised Italy's Family Day and spoke of the importance of the Church's mission and the need for formation to counter the growing relativism of the surrounding culture.  He also spoke of the need for respect for other religions with growing diversity.  Here is a quote from Teresa Benedetta:

"The regard and respect towards other religions and cultures, with the seeds of truth and goodness present in them and which represent a preparation for the Gospel, are particularly necessary today, in a world that is becoming more 'together.' But that cannot diminish our awareness of the originality, fullness and uniqueness of the revelation of the true God who was definitively given to us in Christ, nor can it attenuate or weaken the missionary vocation of the Church."

Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of Europe

On March 24, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the bishops of Europe in addressing a Congress on "50 Years After the Treaty of Rome: Values and Perspectives for the Europe of Tomorrow.".  Links to English translations of that speech appear in this earlier post from this blog.

Sandro Magister posted his translation and comments on that address yesterday in an article titled An "Apostate" from Itself: The  Lost Europe of Pope Benedict.  Magister also reflects back on the Pope's past statements on Europe, dating back to before he became Pope. 

Magister referenced the Pope's longer address on Europe, given as Cardinal Ratzinger on April 1, 2005, linking to the Italian text of that 2005 address.  An English translation is available from Zenit on the Catholic Education Resource Center website and in several parts on the Zenit website: Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Vote on "Religion Law" Friday in Moldova

Please pray about a vote scheduled for this Friday in Moldova's Parliament that would diminish religious freedom in that country.  The Law on Religious Cults ("Religion Law"), if it passes, will curtail the ability of religious minorities in that country to invite people to religious and evangelistic activities.

Christian Newswire reports that the Expert Committee on Legislation and Implementation of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy in Washington, D.C., has expressed concern that the draft Religion Law violates fundamental rights.  One article of the draft Law requires religious denominations that have ecclesiastical courts to submit their courts' regulations for approval by the State.  Another article allows the Government to ask a court to suspend and liquidate a denomination's activities or component parts that the Government says contravene the Religion Law, and suspension or liquidation could even result from minor offenses.   

The law will prohibit "abusive proselytism", which the law defines as "the action of changing the religious beliefs of a person or a group of persons through means of violence, abuse of authority, blackmail, threats, constraints, religious hatred, disinformation, psychological manipulation or subliminal techniques."  A missionary in Eastern Europe has asked for prayer about this vote, which potentially could prevent Christian organizations from inviting people to evangelistic activities.  There are concerns that terms like "disinformation", "psychological manipulation" and "subliminal techniques" are vague. Those descriptions could possibly be applied to such things as Protestant evangelistic sermons and  to people inviting friends to Christian sports activities.

Moldova is a former republic of the Soviet Union, situated by Ukraine and Romania.  Its Parliament's largest political party is a Communist party with an interest in the European Union.  Moldova is one of the poorest nations in Eastern Europe.  By far, most believing Moldovans are Russian Orthodox. More than 20,000 Catholics and 1,000 Baptists also live in Moldova.  Also, 1.5% of the population is Jewish.

Update Feb. 10: No one seems to know anything yet about Friday's debate in Moldova's parliament.  The discussion was behind closed doors, unlike debates in the U.S. and U.K. governments.  I looked for any news reports and found none.  They may not yet have actually voted.  Please continue to pray.  When something official is announced, I will update it here.

Religious Freedom in Multiple Situations

The Pope met today with the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.  Asia News has an article about the Pope's words on religious freedom, addressed to the Italian President.  Zenit also has an article.  Here is an excerpt from the Pope's address, as quoted in the Asia News article:

"Not to be forgotten in fact is that ‘the  social nature of man itself requires that he should give external expression to his internal acts of religion: that he should share with others in matters religious; that he should profess his religion in community’ (ibid).  Thus religious freedom is not only a right of the individual but also of the family, of religious groups and of the Church herself (cf Dignitatis humanae, 4-5.13) and the exercise of this right has an influence on the multiple ambits and situations in which the believer finds himself and operates."

St. Augustine of Canterbury and the Re-Evangelization of Our Own Era

Christianity has long spread the Gospel by presenting Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets, the fulfillment of Platonic philosophy, the fulfillment of that element of truth that can be found in other religions (see this earlier post on that point).  However, Christianity has long rejected any change to the basic Gospel message; it thus separates itself from paganism and from heresy, and also from the pluralism of our present age.

Pope/St. Gregory the Great illustrates this well in an incident used by Pope Benedict XVI (as Cardinal Ratzinger) in Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions (Ignatius Press, 2004), in a portion of the book not previously published as an essay.  The incident involved the evangelization of England by St. Augustine of Canterbury, whose feast day is later this week on May 27.

In 596, Pope/St. Gregory, who had been a monk, sent the monk Augustine (now known as St. Augustine of Canterbury) to evangelize the English.  England had fallen into the Dark Ages around the end of the life of St. Patrick of Ireland, and had nearly lost contact with Rome for about 100 years.  Gregory the Great had made Augustine Archbishop of the English and had sent him to renew the distant church.  Augustine reported miracles in England, which Gregory then concluded were given to help people's unbelief and to manifest holiness.  Augustine’s mission was successful, and the English Church was firmly established by 601.

The success of the mission, and its methods, are recorded in the letters of St. Gregory the Great, in the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England.  Pope Benedict XVI referenced two such letters in one of the essays published in Truth and Tolerance.  (I am taking the quoted letters from that book, and thus use the same translation of Pope/St. Gregory as was used there by Ignatius Press.  The second of those letters can be read in context online at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, as printed in the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Bede here).

In his first of two letters discussed by Benedict XVI, Pope/St.Gregory wrote to the English King Ethelbert:

"Therefore, my most illustrious son, carefully preserve the grace you have received from God….Inflame your noble zeal….Suppress the worship of idols; destroy their temples and altars. Uplift the virtues of your subjects by outstanding behavior and morality."

(Truth and Tolerance, pg. 228-229, quoting Pope/St. Gregory the Great, Ep. XI, 37.) 

One month later, Gregory sent a different message to a group of missionaries who had just departed for England, and to someone named Mellitus:

"But when, with the grace of almighty God, you reach our most reverend brother, Bishop Augustine, then tell him that I have been reflecting at length about one matter concerning the Englishmen. That is, one should by no means destroy the temples of this people’s idols: rather, simply destroy the idols to be found within them….When the people see that we are not destroying their temples, then they will nonetheless abandon their errors and will that much more joyfully turn to the knowledge and the worship of the true God in their accustomed places."

(Truth and Tolerance, pg. 229, quoting Pope/St. Gregory the Great, Ep. XI, 56.) 

Cardinal Ratzinger thus wrote:

"This shows what we call continuity in worship. The holy place remains holy, and the intentions and petitions of prayer, and the worship of the divine, which formerly took place, are taken up and transformed, given a new significance. . . . [The pagan gods] have been overthrown: the question of truth has itself deprived them of divinity and brought about their downfall.  Yet at the same time their truth has emerged that they were a reflection of divinity, a presentment of figures in which their hidden significance was purified and fulfilled."

(Truth and Tolerance, pg. 229)  The pagan gods, although false, are seen as "steps in the search for the true God and for his reflection in creation" and thus they "may become messengers of the one God."  The two letters can be viewed in the context of two "phases in the Christian relationship with 'pagan' religions" also discussed in that section of the book.  Cardinal Ratzinger saw the first letter as indicative of a phase of enlightenment, in which Christianity is placed on the side of philosophy and enlightenment, against divided truth.  In the second phase, "the connection with the religions and the limits of enlightenment emerge."  That section of the book concludes with the observation that, in I John 4:8 ("God is love"), truth and love are identical.  "This sentence -- if the whole of its demand is understood -- is the surest guarantee of tolerance, of an association with truth, whose only weapon is itself and, thereby, love."

Perhaps, in applying what Pope Benedict XVI then said of what was done in the sixth century to our present understanding of tolerance, in seeing truth and love as identical, we too work to find the right point of connection between truth and love in any given situation.  It seems to me that what Pope/St. Gregory initially would have done (the first letter) may have reflected the way the Church had dealt with Arians. However, what he did after further thought (the second letter) reflected the way the earlier Church had dealt with pagans.  What seemed at first essential to proclaim the enlightenment of truth, after one month's consideration, could be compromised -- not in that the truth was less important than it had been one month earlier but rather in that the situation in which the truth was to be proclaimed was better understood.  St. Augustine's proclamation of the Gospel included both a proclamation of the truth and an understanding of the existing situation as a step in the search for God, and the work of love and truth as one involved both.

In Truth and Tolerance, Cardinal Ratzinger explained that the evangelistic transformation shown in Pope/St. Gregory's second letter can be seen all over Rome, offering the Church of St. Mary Sopra Minerva as an example.   

Without suggesting that I might have some additional, equivalent point to make, here are a few more examples of the same thing.  This manner of evangelism is seen as early as St. Paul's sermon at the Areopagus, where he presented the God of the Bible as the "unknown god" in the thinking of the people to whom he was preaching (Acts 17:22-23).  St. Clement of Alexandria followed the same pattern in the second century. For evangelistic purposes, St. Clement had gained extensive knowledge about the writings of poets and philosophers.  W.H.C. Frend, in The Rise of Christianity, wrote of Clement that “he realized from what he read that his missionary task would be hopeless unless he was able to interpret Christian truth in terms which educated inquirers could accept.” He saw Plato and Aristotle as preparing the Greek people for the true message of the Gospel, just as the Old Testament had prepared the Hebrews. (Frend, pg. 370). St. Clement justified his use of philosophy and literature by the example of St. Paul, explaining that he too would become all things to all men that he might by any means save some (Henry Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition, pg. 35).

This understanding that Pope/St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine of Canterbury showed to the culture of the sixth century English people should not be confused with treating their religious views as equal in truth in a pluralistic sense.  Therein lies the first phase, the emphasis on enlightenment and truth, without wavering from love.  Historians now commonly agree that early Christians were severely persecuted because they rejected Roman pluralism and were evangelistic. Cardinal Ratzinger discussed this in connection with the writing of St. Augustine of Hippo (Truth and Tolerance, pp. 165-170). Christianity “was not one religion among others but represented the victory of perception and knowledge over the world of religions.” (Id., at 170.) J. Patout Burns, Jr. recently made this point in Cyprian the Bishop, Routledge, 2002, about third century Carthage: “One of the imperial objectives seems to have been the elimination of the divisions of religious exclusivism.” (Burns, pg. 1). G.W. Clarke made a similar point concerning the persecutions of Carthage in his Introduction to The Letters of St. Cyprian of Carthage, Vol. I, pg. 24.

The challenge of our own era is to recognize that need to affirm both truth and love, both the truth of Christianity and a recognition of the value of other people's beliefs as steps on the way toward God, in application to the ever changing secular culture around.  It is also essential to recognize that some of the disagreements between Christians over how to respond to one situation or another arise, in fact, from seeing different phases of evangelism in the same conflicted situation.  One person sees a situation as Gregory did in his first letter, and the other sees the same situation as Gregory did in his second letter, and yet both views may be properly considered in seeking the will of God in both truth and love in a complicated and changing culture.  Where Pope/St. Gregory saw the same situation from both perspectives, one month apart, we should not be too surprised if the same difference of perspective exists between two Christians viewing the same situation at the same time now.

The ultimate objective now, as then, must be to find that point where God's will lies, expressing the unity of truth and love in proclaiming the Gospel message now.

Toward Accuracy in History Textbooks

In an L.A. Times Op-Ed opinion today, Diane Ravitch argues that California should change its rules that presently pressure the state Board of Education toward accepting a politically correct version of history in text books.  The article, captioned "PC Textbooks Full of Skewed History", Ravitch describes the history taught in California's public schools as "inaccurate and dishonest".  She advocates a change to the present system.  Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University who formerly served on a committee to revise California's history curriculum.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"The state's social-content guidelines should be abolished. They put the state Board of Education into the absurd position of deciding which facts are historically accurate and which should be included or excluded, a responsibility for which it is manifestly unqualified. The guidelines are an open invitation to interest groups to politicize textbooks.

"Telling publishers that their books must instill pride only guarantees a phony version of feel-good history. Publishers, as a result, bend over backward to be positive, whether writing about the genocidal reign of Mao Tse-tung (presumably to avoid offending his admirers) or the unequal treatment of women in Islamic societies (to avoid offending Muslims)."

Sandro Magister on Nicolas Sarkozy and France

Sandro Magister, at www.chiesa, has posted an article entitled In a Very Secular France, Nicolas Sarkozy Is Breaking a Taboo.  Specifically, the candidate for the presidency of the French Republic has published a book that, according to Magister, "acknowledges the public role of religion". 

The book specifically discussed in that article is La republique, les religions, l'espérance by Nicolas Sarkozy, who many think will become president.  The book is available from amazon Canada here, from amazon France here, but apparently not yet on amazon.com (U.S. readers can order from Canada and France -- you can figure the exchange rate and shipping cost and see which is least expensive, if you are not in a hurry).

Magister also quotes a commentary on the book written by Carlo Cardia for Avennire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference.  Cardia called the book "the most thorough and hard-hitting revision of French “laïcité” that has been dared until now."  Magister views the book as a striking indication of the growing revival of the Catholic faith in Europe, mentioning France, Germany, and some other European countries.