I once belonged to an online message board designed for Christian mothers. The purpose of the group is to encourage at-home motherhood and in a Christian setting. The problem was that some of the Christians (me included) just weren't Christian enough for some of the others. Those women had formed what I had termed at the time, a Christian Club (much like the Christian Ghetto, I believe though there was probably coffee served and donuts that everyone wanted to eat, but no one dared to eat because one might be seen eating a high calorie item in front of other women – a taboo!! But I digress…). The purpose of the Christian Club, in their minds, was to enlighten the unenlightened. The reality though was to shoot down anything that was not Christian enough (Catholics are not Christian enough, for example. Obama…not Christian enough, pretty much anyone who didn't think exactly like them was not Christian enough) and then all pat themselves on the back and smile and be happy that they had won a victory against the misguided ones.

It was…weird. And depressing. And ultimately I left the message board and sit here today, working on rebuilding my own relationship with God, which was severely damaged by being told over and over that I was doing it wrong, because I wasn't doing it like them. It's one of the reasons I deeply appreciate many of your posts about WHO God is and WHAT he's called us to do, namely to love His people just as they are and mind my own salvation because that's the one I am ultimately responsible for.

Anyway, while the shirts and the like are more on the silly side, there is a serious problem with that clique-y/club-y mindset. And it boils down to the message that's ultimately sent…I believe the women on that board truly felt they were correcting my "lack" in a loving and compassionate way. In reality, their words pushed me further out the door and made me think, if that's what it takes to be like them, I don't want to be like them at all.

And also…I think the song goes "They will know we are Christian by our love" not by our t-shirt.

<quote> To add context, I am a religious person. I just struggle when our causes and messages about God become something to be bought and sold. …this T-shirt is different. It cheapens the message by failing to create its own contextual artistic expression. <unquote>

Actually, it does create its own contextual artistic expression: "messages about God are something to be bought and sold."

If we are honest, however, as bad as aesthetes and design-ophiles find this kind of thing to be (it is very bad), we bring a certain amount of cultural snobbery to this discussion. There is something very simple about these "pick up lines" that don't work for people who read The New Yorker or Slate or listen to NPR, but that would work for people who come from a different socio-economic and cultural background.

So, as always, we must mind our idols of preference. Or, as I've heard it said, "All an Englishman's preferences are a matter of principle."

One other observation: Justin writes that Starbucks "fails to convey the reality of Christ." I'd modify this slightly: "…fails to communicate the total reality of Christ." I think it does communicate, in part, in portions, in micro, some aspects of the reality of Christ.

Justin, thanks again for your insights.

YES.

Starbucks is not bad, but Starbucks fails to convey the reality of Christ. As such, we should let Starbucks make coffee and Christians can concentrate on letting God breath his reality through us in new, beautiful, and scary ways!

You lay that smack down on the SP, my brother!