Starbucks Banned at BJU
As Zacfoo reports, Starbucks was recently banned at Bob Jones University. (That is, it’s no longer being sold in the Snack Shop)
Over the past year or so, Starbucks has been placing various quotes on their coffee cups in an effort to stimulate conversation in their coffee shops. These quotes come from all over the map, with sources ranging from Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, to Virginia Postrel, author of The Substance of Style, to Armistead Maupin who is the author of the “Tales of the City” series which “chronicled San Francisco’s homosexual community in the 1970s and 1980s.” (source)
The cup that has the quote from Armistead Maupin, cup #43 in the series, reads “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too **** short.”
Zacfoo continues:
Dr. J went on to explain WHY we were [banning Starbucks]. Back in September, “#43″ caught people’s eyes here at the Institution. Mr. President promptly wrote a letter to everybody in Starbucks corporate kindly asking for an easy explanation as to why they are selling such “potentially” offensive material especially when they have Christians, soccer moms, and good ol’ fashioned-family values people consuming this stuff (coffee, and gayness to this one aspect) on a highly regular basis. (I have no problems with drinking a lot of coffee, Starbucks or not, and paying for it too.) They got back to him in November. Yah, that late… Like they didn’t care. But the guy from Starbucks said they did care, that they were getting a lot of negative feedback from the paying public, and were talking about doing something about it after the Holidays. He promised to call back in less than 2 weeks. After 3 weeks of no contact with Starbucks, Dr. J sends a total of 8 emails/phone calls none of which are returned, answered, or apparently cared about. The regional sales guy from our area even called the corporate dude and told him we were somebody to be reckoned with. They still didn’t care.
Thus, we don’t have Starbucks anymore. And I agree with the school on this one. BJ was patient, kind, considerate, tactful, and concerned. They were even humanitarian, reaching beyond the Bubble to remind Starbucks that other people shared in their displeasure. But all to no avail, apparently. Starbucks couldn’t care less.
In my opinion, that’s the real reason they’re banning Starbucks. It’s not so much about the quote; it’s about bad customer service.
So, no sympathy for Starbucks on my part; if you can’t be bothered to return your customer’s calls, then you lose the business. That’s all there is to it.
February 2nd, 2006 at 11:02 pm
You might want to change the title of your entry (’Starbucks Banned at BJU’). It is inaccurage and sends the wrong message. While your post clarifies, the title alone gives the impression that BJ is a wacky, reactionary place that has adopted some sort of far-fetched interpretion condemning caffeine consumption or something. That is obviously an inaccurate representation of Dr. Jones’ explanation.
There are people who may not be interested enough to carefully read the entry, but will scan the titles and form an extremist image of evangelical Christianity that is unflattering. I’ve give some of my thoughts on boycotts on Mounty’s blog that might clarify why I believe BJ could consistently oppose Starbucks without forbidding students from patronizing their shops (ie, banning Starbucks).
Thanks for considering this.
February 4th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Gotta love Capitalism!
February 24th, 2006 at 3:39 am
There is a picture of a Starbucks on the BJU web page…
http://www.bju.edu/about/missions/teams/china2/images/1/8.jpg
March 5th, 2006 at 2:48 am
I Live here in Greenville SC, i pass by that love school every day and thinks to my self ” why would any school have up a brink wall and iron gates to keep people out? HMM! They( the school and staff) have banded this or that from coming to the Greenville BI_LO center, but come on. how close minded do you have to be to ban a Drink and a
company just cause they wrote a quote about something someone who happened to be gay. You should
know that there are alot of places in Greenville and very close to your Cult like school that are
GAY FRIENDLY that have domestic partnership. That help out with the Red Party every year. I do not
see the school banning those places, why is that?why the double standard. OH i get it hate only when
it is easy for you to hate. Bi-lo and the fresh market both help the gay community! Jack-in-the-Box
helps the gay community.Red Lobster,Olive garden offer Domestic Partnership but yet you still do there.
Target and Walmart do a lot in the gay community but i still see you shopping there! I think it is ever convenient for you to pick and choose where you want to shop when you like the place. If your against Homos then you should be against all the places that support gays. That have gays working at them or even OH MY GOD that might be GAY OWEN ED and you did not even know that they were gay. Its not something you can catch. I do think no wait i know the
book that you call the BIBLE ( i call you book of hatred) says you are suppose to LOVE your
Neighbor and also says JUDGE NOT FOR YE SHALL BE JUDGED. I live you with this. Does Your God creat
mistakes? I know the asnwer is no. So there for if i being a human being was created in God image
and God does not make mistakes then either God is Gay aswell or i am not a mistake and God loves me for who i am.
If i am going to Hell well then i guess i will be saving all of you from BJU a seat since you are judgeing me and not following what was writing in the bible that you keep preaching to me. So when you go get to HELL look me up i will be the one with a rainbow shirt on and Happy. Kris
March 5th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Point One: The verse you are referring to is Matt 7:1. But have you considered Matt 7:2?
In other words, all that verse is saying is that you will be held to the same standard that you hold others to. The verse is not a blanket condemnation on all judgment of other human beings. In fact, I Corinthians 6:2 says “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?”
Point Two: James 1:13-14 says “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”
In other words, if you are committing the sin of homosexuality, you don’t get to blame God for “making a mistake.” You are the one who is allowing yourself to be drawn away of your own lusts and enticed. Not God.
Everyone has their own sins that they are naturally inclined to chase after. Some people are strongly tempted by theft, others by greed, others by adultery, and still others by homosexuality.
Point Three: I think the reason that they stopped buying the Starbucks coffee and not the Jack in the Box restaurants is that while Jack in the Box is accomodating homosexuality, Starbucks seems to be actively promoting it. There’s a difference between saying “You can do that” and “You should do that.”
March 5th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Kris, the fence hardly keeps people out when there are several openings to it. And a lot of schools have fences. Converse College here in Spartanburg does, and nobody thinks twice about it — there’s no cause for suspicion about BJ due to its having a fence.
And what BJ is doing with Starbucks is not a double standard. They are not out to close or protest every business that has anything to do with a gay lifestyle, but they don’t want to promote it on campus.
God does love you for who you are — Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” He loves all of us even when we were in sin, loved us so much to give His Son to save us from that sin. He doesn’t make mistakes, but mankind has chosen to go its own way (which is the essence of sin) rather than obey Him. Yet He still reaches out to us in love. It is actually the loving thing to do to let people know that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin so that they can turn to God for forgiveness and deliverance from it.
August 21st, 2006 at 1:38 am
I became very interested in this subject while I was on a Women’s Retreat this summer. I have researched this subject in depth. However, the fact remains - homosexuality is against God’s Word! Homosexuals have sinned, and that is what it is - to God. The world makes one sin worse than the other, but not God. God comdemns the “PRACTICE” of homosexuality, not the person. God is full of grace and mercy.
Since everybody else is using scripture to back up their replys - I will do the same because it is not what I am saying - it’s what God - the Creator of all things - even the things scientists can and CAN’T explain.
“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” Leviticus 18:22
” The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessnessand wickedness of menwho supress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the Immortal God for images made to look like mortal manand birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” Romans 1:18-27
August 21st, 2006 at 1:57 am
Those are God’s words, not mine. Who could tell us better how we are supposed to live other than God - He who created all living things?! I don’t think we are to judge one another. Because sin is sin, period. So, who am I, a sinner saved by the wonderful grace of God, to judge another sinner? Who am I to say that you are a sinner? Stop looking at the speck in your brother’s eye and pull the plank out of your own eye man! It’s the Liberalist American Chistians that make the people so fearful of God.
” You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condeming yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things.”
Romans 2:1
Thoughts of sin, to God, is sin. Many people think they arent good enough to be used by God, but we are incomparable by the worlds description, not God’s. “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1Corinthians 1:27 - Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord!