No Merry Christmas; but everyone pray
By Davie Wong, Sports Reporter
Hypocrisy. You can find it everywhere in the world these days. Stories, music, corporate companies, and especially social media forums are marred by the filth that is hypocrisy.
Just what am I rambling about? How about the fact that Starbucks chose to leave the saying âMerry Christmasâ off of their season cups for fear of being too religiously biased, yet they posted a tribute to the victims of the November 13 attacks with #PrayforParis attached.
The dictionary defines hypocrisy as âthe practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which oneâs own behaviour does not conform.â Starbucks actions clearly show a form of hypocrisy. By removing the saying âMerry Christmasâ from their holiday cups, the organization makes their stance on religion clear. They would rather not be affiliated to one.
The conclusion that Starbucks does not wish to be affiliated with a religion comes from two assumptions. First they removed the saying because of the name Christmas, which refers to the birth of the religious figure, Jesus Christ. Second, they completely removed any saying or image (besides their logo) from the cup instead of replacing the words.
If they wanted to not just be affiliated to Christmas, they could have included various statements involving other holidays, such as Hanukkah. They could have even done it in several different languages. The fact that they completely removed any saying or symbols from the cup proves that they would rather not be related to any religion.
Thatâs fine. In fact, thatâs how a lot of people feel. But then they went and included #PrayforParis in their statement about the Paris attack. If I understand companies at all, the statement was PR-related and has nothing to do with their views. They simply did it because everyone else was doing it.
But Starbucks isnât the only one responsible for religious hypocrisy. Well to be frank, any non-religious people that were a part of the #PrayforParis movement are guilty of religious hypocrisy. Praying is defined as: âA solemn request or expression of thanks to a deity or other object of worship.â If you declare that you do not believe in a god or gods and then start praying for anything, you are committing religious hypocrisy.
In that sense, praying is a bad word to use for a global trend. You would think people would realize that. After all, if âMerry Christmasâ is too religious to be used, I donât understand why praying isnât too religious as well.
My recommendation? Use a more generic synonym for these sorts of thing. Perhaps the word âcondolencesâ or âsympathiesâ would be more appropriate. I understand that trend-setters love the use of alliteration but stop using religious terms if you wish to be considered non-affiliated with religion! Itâs contradictory to your beliefs, and looks hypocritical to the world.
