God Help Us

I once saw a bumper sticker that read, "Lord, please save us from your followers," or something like that. While that view is a bit more extreme than my own, I have to say that people's true colors come out when they disagree with other's opinions or actions, especially regarding religion. Of course, this week, that color is red. Are you kidding me? People are upset about a red cup? I kept seeing it on Facebook posts but this afternoon was my first chance to attempt to figure out what the hubbub was. As nearly as I can determine, the red cup is an affront to Christianity because it doesn't include traditional Christmas symbols, and this has been perceived by a few people as part of the larger "War on Christmas." Seriously, don't you people have lives? What would Jesus do, indeed.

As I've mentioned before, I am not an especially religious person, but I do try to live my life in a Christ-like way, which incidentally, is also a Buddha-type way and probably the way of others who have thought about anyone beyond themselves. Why are people threatened by those of other religions, ethnicities, skin colors, whatever? Are they seriously so insecure in their own beliefs as to not acknowledge that we all don't have to believe the same things to be good -- or even right?

Semi-tongue-in-cheek, I assigned my students a readers' response based loosely on these questions, using an article (written by a clergyman) about the red cup issue as a jumping-off point. I also told them (in the online assignment) to be ready to debate the issue in class. They're probably rolling their eyes as they read the assignment, sick to death already (as I am) of the red cup's presence all over media, social and otherwise. That's part of the point I want to bring up as they begin to write their argumentative essays: even non-issues can become issues if the "issuers" come up with a way to spin it. I allow my students to choose their own topics for these argumentative essays, with a few exceptions. After our class discussion, they better not try to tell me they can't come up with a topic.