Starbucks has come under fire for being anti-Christian because they have a red coffee cup instead of a cup that sports some sort of theme that is explicitly Christian, such as a nativity scene or the Holy Family. As ridiculous as that sounds, some people are up in arms about it. Sorry folks, but the cup is absolutely no reason to avoid Starbucks. What you don’t realize is that there are many very good reasons to avoid Starbucks and several other major U.S. companies that use your money to fund things you certainly don’t agree with. For one, Starbucks sends money to Planned Parenthood, and has done so for years.

I have mentioned this to people from time to time and I’m always met with surprise. People simply cannot understand that by simply purchasing a product from Starbucks, they are actually helping Planned Parenthood kill more children, victimize more women and lobby more politicians to keep them in business.

Here is how it works: Starbucks has absolutely no money unless you buy their product. The more you buy, the more money they make. The more money they make, the more profit they build up. The more profit they build up, the more money they can spend on people and things they want to support.

Billy Jo says:

Hold it Bob! I’m pro-life. So I don’t buy anything from Starbucks. I buy the bottled Frapuccino from the local convenience store from time to time, but that is from the convenience store, so none of my money goes to Starbucks.

Billy Jo, you are mistaken. If it has the Starbucks label, the convenience store bought it from Starbucks. Starbucks sells it in bulk and the convenience store marks it up a little in order to make their profit after they have already paid Starbucks for the product.

Billy Jo continues:

But the convenience store has already purchased it Bob. So my money only goes to the convenience store, not to Starbucks.

Billy Jo, you are a fool if you believe that. If you do not buy the product from the convenience store, they would soon purchase less of the product for their shelves. If all of us who say we are pro-life, stopped buying the bottled Frappucino, the convenience store would stop buying the product completely. So would all the other stores who buy the product from Starbucks for resale.

Billy Jo goes on:

Oh, a few dollars here and there is not going to make a difference.

Billy Jo, you sorry sack of… Well, I won’t go there. The fact is, corporations are very sensitive to things like consumer complaints and satisfaction. If you were the only one in the world who stopped buying Starbucks products you are right, they wouldn’t blink an eye. But in the U.S., we have millions of Pro-Life advocates, some of whom spend a pretty penny on their Starbucks drinks and snacks. If 25% of these customers suddenly switched to some other coffee vendor, Starbucks would switch to neutral very quickly. If 50% of these customers suddenly switched to some other coffee vendor and posted their reasons on social media a few times each week, Starbucks would start sponsoring the March for Life. Well, it may not be that dramatic, but at least they would stop sending money to Planned Parenthood.

You see, there are several ways to fight for life. You can advocate for changes in laws. You can send money to groups who educate lawmakers on the lies of the abortion industry propaganda. You can go on the March for Life or your local March or Walk in your state. You can volunteer or help fund your local crisis pregancy center. You can pray for the mothers and their babies. You can start a shelter for young mothers in your community. Maybe you do all these things already. But you can also take money away from Planned Parenthood by being a little more selective about where you spend your money. For your next cup of coffee, buy it from your local coffee shop. For your next movie, make sure it isn’t one of Disney’s productions. If you want to buy some running shoes to work off some of the excess blubber you have built up from too much Frappucino, don’t buy Nike.

Billy Jo gives looks for an opening:

Well, I’ll just buy my coffee from the Starbucks in the University Student Union. The University owns it, so all the money goes to them.

Nice try Billy Jo. However, the University doesn’t produce the coffee. They still buy it from Starbucks. And they probably pay Starbucks a monthly franchise fee and numerous other fees just to have their brand in their Student Union. Therefore, your money is still funding abortion, the marketing of dead baby parts, abortion propaganda, political donations to pro-abortion candidates, etc…

Billy Jo refuses to give up:

Well, I suppose you don’t pay your federal income taxes if you feel so strongly.

Billy Jo, you ignorant… Again, I’ll hold my tongue. Actually I do pay my taxes. As a U.S. citizen, I have a legal obligation to pay my taxes and if I didn’t pay them, my family would lose our home and all of our belongings as I sat in prison. There is a big difference between paying your taxes and buying products from companies that fund abortion. There is no law that says you must buy your coffee from Starbucks or your jeans from the Gap. However, I cannot choose to pay my taxes to a government other than the one which is currently under the control of the Obama Administration. It kinda gives a whole new meaning to “pro-choice” doesn’t it? The best I can do is fight for change and the best you can do is not frustrate the effort.

Don’t feel bad Billy Jo. I used to drink lots of that bottled Frappucino crap from Starbucks. As a matter of fact, I still carry about 30 extra pounds of it on my belly, and other parts of my body. But I stopped buying Starbucks products many years ago and it has been a great decision. There are lots of other fattening products out there to keep me nice and rotund, and I don’t have to support Planned Parenthood to look so “healthy”.

A friend of mine provided me with a list of 77 companies who have provided some sort of financial support to Planned Parenthood within the past 5 years. The list shows that Coca-Cola has defunded Planned Parenthood, but does not show that Wells Fargo has done so. I did receive an email from a friend who works in a local branch of Wells Fargo, who explained that the Wells Fargo donation was done by a single branch manager, not the entire company, and that he expects there will be no more such support in the future. However, there has been no public announcement from anyone else in Wells Fargo, so maybe their national corporate leadership retains some sort of soft spot for organizations who kill babies. I hope not.  But they are not shown to have defunded Planned Parenthood on the attached report. Maybe they will come out with a formal announcement soon. You can check out the report here: 77_Companies_Funding_Planned_Parenthood-LD.

If you have some relationship with any of the companies on this list, please contact them and ask them to publicly defund Planned Parenthood. You might be a customery, a stockholder, an employee or have any other relationship with them. If they ignore you or you don’t see any public action within a couple of weeks, call them and check again. If they continue to ignore you, go public with your request. Post it on social media, send emails, write letters to your local editor of your newspaper and by all means, stop doing business with them. As with politicians, corporate America is resistant to any change unless it is financially beneficial to change.

So should you stop doing business with Starbucks because their cups are red? No. Stop doing business with them because they have been supporting abortion for years. No matter what you claim as your slogan, you can’t call yourself a Christian and support abortion.