Superbowl Diversity Fallout: Coke Ad Gets The Right Screaming "BOYCOTT!!"

BTW: Katherine Lee Bates was a lesbian.

Joe.My.God
Michael Patrick Leahy, Breitbart:

"Executives at Coca Cola thought it was a good idea to run a 60 second Super Bowl ad featuring children singing America The Beautiful – a deeply Christian patriotic anthem whose theme is unity – in several foreign languages. The ad also prominently features a gay couple. Conservatives instantly lit up social media with objections, with many vowing to boycott the soda company's products. The lyrics of the song, written in 1893 by Wellesley College Professor Katherine Lee Bates, ask God to grant America 'brotherhood / From sea to shining sea.' As far as the executives at Coca Cola are concerned, however, the United States of America is no longer a nation ruled by the Constitution and American traditions in which English is the language of government. It is not a nation governed in the Anglo-American tradition of liberty. It is instead a nation governed by some all inclusive multi-cultural synthesis of the various forms of government in the world, as expressed by the multiple languages used in the Super Bowl ad to sing a uniquely American hymn that celebrates our heritage." (emphasis mine)

Yes, the tweets of outrage came fast and furious:

- #BoycottCoke everything in that @CocaCola commercial was un-American.
- Too bad there were no Americans in the coke commercial about America.. Goodbye Diet Coke never again! #BoycottCoke
- Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border. #americaisbeautiful
- @CocaCola American Patriotic songs should be sung in English only #communist #boycottcoke

Tweets of outrage at Coca Cola for airing a commercial featuring the diversity of America while singing America The Beautiful have actually spawned a "Boycott Coke" movement. Total assimilation, it seems, MUST be honored, especially during that most American of events, the Super Bowl. The "English-only" crowd screamed "BLASPHEMY!"* The commercial could have have been more reprehensible had it featured (gasp!) different religions. David Barton would have been furious, but he would have been appeased by the Budwieser commercial which did not have one truly "un-American" person in it. 

Budweiser, of course, played it safe with Right-wingers and "true" patriots by featuring a totally white homecoming of a soldier. Nothing wrong with that. But Budweiser has never been true to its original roots: Budwies (aka Budvar in Czech) originated in  České Budějovice, in the lower part of Bohemia (now Czech Republic). It distanced itself with Milwaukee and Clydesdales (from Scotland, btw) and never looked back after being eclipsed by Pilsner Urquell of the original Pilsner beers. 

Assimilation: it's how you look at it.

The only foreigners not forced to assimilate when they came to America were the Puritans who were all too eager to assimilate Native Americans into their culture.** After the Puritans, a certain form of "Americanism" was born - and everyone was forced to assimilate into America and it's Puritan ethic. Money and prestige followed. People who assimilated slowly (or not at all), collected in remote sections of the country, but the expansion (Manifest Destiny) demanded that assimilation be the virtual law of the land. 

What "Truly American" Right wingers don't understand about assimilation is that it comes in different degrees and forms: first, second and even third generation Americans are loathe to give up their roots altogether: the concept of America as a "melting pot" is rather terrifying, melting away, watering down actually, everything about your old culture to homogenize yourself with everyone and form a mass of people, molded by the dictates of one particular group that just so happens to be there slightly longer. So many Americans have opted to keep part of their lengthier heritage while blending into the "mainstream" with things like ... Coke. 


Face it, Right-wingers, America is as diverse as your own ancestry: English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and on ... and on ... and on.

The world embraced Coke. Coke Embraced the world. The world embraced America. America embraced the world. Get over it.

*Of course, the Tea Party crowd spells it "BLASFAMIE"
**The first Bible to be translated was translated by the Puritans into the language of the Massachusetts tribe - just before the good Puritans wiped them out.

Twitter Truth, Mark Driscoll, Hell and The Righteous Arrogance Award

Pastor Mark Driscoll loves firestorms. He's that kind of preacher. He likens himself to Chris Rock.

wikipedia;

     "In a Crosscut.com article, his style was described this way: "Pacing the stage at the main Ballard campus, he delivered a sermon on marriage roles as he saw them set forth in the Song of Solomon. He told stories from his own marriage, offered statistics, and dropped jokes without their feeling forced. Every few minutes he would sniff in a thoughtful, practiced sort of way. This untucked, down-to-earth demeanor was the opposite of a huckster televangelist, but polished in its own way. It makes the guy easy to listen to."

But his tweets are not easy to read.





There is no humility about Driscoll: his writings and sermons may seem "down-to-earth" but they are like Rick Warren's Hawaiian shirts: casual dressing on a Southern Baptist theology. And whereas Warren is Southern Baptist, Driscoll is Calvinist (with a capital C): everyone is called, but few are predestined. And Mark Driscoll is predestined. Definitely.


Bludgeoning People With "I Am The Way, The Truth, and The Life"

Driscoll may, however, suffer from the kind of righteous arrogance many evangelicals have about Christianity: we are the ONE, the ONLY way to heaven. We are RIGHT. EVERYONE else is either WRONG, MISGUIDED, or simply OF THE DEVIL. But because of this attitude, WE ARE SO PERSECUTED! Too many evangelicals have taken one passage from Scripture and made it into a sword/mantra, smiting sinning souls while repeating it endlessly to themselves as a balm for any wounds encountered.

Ironically, it is the one thing that is causing most young people to leave their churches (and religion) altogether. Such righteous arrogance has become abrasive. And Driscoll's tweet has caused similar reactions.

Here are some of the reactions thus far:



Hell Exists - For The Righteously Arrogant

The world's biggest guilt trip was done by God: "I created you, but you sinned against me. Then I came down to earth in your form and died an agonizing death in order to absolve you of those sins because I love you." Yes, God as Jewish mother. And this particular guilt trip has endured throughout centuries. The guilt trip also comes with a penalty from a stern father: hell.

Scholars and theologians doubt the existence of hell - the fiery place where a vengeful God sends people after they die. While Jesus mentions a fiery place (often thought of as Gehenna), his focus is more on love and forgiveness than vengeance and control. For the only purpose of such a place is control, a carrot or stick approach to the human condition: without the prospect of hell, man's sins would overcome him. The promise of heaven isn't enough. Bishop John Shelby Spong has some good thoughts on the man-made concept of hell (see below).

For the righteously arrogant, however, hell is heaven-sent (sorry): it gives them authority (and a bit of sadism) while it covers them in heroism: battling evil while saving everyone else.

Mark Driscoll's tweet puts him on a pedestal while dousing him with radiant heroism. "It's unloving not to say that." How noble. How righteous ... ly arrogant. In a sense, Driscoll uses a hypocritical slash and burn tactic against everyone not Christian. And friends of non-Christians don't like it. If Driscoll wants an even bigger firestorm, he should address the Dalai Lama directly. Or Mohammed.

I'm thinking about instituting an annual Righteous Arrogance Award to be voted on by readers (and, yes, I'll include myself as a nominee, for even bloggers about RA can be R[ly]A at times). I will, of course, post all the nominees and the winner towards the end of the year in a full article (on OpEdNews as well).

Driscoll, of course, is the first nominee.