Starbucks to serve up some religion

SEATTLE – In August, a promotional campaign put Starbucks Coffee Company in hot water with some conservatives. The company could once again stir things up with their plans to print a quote with direct references to God.

In the campaign known as “The Way I See It,” Starbucks began putting quotes from well-known people on their coffee cups. Among the contributors are actor Quincy Jones, New Age author and alternative-medicine doctor Deepak Chopra, radio host and film critic Michael Medved and Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan.

Some of the quotes are your basic feel-good aphorisms. For example, poet and philosopher Noah benShea said “Do not kiss your children so they will kiss you back but so they will kiss their children, and their children’s children.”

In the campaign known as “The Way I See It,” Starbucks began putting quotes from well-known people on their coffee cups.

But others are a bit more provocative.

In August, Baylor University’s Starbucks coffee shop pulled cups that featured a quote from author Armistead Maupin, who said “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too damn short.”

Coming in 2006, a quote from the Rev. Rick Warren explicitly mentions God.

It reads: “You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive and created you for a purpose. Focusing on yourself will never reveal your real purpose. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense. Only in God do we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance and our destiny.”

Starbucks spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff told The Seattle Times that the cup campaign doesn’t set out to take a political stand but rather to encourage discourse.

She told the Times that the company doesn’t characterize the personalities quoted on its coffee cups as liberal or conservative, but rather as a diverse group of artists, musicians, educators, activists and athletes.

Customers in Seattle seem to enjoy the quotable cups.

“It’s an excellent idea,” said one. “We want more conversation in the coffee house, don’t you? I’m sorry for people who have to get it off a coffee cup but, you know, anything that works.”

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