Starbucks to Serve Up God With a Cappucino-Religious Message On Mugs

Starbucks to serve up God with a skinny cappuccino

Gary Younge in New York
Saturday October 22, 2005
The Guardian


Coffee drinkers in the US could soon get Jesus with their morning jolt as Starbucks plans to put a religious message on its cups next spring.

The cups will carry a religious quote from the Rev Rick Warren, the author of the blockbuster self-help book The Purpose-Driven Life. Mr Warren said he had had the idea after seeing a quote on one of the store's cups on evolution by the paleontologist Louise Leakey.

His quote 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 has printed 63 quotes from writers, performers, academics and politicians on its cups over the past year as part of a campaign called The Way I See It. This is the first one that is explicitly religious. Last month a contractor for Baylor University, a Baptist institution in Texas, removed cups carrying a quote by the author Armistead Maupin saying: "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long ... life is too damn short."