Oh relax!

Have your latte and eat it tooSee, Starbucks prints quotes from different writers scientists, musicians, athletes, politicians and cultural critics on cups used at their coffee shops. These are meant to encourage the coffeehouse tradition of debate and conversation. Some of these quotes can be controversial. For instance, 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.” This week, perhaps in an attempt to appease pissed off homophobic fundamentalist Christians, Starbucks announced that next spring’s collection of quotes will include a religious quote from the Rev Rick Warren, author of the best selling self-help book The Purpose-Driven Life.

Rev. Warren’s quote will read: “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.”

Well goodie. Now that everyone’s covered, both the pro and anti-gay crowds can resume attacking each other’s positions, while fortified by a nice venti frapuccino. Read all about it here (USA Today) and here (The Guardian).

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About the author

ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

13 Comments

  • That’s a pretty sassy scarf/gay pride tallit Jesus has tied around his waist there, sort of looks ilke he’s funneling an invisible stream of urine into that coffee slurpee thingy there too. Truly, this man was a man.

  • Being anti-gay is not a legitimate position to have, anymore than being anti-black or anti-jewish or anti-muslim. Starbucks had to throw out 500 cups because of bigotry. Baylor University is not a place of higher learning. Their students are going to graduate knowing only how to work for the Bush Administration.

  • “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too damn short.”- Armistead Maupin

  • Marketing 101: Avoid controversial issues. Politics and Religion are controversials.

    Starbucks is old enough and big enough to know better. Now what do they do to fix the Political mistake? Replace it with a Religious one. Duh!

  • Can there ever be tolerance when two parties disagree? Who than is more tolerant? The Christians or those call them intolerant. Don’t both sides have their own views…making them both intolerant.

  • jason, you don’t have to necessarily be intolerant of a view (or quote or whatever) that you dom’t agree with. you can tolerate something (as in, not throw it away into the trash because it’s printed on some cup), but you don’t have to accept it as right or true.

    wasn’t there also that one time that starbucks had a hitler quote going around and it pissed off a lot of jews?

  • If that was a picture of Mohammad, you would be missing your head about now. Good thing you picked Jesus to put up there with those things. I can’t wait till He returns and everyone pisses their pants…. LMAO!!!

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