Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has decided to cancel a speaking engagement at a US megachurch after bowing to pressure from a homosexual rights group.
Schultz was scheduled to speak at Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois during their Global Leadership Summit, but pulled out after an online petition accused the church of being ‘anti-gay’.
The online petitioners threatened to boycott Schultz’s chain of coffee shops if he appeared at the Summit, and his board decided that the speaking engagement was not worth the potential loss of revenue.
Bill Hybels, senior pastor of the 20,000 member Willow Creek Church, informed USA Today that the church does follow biblical ethics in reserving sex for marriage between a man and a woman, but welcomes worshippers of all backgrounds.
Hybels added he was sad and disappointed about the cancellation but insisted the church wasn’t anti-gay.
“To suggest that we check sexual orientation or any other kind of issue at our doors is simply not true,” Hybels said. “Just ask the hundreds of people with same-sex attraction who attend our church every week.”