Starbucks to quote Rick Warren

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SEATTLE, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Coffee cups at Starbucks will soon quote the Rev. Rick Warren, but the Seattle-based coffee company denies it is placating religious groups.

Starbucks was criticized last summer by evangelical Christian groups after its coffee cups included a quote from the writer Armistead Maupin saying, "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long."

The company says the quote from the Warren -- "You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense" -- shows diversity of thought and opinion, reported the New York Times Sunday.

Warren is author of "The Purpose-Driven Life."

Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute -- one of the groups that led the criticism of Starbucks over the Maupin quote -- said the company's support for liberal causes made it an obvious target.

"Starbucks has long served up a New Age secular worldview," he said. "It's about time that they acknowledged that 90 percent of Americans believe in God and that millions of them are Christian."