It’s All In (or on) the Cup
May 5, 2009 – 3:07 pmSlate magazine posted a fascinating article today on the opening of Starbucks in Poland and the socio-economic status that the Seattle-based coffee chain brings with it. It’s not necessarily what’s in the cup, but what’s on it, and the status it brings with it.
The concluding paragraph offers an interesting historical nugget about the history of coffeehouses in Central Europe:
In fact, with the opening of a Warsaw Starbucks, one might even say the coffeehouse has reached the end of a certain cycle. Born in Central Europe, where it embodied an ideal of luxury and a set of aspirations; landing in Seattle, where it came to embody a different kind of luxury and a different set of aspirations; now imported back to Central Europe, aesthetically transformed but essentially fulfilling the same function, the coffeehouse appears to have come full circle at last.
It’s amazing how consumerism affects culture. Our prayer ought to be that God would transform the hearts of these people through the “greatest news” of His Son. Starbucks isn’t the answer; health care isn’t the true solution. It’s the gospel that has the power to free from sin and reconcile to God.
