Of course, that kind of publicity does not stay in the realm of Long Island family blogs for long, and soon newspapers from the New York Daily News to the Seattle Post Intelligencer were reporting on "grande homophobic charges" and "anti-gay behavior." Gawker quickly reported that Starbucks "was in damage control mode," and a host of other blogs condemned the company. Starbucks, which had been sued in 2008 by two former employees who said they were fired for being gay, immediately issued a statement saying it was "disheartened" by the allegations and had "zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind."

Since then, things have been calm, but it's clear from the ease with which Schultz bailed out of Friday's conference that the company is still pretty sensitive about the issue. But now the Christians Schultz was supposed to address are annoyed. The Toledo Blade spoke to the pastor of a church there that was to host a broadcast of the conference.

The Rev. Lee Powell, senior pastor of CedarCreek Church, which draws 8,500 people a week, called Mr. Schultz's decision to cancel "stupid" and said he will have a hard time buying any Starbucks products. He said he plans to "sit back and see how Starbucks handles all this" before supporting the coffee company.

Meanwhile, Willow Creek has launched its own PR offensive, trying to shake the allegation of homophobia. "Jim Mellado (president of Willow Creek Association) and I spent 45 minutes in a very constructive conversation with the senior leaders at Starbucks explaining to them in no uncertain terms that Willow is not anti-gay," pastor Bill Hybels told the Christian Post. "But at the end of the day they decided that the downside business risk was just too high for them." Hybels "urged conference participants to buy a Starbucks coffee and post a comment on Starbucks' Web site urging Mr. Schultz to speak at the summit next year," the Blade reported. Schultz himself has been quiet on the issue, and the company hasn't mentioned it on its Twitter feed or website.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.