Simple plan
Coffeehouses birth revolutions
Like many aspects of American history, it’s sometimes hard
to separate truth from fiction. Consider the role coffeehouses played in the
founding of our great nation.
In an attempt to find evidence that coffeehouses were
instrumental in America’s history, I contacted Richie Holland, a Boston area
tour guide who specializes in the Christian influences on American history.
Our conversation went something like this.
“Richie, is it true the idea for the Boston Tea Party was
conceived at the Green Dragon Coffee House?”
“The Green Dragon was more of a tavern than a coffeehouse,”
he said almost apologetically in his thick New England accent. “But back then
both were places people gathered to talk about life, religion and politics.”
“So, it’s conceivable that coffeehouse chatter played a part
in the American Revolution?”
“Sure, to some extent.”
After visiting Everyday Joe’s, a coffeehouse founded and run
by an Assemblies of God church in Fort Collins, Colo., I became convinced
revolutionary things really do happen at such establishments. Yet what I
witnessed at Everyday Joe’s was far more spiritual than patriotic.
There, I saw followers of Christ serving unchurched patrons
and treating them the way I think Jesus would. The result of that kind of love
is always revolutionary. And that is why this edition is focused on
coffeehouses.
Kirk Noonan
E-mail your comments to tpe@ag.org.
