Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz has cancelled his visit to a US megachurch following a controversial homosexuality protest.

The coffee shop businessman was due to speak at a leadership conference at Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, but had to scrap the meeting after an online petition accused the church of being ‘anti-gay’.

Almost 800 protestors signed a petition on website change.org within a week and vowed to boycott Starbucks if Schultz went ahead and appeared at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this month.

The event has previously had speakers such as former president Bill Clinton and rock star Bono.

Starbucks' leadership deemed that the appearance at the church wasn’t worth the potential loss of revenue following the reaction from the protesters, who claimed the church had anti-gay views and had a previous association with Exodus International, a Christian ministry that works to help gays and lesbians leave homosexuality.

Bill Hybels, senior pastor of the 20,000 member Willow Creek Church, told USA Today that the church does expect its members to follow biblical ethics and reserve sex for marriage between a man and a woman, but welcomes worshippers of all backgrounds.

He said he was sad and disappointed that Schultz had to cancel his appearance, 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.”

Meanwhile, Exodus International also says that it supports gay people.
Alan Chambers, president of Exodus and an ex-gay himself, said he does not believe that people choose to be gay.

“We don't see homosexuality as any different than other things that people struggle with that the Bible categorises as sinful,” Chambers said.

“Our message is the same as anyone's message who is dealing with conflict with how they want to live.”

Hybels founded Willow Creek in 1975. It has been listed as the most influential church in America the last several years in a national poll of pastors.