Found this interesting:
"Christianity hasn't always cottoned to coffee. In her aptly titled book, "Coffee," Claudia Rosen explains that 16th-century priests wanted Pope Clement VIII to ban "the devil's drink." They insisted that Satan had forbidden his followers--Muslims--from drinking wine because it was used in Holy Communion. Instead, the devil provided this "hellish black brew."
The elixir made from coffee beans does in fact have a long history in Islamic regions. African tribes mixed the crushed beans with animal fat and molded them into balls to eat as a stimulant before battle. Arabs made the first hot coffee beverage, in 1000 A.D. Dervishes--mystic devotees of Islam's Sufi sect--consumed coffee at all-night ceremonies as fuel for achieving religious ecstasy. Arabs also invented the
ibrik, or coffee broiler. As coffee lost it's strictly religious significance, the first coffee houses appeared in Mecca.
Coffee may have remained a Middle-Eastern exotic had not Clement VIII decided to put it to the taste test before banning it. "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious," he declared, "that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall cheat Satan by baptizing it."
In 1683, a Franciscan friar named Marciano d'Aviano stopped a Turkish invasion of Austria, and along the way, some claim, invented cappuccino. The retreating Turks left behind bags of coffee beans, historians say, which the Viennese found so bitter that they added milk and sugar, creating a frothy, sweet beverage. Legend says the word "cappuccino" comes from d'Aviano's Capuchin order, so named for their brown robes. Pope John Paul II, himself an avowed coffee lover, beatified Marciano d'Aviano this spring (citing other, presumably decaffeinated, miracles he performed).
Still, in mid- to late-18th century Europe, coffee was viewed with mistrust. Johann Sebastian Bach, an avid coffee drinker and devout Lutheran, composed his "Coffee Cantata" in 1732. In this satirical operetta, a stern father forbids his daughter to touch the evil drink, vowing not to let her marry if she continues drinking it. She pleads: "Father, don't be so severe! If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat." She refuses to marry any man who does not promise, in their written marriage contract, to let her "make myself coffee whenever I want.""
Coffee has a long history in Christianity, and has become an indispensible drink dispensed in churches across America - Beliefnet
Something I read before did tell of a time when coffee was approved of by the clergy. They said something to the effect that it is good for industriousness and for heightened study focus.
Ha ha, I remember when I was in Teen Challenge, that's the only drug (caffeine) that we were permitted to indulge in. So, it was often said that many of the residents had supplemented the coffee for their drug of choice and used (or abused?) it accordingly.
I even coined the phrase "Golden-calf. Coffee", as a play on Decaf and the golden calf of Scripture.
yeh. Caffeine, really. Because I drank it wrong time of the day and it effected my sleep and things. No sleep effected my day to day. Now I have kids, so it doesnt matter. It helps me rather then becoming a temptation in self control.
