TORONTO, March 27, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Catholic League President Bill Donohue has now weighed in on the ongoing controversy over “Sweet Jesus” Ice Cream’s name and advertisements that critics say are blasphemous.
He is calling on Catholics to boycott the company.
“Its aim is to offend,” he said.
“Americans should send the purveyors of this demonic message a Christian message of their own: boycott Sweet Jesus,” he added.
The Catholic League states on its website that it “monitors the culture, acting as a watchdog agency and defender of the civil rights of all Catholics.”
The soft-serve ice cream chain has 19 locations in Canada and plans to branch out into the United States, as LifeSiteNews has covered. Its name and advertisements mock Christianity in a variety of ways, including the use of upside-down crosses, replacing the “S” in Jesus’ name with a stylized lightning bolt, and using children in their ads in suggestive ways that have disturbed many.
One ad even quotes the commandment against taking the Lord’s name in vain, suggesting that their “delicious” product is a good reason to do so.
“Our name was created from the popular phrase that people use as an expression of enjoyment, surprise or disbelief,” a disclaimer on the company’s website reads, and was not meant to “offer commentary on anyone’s religion or belief systems.”
However, the chain does not explain the variety of what critics say is anti-Christian imagery that fills their ads. As of the time of this writing, petitions (here and here) calling on the company to apologize and change its name has received more than 12,800 signatures combined.
LifeSiteNews’ John-Henry Westen told NBC affiliate KARE Channel 11 in Minneapolis on Monday that it's “disgusting” and a “shame” that a Canadian-based ice cream chain is misusing the name of Jesus in its company name.
Westen called the company’s name and advertising scheme a “crass use of bashing Christians as a way to make money.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue full comment on Sweet Jesus ice cream:
When a Catholic League member emailed us a note recently about a Canadian ice cream company, Sweet Jesus, we decided to give it a pass: it was a fairly innocuous appropriation of Christianity, and there was no reason to believe that the intent was to offend. But that has all changed.
We have now learned that the company's logo includes at least one satanic symbol: in some marketing campaigns, the “S” in Sweet has been replaced with the symbol of a lightning bolt; an inverted cross appears in the place of the “T.” The former is known as the “satanic 'S'” (which was used by Hitler's elite), and the latter is a mockery of the Cross of Jesus Christ. In other instances, the first “S” in Jesus appears as a lightning bolt.
Sweet Jesus has opened in Baltimore and plans to expand to Minnesota's Mall of America. “Our aim is not to offer commentary on anyone's religion or belief systems,” the company says. Nonsense. Its aim is to offend. Indeed, if what they say is true, then let them sell “Sweet Jesus” ice cream absent the satanic symbols, restoring the “S” and the “T” to their proper place.
Meanwhile, Americans should send the purveyors of this demonic message a Christian message of their own: boycott Sweet Jesus.
Related:
‘Sweet Jesus’ ice cream ‘mocks’ Christians for profit: LifeSite co-founder to NBC affiliate
Christians boycott ice cream chain for blaspheming Jesus