Chanting “We love Jesus” is offensive
February 25th, 2007 | by Craig R. Harmon |if it’s done by basketball fans at a Catholic school and they are playing against a school with Jewish students.
PC Police gone too far or genuinely offensive?
After all, Jesus was a Jew and so were the first Christians. Now “We hate Jews!” would have been offensive. “Christ-killers!” would have been offensive. “You must love Jesus!” would have been offensive. How is “We love Jesus” offensive to Jews?
24 Responses to “Chanting “We love Jesus” is offensive”
By Paul Watson on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Depends, Craig, would Allah akbar be offensive? And to be honest, what does chanting ‘We love Jesus’ have to do with a basketball game? Was he playing or something?
By Jersey McJones on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
I can’t believe you have such a lack of sensitivity here, Craig. And “PC Police”??? What police??? The principle of the school decided that it would be in the best interests of the students involved to act like upstanding citizens rather than creepy scumbags.
From the article about these particular creepy, anti-semite RC assholes…
The whole thing was in really poor taste and showed bad form - something RC schools are not usually known for. They disgraced fine Catholic schools and their competitive sports. I’m ashamed of them.
JMJ
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Paul,
It wouldn’t be to me. The opposing team’s fans could have chanted “Adonai, elohenu, adonai ‘echad” (The Jewish credal statement of monotheism “The Lord, our G-d, the Lord is one” or, “The Lord, our G-d, is one Lord”).
Christians believe that God is there wherever they are and Jesus promised his disciples “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world” so, yes, in a sense, Jesus was there, if not exactly playing. Being Catholics, they may have even thought of angels and saints invisibly playing with and for them. Many Christian athletes pray before a game, often as a team, and, depending upon the depth of their piety, throughout a game.
I admit that chanting “We love Jesus” doesn’t have much to do with the game of Basketball but some of the chants that are made at games would seem to be much more offensive (and are meant to be) to the opposing team. To mention only one, chanting “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, good-bye” as a dismissive snear to the loosing team all through the last few minutes of a game. While not offensive religiously, it’s far from the sense of sportsmanship that sports are meant to instill.
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Jersey,
I’m just asking a question, seeking people’s points of view. You haven’t explained the offensive nature of it. It is a profession of faith and nothing more.
As for the “Jews” painted on the back wall, I agree that that was creepy and inappropriate but I wasn’t asking about the word painted on the wall. I was asking about chanting, “We love Jesus!”
As for explaining the offensive nature of it, I can do that myself quite powerfully, I think but I wanted to hear from others.
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Jersey,
In other words, have you ever heard of “devil’s advocate”?
By Paul Watson on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
To be honest, I wouldn’t be offended by it, but it really depends on the circumstanes and when your opponents are of a different faith it does seem crass at the very least.
But then again UK football chants tend to be a bit more basic: “You’re s**t and you know you are!” being a popular one, or “Who’s the b*****d in the black?!”. Amazingly, we still think we have culture.
By Jersey McJones on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Please, Craig.
Jesus Fuckin Christ.
JMJ
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Jersey,
As I said above, I know why it’s offensive. I want to hear why others think it’s offensive, if they do.
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Paul,
There’s high culture and low culture. Not all culture is opera and Shakespeare. :^)
By Paul Watson on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Of course it is, Craig. And Monty Python.
By Jersey McJones on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
That’s exactly what I was doing too, Craig - showing people just what offensive sounds like.
Didn’t you find it offensive?
JMJ
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
Jersey,
After Reading what Paul wrote about Brits chants at football (aka soccer) games? Not particularly.
By Jersey McJones on Feb 24, 2007 | Reply
I hear ya’ man!
JMJ
By Dusty on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
I wasn’t going to comment on this..but I can not hold back. Chanting about Jesus during a sporting event against a Jewish school is, imho, crude and mean. Its like chanting..your all losers because you don’t believe in Jesus..but it’s shorter and easier to get the crowd together on.
These are kids..and allowing this type of chanting teaches them it’s ok to hit below the belt.
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
Thanks, Dusty. I didn’t want people to hold back. What I can’t understand is, I didn’t get so much as an “Eew!” over in my post on the rats in Taco Bell. Maybe the BIO! team don’t lower themselves to eat at Taco Bell but the wife and I like it…or we did.
By Jersey McJones on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
I have a weakness for Taco Bell too, and the story didn’t surprise me at all. My diet is called Denial!
JMJ
By Omnipotent Poobah on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
Interesting comments.
Whatever they said, is at bottom, just words. It’s not the words themselves that are offensive, but the intent behind the words. How a person decides intent is based on the values they hold. In other words, if you’re predisposed to find it offensive (probably based on your own life experiences) you will. If you aren’t offended (again based on your life experiences) you won’t. If we all agreed on what’s offensive, there would be no disagreement.
Based on the reaction of the people involved and some of the people here, it looks like the prevailing opinion is that the kids probably knew what they were doing and even if they didn’t mean it as an insult, they probably intended it to be provacative at least.
But then, that’s opinion. I would have much preferred them to chant “WE LOVE POOBAH!”
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
Being omnipotent, you could have MADE them chant “WE LOVE POOBAH!” Why didn’t you? Of course, perhaps you’re not also omniscient and, so, did not know ahead of time that they would be chanting anything or that we would be discussing it. I would have thought omniscience would have been a prerequisite of omnipotence but I could be wrong. Of course, you could have known about it ahead of time and, for reasons of your own, have both preferred them to have chanted “WE LOVE POOBAH!” but not have made them chant it. I guess there’s something to be said for wanting a thing to occur that you could make occur but not making it occur because you respect free choice too much to make others do a thing that they would not otherwise do.
I’ll stop now because I’m babbling.
By Paul Merda on Feb 26, 2007 | Reply
Whether its offensive or not, the whole point of the 1st Amendment is that anyone is allowed to offend everyone with their speech! If the jewish folks playing these guys can’t take a little taunting, they have no business playing sports anyway.
By Jersey McJones on Feb 26, 2007 | Reply
Not in a school, Paul. It’s like shouting “fire” in a crowded theater. If these little sleazy punks were shouting the “n” word at a game agains, oh, say, a Newark NJ team, they’d have gotted their faces removed.
JMJ
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 26, 2007 | Reply
Jersey, but they weren’t shouting the ‘n’ word. They weren’t even shouting the ‘j’ word or the ‘k’ word. They weren’t shouting any epithet whatsoever. Hardly a fair comparison.
By christopher Radulich on Feb 26, 2007 | Reply
I would think that there was nothing wrong with the chant. I’m not sure if they were professing their love or trying to intiminate the other team. However writing the word jew on the wall is too reminicent of past injustices for me to accept.
By ken grandlund on Feb 27, 2007 | Reply
Offensive? Not to me, and probably not to any of the kids I played ball with when I was in high school. We’d likely have looked at each other with classic “WTF” expressions on our faces, maybe made a few irreverent remarks amongst ourselves, and then beat them up and down the court. After the game, assuming we won, we may have yelled an impromptu “A lot of good Jesus did you tonight” as we high-fived it down to the locker room.
PC police? Don’t know as the link doesn’t go through anymore. Depends on the reason given for stopping the chant (if that is what was done). If they stopped it due to concerns of insensitivity, then yes- pc police. If they stopped it for being unsportsman-like or even simply obnoxious, then no- not pc police.
And I stopped eating at Taco Bell over a decade ago- I think I saw those same rats back then…
By Ann on Feb 27, 2007 | Reply
I was raised stictly Catholic and taught by Nuns pre the PC era and, all I can say is: if we’d been playing netball against the local Jewish school (as we did occasionally) and we’d been chanting ‘We love Jesus” - or even whispering it between ourselves, for that matter!! - we’d have been hung drawn and quartered and laid out in the pouring rain to drown by Sister Gert. Yes, all by herself! The woman was the devil incarnate…. Shudder!!