The ice cream chain is called ‘Sweet Jesus.’ Some Christians are calling for a boycott

The owners of the Sweet Jesus chain of ice cream shops don’t see anything wrong with their name.

They told The Toronto Star the name had nothing to do with religion - they just had an employee who exclaimed “Sweet Jesus!” a lot, and it stuck.

But some people – several thousand of them, in fact – don’t buy that. They say the company’s name and branding is a mockery of Jesus Christ, Christianity and Christians in general.

A petition on the site CitizenGO, posted on March 8, informs the owners of the chain that “Your blasphemy of Jesus Christ is Unacceptable.”

“I am calling on you to issue a public apology for misusing the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and mocking Christianity in your company’s franchise ‘Sweet Jesus,’ ” the petition reads.

“You have openly attacked the Christian community, and you have openly attacked God. I am asking you to immediately change the name and branding of your franchise to eliminate every instance of mockery toward our Lord Jesus. Until such time as you apologize and change your name, I will boycott your business, and I will call on all my friends and family to do the same.”

A summary that runs next to the petition says that the idea of naming soft-serve ice cream after Jesus is “offensive and revolting” and claimed that the ‘s’ in the “Jesus” part of their logo, rendered as a lightning bolt, is reminiscient of the Nazi ‘SS’ security agency.

The petition has received about 8,800 signatures and has a goal of 10,000.

Another petition on Change.org, which has garnered around 500 signatures, called the chain “anti-Christ and anti-Christian’ for both its choice of name and its use of symbols like upside-down crosses on promotional material.

“God forbid the name of the prophet Muhammad was used in this manner or the name of Allah against Muslims. So why is it that the name of Jesus Christ can be openly mocked in our so called fair, equal, and democratic society?” the petition reads.

“We are calling on not just Christians, but anyone who is against religious discrimination to take a stand against this brand until the name is changed so as not to be offensive to and until such time as it does not discriminate against any religion.”

The chain was created in 2015 by Andrew Richmond and Amin Todai and has since expanded to 12 stores in Canada and one at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in the U.S. Another is being planned for the Mall of America.

The company, for its part, says its standing behind its name.

“At the end of the day, we don’t take ourselves too seriously - we’re all about creating unique desserts that taste really good,” Sweet Jesus co-founder Andrew Richmond told blogTO. “Sweet Jesus is made up of amazing people who represent a wide range of cultural and religious beliefs. While we understand some may find our name offensive, we see it as an expression of joy.”

The company also made a statement on their website:

“Our name was created from the popular phrase that people use as an expression of enjoyment, surprise or disbelief. Our aim is not to offer commentary on anyone’s religion or belief systems.”

Twitter users had mixed responses. Some thought the criticism was justified, while others thought it was all just a bunch of hullabaloo.

This story was originally published March 26, 2018 at 3:29 PM with the headline "The ice cream chain is called ‘Sweet Jesus.’ Some Christians are calling for a boycott."