{"id":12064,"date":"2024-11-14T11:03:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T16:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12064"},"modified":"2024-11-14T11:03:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T16:03:17","slug":"retailer-removes-a-gay-in-a-manger-sweater-after-christian-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/retailer-removes-a-gay-in-a-manger-sweater-after-christian-outrage.html","title":{"rendered":"Retailer Removes \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d Sweater After Christian Outrage \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Lorna Roberts \/ Shutterstock.com | Inset: Debenhams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A popular European retailer has removed a Christmas sweater from its line of merchandise after Christians took offense to the sweater\u2019s messaging. The retailer, Debenhams, featured the purple sweater on its website with the phrase, \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d written across, a play on the popular Christmas hymn, \u201cAway in a Manger.\u201d The shirt also sported an image of a manger, where baby Jesus is said to have been placed in the New Testament scriptures, but instead of Jesus, the manger featured a rainbow.<\/p>\n

The product faced immediate backlash<\/a> from prominent Christians and Christian advocacy groups. Andrea Williams, of Christian Concern, called for a boycott. \u201cThe company producing these products should be boycotted,\u201d she stated. Christian Concern posted to X<\/a> demanding an apology. \u201cDisgraceful that @Debenhams were selling this product. A full public apology must follow.\u201d .Former Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg wondered if the retailer would be so bold to mock any other religion. ‘Debenhams would not mock Islam in this way,\u201d he said. Pastor Rikki Doolan of the Spirit Embassy shared a similar criticism. \u201cThe main issue at hand here is, if you are going to mock people\u2019s faith then why do you only do it to Christianity? What is it that makes you feel it\u2019s ok to do it to us? Unless you have gay Muhammad and Buddha T-shirts that we don\u2019t know of?\u201d<\/p>\n

Debenhams is now an online-only retailer and had featured the shirt on its website, which was produced by Grindstore. Following the backlash, the shirt was pulled from Debenhams\u2019 website. A mug with the same phrase was also removed. Debenhams issued a statement after removing the products. \u201cWe are aware that a product line featured on our marketplace has raised some questions. In line with our policies, we are reviewing the products and have temporarily paused them while we investigate.\u201d Grindstore also released a statement. \u201cAs a small business we are always open to listening to feedback. We have now removed the highlighted products, our apologies … the intention was not to offend or insult anyone.\u201d Grindstore also removed other religious-themed products such as \u201cah-men\u201d greeting cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A popular European retailer has removed a Christmas sweater from its line of merchandise after Christians took offense to the sweater\u2019s messaging. The retailer, Debenhams, featured the purple sweater on its website with the phrase, \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d written across, a play on the popular Christmas hymn, \u201cAway in a Manger.\u201d The shirt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":12061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news","category-political"],"yoast_head":"\nRetailer Removes \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d Sweater After Christian Outrage \u00a0<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/retailer-removes-a-gay-in-a-manger-sweater-after-christian-outrage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Retailer Removes \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d Sweater After Christian Outrage \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A popular European retailer has removed a Christmas sweater from its line of merchandise after Christians took offense to the sweater\u2019s messaging. The retailer, Debenhams, featured the purple sweater on its website with the phrase, \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d written across, a play on the popular Christmas hymn, \u201cAway in a Manger.\u201d The shirt…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/retailer-removes-a-gay-in-a-manger-sweater-after-christian-outrage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-14T16:03:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/11\/offensive-sweater_credit-Lorna-Roberts-Shutterstock-Debenhams.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Retailer Removes \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d Sweater After Christian Outrage \u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/retailer-removes-a-gay-in-a-manger-sweater-after-christian-outrage.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Retailer Removes \u201cA Gay in a Manger\u201d Sweater After Christian Outrage \u00a0","og_description":"A popular European retailer has removed a Christmas sweater from its line of merchandise after Christians took offense to the sweater\u2019s messaging. 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