Heated debate as café offers ‘blasphemous’ Cheesus Christ sarnie
AN attack on a Derbyshire café triggered by a sandwich dubbed an “insult to Christianity” has sparked a heated debate.
The Bridge Bakehouse came under fire for its £4 cheese sandwich, playfully labelled “Cheesus Christ”. It was threatened with a dubious legal letter and had its sign vandalised by unknown offended parties.
Hundreds have leapt to the defence of the Whaley Bridge eatery, in the Derbyshire Peak District, however. One reader commenting on the story on the Derby Telegraph’s website said: “I regard myself as a Christian, the most offensive thing about this story is charging £4 for a cheese sandwich.”
In fairness, the sandwich does feature a number of ingredients to justify the price tag, namely caramelised onion, onion chutney, mature cheddar and mozzarella. That said, the debate, which has attracted thousands of comments, centres around whether people are right to be offended at this type of wordplay.
A few suggested that a legal letter threatening The
Bridge Bakehouse was itself a joke. Although it was clearly quite carefully put together, it does not appear to have been produced by anyone with professional knowledge of the law. It apparently came from religious organisation Christian Concern which appears to be fake, according to the café.
Other theories about the provenance of the letter include suggestions it was disgruntled Whaley Bridge parishioners, US religious zealots or simply jokers with too much time on their hands. The sandwich row has certainly sparked a great deal of debate about what is and what is not acceptable.
The letter reads: “Our members have instructed us to write to you to ask you to remove the sandwich name Cheesus Christ from your menu. Although our clients would prefer to [settle] this matter out of the courts, there is clearly a case to answer here.
“Everyone in the United Kingdom has the right to their beliefs without fear of discrimination. It is a basic human right that all institutions, including bakeries, have a duty to abide by and protect.”
The letter goes on to demand that the café issue a public apology; remove the sandwich name and all mention of it from its menus; remove any mention of the name Cheesus Christ from a sign and make a donation of £300 to the Holy Trinity Church.
Reader James O’Neill claimed that there is a nearby burger place that offers a burger with a heretical name derived from the Depeche Mode hit Personal Jesus. He wrote: “Personal Cheesus is my favourite burger. I won’t name them because I don’t want these loons going after them. This café is only half an hour away.”
James Drury commented: “Whoever has started this is not a Christian. God is omnipresent and omnipotent. If He was unhappy with this harmless piece of fun, He would have stopped it. They should be ashamed of taking His name in vain, and will feel His wrath!” The “blasphemous” sandwich which sits on the menu alongside treats such as “Don’t go bacon my heart”, “Are you chicken me out?” and “Get ya goat, you’ve pulled” has sparked debate and comment about the nature of religion and freedom of speech.
An anonymous reader wrote: “Need to remember that Christians like any other religion can be offended. If the sandwich was named after something connected to another religion would it be allowed? Of course not, so we need to apply the same rule regardless of religion.”
Another anonymous commenter wrote: “I am vegan so can I be offended as well as these sandwiches contain animal products in them? Of course not as I have choice not to eat them but I see the humour in their naming of them.
“Religion has a lot to answer for in this world where followers are unwilling to accept free speech or alternative views because of their indoctrination.”
When the story first broke a spokesperson for the café said: “So after investigations, it turns out the bizarre blackmail letter had nothing to do with Trinity Church or ‘Christian Concern.’
“It seems it was from an anonymous disgruntled member of the local community. We would still love to find out who it was and if they had anything to do with the recent vandalism of our menu board.”
Everyone in the United Kingdom has the right to their beliefs without fear of discrimination.
Letter written to cafe