News/Commentary

Is this Saudi Arabia? Mall of America security demands man remove ‘offensive’ religious shirt or leave

January 16, 2023 | | Print Article

If you don’t think the nation is fighting a spiritual war, look no further than the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., and you’ll likely change your mind.

A cellphone video showing a security guard instructing a man to either remove his “Jesus Saves” t-shirt or get out of the mall has gone viral on social media, proving that the First Amendment is clearly under attack.

Alpha News reported on the incident, which reportedly took place on Jan. 7.

One quick-thinking bystander live-streamed the confrontation to Facebook.

(Video: Facebook)

On the back of the man’s shirt, the “coexist” symbol was crossed out, replaced with “Jesus is the only way.”

“Jesus is associated with religion and it’s offending people,” a security guard informs the man in the video clip. “People have been offended.”

He tells the Christian that he can either ditch the shirt or leave.

The man replies that he was just trying to do some shopping.

“I didn’t say anything though. I didn’t speak. I didn’t say anything,” he says. “I just went to Macy’s.”

The guards were undeterred, Constitution be damned.

“Again, I’m giving you a couple options. You can take the shirt off and you can go to Macy’s and you can do your shopping. Or you can leave the mall, OK?” one guard shoots back. “Those are your only options right now.”

He later accuses the patron of “religious soliciting,” something the mall forbids, despite the man’s repeated claims that he was not preaching to shoppers — a practice he was reportedly ejected from the mall for doing on a previous day.

This time, however, the man insisted he was just walking around, but the shirt was all the proselytizing the guards needed to see.

“Yes, you’re walking wearing that shirt in the form of soliciting and we’ve had guests come up and say they’re offended by your shirt,” one of the guards says.

Meanwhile, the Mall of America is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a ’90s-themed drag show, to be held on Jan. 21 in the Huntington Bank Rotunda.

On Twitter, people are understandably furious.

“There are lots of things that offend me but I don’t believe I can DEMAND they be removed,” tweeted one user.

Others can’t believe something like this would happen in the United States of America.

“No, it’s not Saudi Arabia – ‘people are offended’ by ‘Jesus saves’ in the so called Christian West,” one user tweeted. “2000 years, and the ‘this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper’? (T. S. Eliot)”

 

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Melissa Fine
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