Damar Hamlin Apologizes for Wearing Blasphemous Jacket to SuperBowl
Damar Hamlin has issued a public apology for wearing a jacket with images of a crucified Jesus to the Superbowl, explaining that “after talking with my parents I understand how my coat could have offended some people” and that “it was never my intentions to hurt or disrespect anyone.”
Hamlin went on to explain that his “beliefs and relationship with God is not tied to symbolic images” and that he just considered it “abstract art.
Last month Damar Hamlin, a professional football player for the Buffalo Bills, went into cardiac arrest in the middle of a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Emergency personnel performed CPR and revived him on the field and he was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he eventually recovered.
The jacket he wore featured a grotesque crucified flannelgraph Jesus on the back of his coat and a garish representation of his face on the front. The words “Eternal” and “Without end or beginning, there is no day and there is no night” are scrawled across both sides.
At the time we commented that “it’s a disgusting violation of the second commandment, and appears to be a bizzare mockery of the death of Christ, or at the very least, a callous and disrespectful swipe at the King of Glory.”
We’re glad he took counsel from his parents and issued a public apology, and we really hope he understand why it was so offensive.
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I have no doubt his intentions are pure.
The image could be one artist’s highly stylized interpretation, accentuating the humiliation, horror, and misery Christ endured, but I wouldn’t own and am not comfortable viewing it.
I’m not concerned we red for my own “offendedness”. I’m concerned with him offending the LORD. it doesn’t say in the story, but I hope he went to God and asked for forgiveness and has repented, and received mercy.
I agree. It’s like when people blaspheme God in front of me and apologize. I want to say “Thanks for the apology. But really it’s God that you should be apologizing to not me. He’s the one that you’ve offended. Blasphemy is so serious that it’s punishable by death in the OT.”