Russell Stover’s Sacrilicious Easter Candy

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011, by James Norton / Edit Post

Those of an irreverent spirit have been known to joke about the crucifixion of the Easter Bunny, or Jesus Christ skipping merrily through green meadows, distributing Easter eggs to children.

Those folks, however, rarely bring such seditious ideas to market, for fear of being booed out of the bazaar. That didn't stop mainstream chocolate maker Russell Stover, however, from marketing a chocolate cross.

Tony Jones, a Web-savvy theologian, blogs about the chocolate cross with a firm awareness of the line between irreverent and "just plain wrong," and he places Russell Stover's choco-cross on the latter side of the divide.

He writes: "I get kitschy Jesus. I get the Buddy Christ. That’s because I get irony. But I’m pretty sure that neither Russell Stover nor Target get irony. I’m pretty sure that they’re selling a chocolate cross without any sense of irony."

Definitely looks that way.

Image source: Russell Stover

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POST A COMMENT |9 Comments

COMMENT

  • If I christ on the cross it better have raspberry filling!

  • I, too, am baffled by how this is newsworthy.

  • Totally agree with few. Hot cross buns anyone?

  • sorry, I'm totally missing the point on this one...so they poured chocolate into a cross-shaped mold...the next batch went to egg shapes, the batch after that was rabbits...and all of that ran from the same line that made hearts and roses at Valentine's day, and Santas at Christmastime....????

    I'm with Akitist -- if it had Christ ON the cross, maybe I could see the raised eyebrows, but...???

  • But...does He taste good? I mean, I've eaten some lousy Jesuses over the years.

  • RIDICULOUS. Growing up there were always chocolate crosses in the local shops and bakeries. With everything going on in the world...you think these observers of the commons would have something else to try and generate aggravation over? Sheesh

  • Chocolate crosses are nothing new--though maybe they are for Russell Stover. It looks like Catholics are divided on the issue: http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?s=b3f0801b9e4dcc71a3e6b608f5747e21&t=227675

    But this story seems like the best: "Cosimo Cavallaro's anatomically correct candy Christ, titled "My Sweet Lord," was made from almost 200 pounds of dark
    chocolate"
    (this link opens a...+READ

    Chocolate crosses are nothing new--though maybe they are for Russell Stover. It looks like Catholics are divided on the issue: http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?s=b3f0801b9e4dcc71a3e6b608f5747e21&t=227675

    But this story seems like the best: "Cosimo Cavallaro's anatomically correct candy Christ, titled "My Sweet Lord," was made from almost 200 pounds of dark
    chocolate"
    (this link opens a PDF): http://www.nextnc.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=14324-COLLAPSE

  • It's apocryphal, but supposedly some company somewhere used to make one that 'bled' red syrup when bitten.

    I also knew a strict, odd family that was against any traditional non-christian Easter candy. Their kids would get a solid chocolate shaped like something they liked, a football or a horse or whatever.

    As a non-believer...I honestly couldn't care less. It's just another symbol. Might as...+READ

    It's apocryphal, but supposedly some company somewhere used to make one that 'bled' red syrup when bitten.

    I also knew a strict, odd family that was against any traditional non-christian Easter candy. Their kids would get a solid chocolate shaped like something they liked, a football or a horse or whatever.

    As a non-believer...I honestly couldn't care less. It's just another symbol. Might as well be a chocolate dollar sign or smilie face. From what I know of believers, anything like this will delight some and disgust others. It'll probably sell pretty well (I think I saw them last year too) and that's the major point of a product. I'm pretty sure smaller chocolate companies have made them for years anyway.-COLLAPSE

  • Just a cross, not a crucifix? The thought of a kiddie biting the head off our Lord and Saviour is pretty subversive.