Last weekend during a basketball playoff game, roughly 50 to 75 fans of a Catholic high school in Boston chanted: â??You Killed Jesusâ? at the opposing side, a suburban school with many Jewish students. That chant, which grew out of taunts between fans of both Catholic Memorial School, a private all-boys school, and the public Newton North High School, drew national news coverage, condemnation and exclamations of horror and shock from many quarters.
Sadly, though, I was not shocked to hear that teens had used religion to toss barbs. Some people, based on comments on Facebook and newspaper and television stories, link the teensâ?? behavior to a natural outgrowth of seeing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and/or his supporters publicly spout racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. I donâ??t. I think the teensâ?? behavior stems from something more systemic in our society.
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