In a move viewers characterized as everything from wonderful to weird, the American Idol Gives Back show ended with the immensely popular worship song “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech.

Evangelicals on one discussion thread took umbrage with Idol’s decision to “soften” the message of the song by replacing the word “Jesus” with the word “Shepherd” in the first line, contending that the substitution stripped the song of its Christian classification entirely. (The next night, they sang the song again — this time with the original wording.)

One person, who planned to boycott the show, claimed the lyric change constituted the “Oprah kind of religion” that white-washes Christianity of critical theological heft. In the absence of the word Jesus, the logic goes, the song refers to a “generic” lord and in turn, if fails to give glory to the capital-G God.

As one user pointed out, references to “Shepherd” “Savior” “Lord” and “King” make it virtually impossible to infer any deity besides Jesus Christ in the song. But if Jesus is the word people are looking for, the show has had no shortage of it this season.

During the Dolly Parton show two weeks ago, the name “Jesus” was used a total of 15 times. David Archuleta’s rendition of Smokey Mountain Memories gave us “leaning on my Jesus,” and Jason Castro’s Travelin’ Thru “nailed Jesus to the tree” and asked “sweet Jesus” to keep him ever close.

It was Dolly who bumped the evening’s Jesus tally into the double digits, however, when Jesus was used a whopping 12 times in 4 minutes during her performance of the song “Jesus and Gravity.” At the results show the next day, The Clark Brothers sang a rendition of “This Little Light of Mine” that added another 6.

This season’s religious bent, evident even before the “Shout to the Lord” finale, is not lost on “non-believing” viewers. As one cynical viewer queried, “What is this—an evangelical show asking for money to build a super church?” Another fumed, “Not all Americans thump a Bible like you do, Fox.” A contributor to a discussion on the American Idol website claimed the show made her Jewish friend feel “uncomfortable and a bit unwelcome.”