The Olympic Games opening ceremony featured what seemed to have been a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, only the members of the supper were represented by drag performers. And, in case you live under a rock or are one of those blissful souls who are not on any social media, the reaction to this has not been positive.
The organizers gave a somewhat half-hearted apology, but again the reaction to that also has not been positive.
Spencer Boersma
There is something about all this that feels like the internet is just being the internet. Did you know the Starbucks Christmas cup is now only green and red? Did you know there is an ice cream store called “Sweet Jesus”? Did you know someone somewhere changed the words to a Christmas song? Excuse me while I yawn and keep scrolling. However, there is something about reacting this way to things in the name of faith that is a whole lot more disconcerting to me.
To put it one way, the offense at the offense is worse than the original offense.
There’s far more to be offended by
I remember seeing the display that appeared to be of the Last Supper and thinking, “That’s odd and a bit in poor taste, but if they want to do that, oh well,” and then I pulled up that day’s Wordle to crack (I admit, yes, I still play Wordle). Then I watched post after post of people losing their minds over this, shaming everything from the entire Olympics to the whole country of France to pronouncing God’s judgment over every non-Christian everywhere who wasn’t offended at this.
I don’t know what to say to that. In internet-speak: Insert meme where Jean Luc-Picard face palms here.
Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, I just believe there are so many more important things to be upset about. Perhaps, in my old age, I have grown desensitized to internet hoopla. Perhaps, I am the one who isn’t normal. Perhaps, I am OK with that.
But if you are reading this thinking, “Yes, Spencer, there is something wrong with you; you as a Christian need to be upset about this,” let me suggest that, perhaps, getting upset makes its own unintended offenses.
“Sometimes, the thing we hate in another is what we embody ourselves, and we just can’t see it.”
Speaking of being upset, I want to take this time to point out an irony I so often see. I watch right-wing folk complain about how “woke” the left is, how they are always offended at things and how this portrays a lack of emotional stability or something like that. Well, sometimes, the thing we hate in another is what we embody ourselves, and we just can’t see it. Pause and reflect on that one.
Now, indulge me for a second if you are a Christian. We live in a secular culture. We live in a culture where Christianity has taken on layers of negative connotations based on its past, a past typified by exclusion and violence against various minority groups. Polls suggest that in the minds of the average Westerner, Christianity is associated with words like “homophobic” and “anti-science” more often than “love” or even “Jesus.”
Now, you see a display where drag queens replace the figures of a da Vinci painting of the Last Supper (if that is what is going on here — that is debated), and your first impulse is to say to yourself, “What will further Christianity in a world that no longer sees the value of faith anymore? I know. I have an ace up my sleeve. I’ll rant about it on Facebook!”
Again, let’s pause and reflect on that one.
Is that really a strategy to defend the Christian faith? The organizers gave a half-hearted apology, but even if they somehow convincingly gave some sort of “we are really, sincerely, sorry” routine, trying to close the proverbial barn door after all the animals ran out, I really don’t believe this would be a win for the Christian faith. Crying offense often only works when there is a loud outcry, and that means attempts to shame the culture into respecting the Christian faith can still very much be a Constantinian strategy of power and privilege.
Who’s on your social media?
While we are at it, let’s think about who might be on your social media. Are there gay people on your social media? Trans folk? Queer folk? Perhaps not. Perhaps they don’t share that information. Ask yourself why. Can you ask yourself: What do you think they saw?
They probably saw the fact that there are numerous other portrayals of Jesus in our culture— the blasphemous portrayals of Jesus by evangelical leaders in order to support Donald Trump, the rhetoric of “blessing Israel” invoked by some to justify the genocidal actions of the Israeli army in Gaza or just the myriad of other portrayals of the Last Supper in popular art — literally by almost every major TV series — that for some reason does not get people of faith worked up.
“Perhaps, in the name of defending Jesus we have inflicted our own wounds on others Jesus wants us to heal.”
Yet Christians got upset over the one that had sexual minorities in it. What does that say? It says, implicitly, that it is not alternative depictions of Jesus that offend me; those people do.
Once again, let’s again pause and think about that.
Why did the artistic director of the Olympic ceremony do this? By his own intention, the director did not think he was trying to directly offend Christians. He says he was not even alluding to the Last Supper at all (which could just be an attempt to save face). It does seem he was trying to portray something of the Greek mythic backgrounds of the Olympics, as well as what current French art is about: its capacity to be over the top, parody previous art pieces, making statements about inclusivity.
Maybe in poor taste, but …
To that, I would say if you designed a public portrayal of any religious figure in an unconventional way and did not think it would offend people (or if you really thought arranging the table that way with a center figure like that would not be taken as an allusion to the Last Supper), you clearly did not think that through. If that is the case, the display was in poor taste: Surely there could have been better — smarter — ways to celebrate French art and inclusion in a venue like the Olympics.
However, there is something profoundly indicative of our cultural situation where a classic Christian work of art is portrayed with members of a community Christians often have excluded as an act that says, as a culture, “We value inclusivity.”
There also is something profoundly ironic about Christians getting angry at an art piece as an “attack” on their faith that fuels the very secularizing impulse that protects these displays in the name of inclusion and free speech. Let’s remember the very reason, historically, Europe started secularizing was because, after brutal religious wars, faith was no longer trusted as a discourse to build public flourishing upon.
Again, let’s pause and think about this.
How should we defend the Christian faith? Let me suggest it does not need “defending” at all. Such language implies Jesus needs to be defended, that the ones doing this are our “enemy.”
Is that kind of militancy the path forward? I have to ask: How did that go for Peter? What did Jesus do to the very person Peter tried to defend him from? If someone feels there is a group of people who are the enemies of Christianity, the Christ-like response is to find a way to do good to them.
Perhaps, in the name of defending Jesus we have inflicted our own wounds on others Jesus wants us to heal. That should be our reaction. If we are offended at someone representing drag queens at the Last Supper, perhaps the best “defense” is to ask ourselves, “What would it take for these people to feel safe enough, loved enough, understood enough, to be at our table?”
Maybe then we will see what the Last Supper actually was trying to depict.
Spencer Boersma serves as assistant professor of theology at Acadia Divinity College. He previously served as the pastor of First Baptist Church of Sudbury in Ontario, Canada. He lives in Kentville, Nova Scotia, with his wife and five boys. He regularly posts his sermon and thoughts at spencerboersma.com.
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Offense taken: Parsing the uproar over the Olympics opening ceremony | Opinion by Rick Pidcock
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Evangelicals upset about the Olympics are pearl-clutching hypocrites | Opinion by Susan Shaw
Why aren’t evangelicals offended by Donald Trump? | Opinion by Martin Thielen