The way pastors and pundits respond to controversy online in the heat of a cultural moment can be a window for discovering how power works in society and a reminder for where Christians can find beauty.
When screenshots of the Olympics opening ceremony revealed a scene that looked like a drag queen version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper painting, of course all the usual suspects were going to come out of the woodwork and post their outrage.
Perhaps most predictable was Al Mohler: “Every society — without exception — coalesces around a dominant religious impulse with associated symbols. The sheer horror of the secularist replacement is what we saw in Paris. It’s a deliberately pornographic corruption of Christianity.”
Rick Pidcock
Then Mohler warned, “Don’t miss how intentional it is, right down to details. Paris aspires to be the new Babylon, with a drag queen at the center behind the altar.”
When someone on X suggested Christians should ask what they may have done to warrant such satire and mockery, Mike Cosper, director of CT media for Christianity Today, responded by saying the suggestion was “the moral equivalent of telling an abused wife, ‘What did you do to make your husband so angry?’” In his analogy, this means the opening ceremony would be the moral equivalent of a husband abusing his wife.
“What we saw last night deliberately incorporated blasphemous imagery, pagan imagery, and sexualized imagery. It was meant to scandalize,” Cosper added. “It’s perfectly reasonable for Christians to say, ‘These are our sacred symbols and we don’t appreciate you crapping all over them in front of 1 billion people.’”
Of course, it’s not at all surprising to learn how the Olympic Games actually meant the scene as an “interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus,” given that the Olympics originated in Greece, and that the scene’s purpose was to make people “aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.”
It’s not at all surprising to find out the beheaded woman was not a reference to the modern dispensationalist idea of Christians being beheaded during the Tribulation after the Rapture, but was a nod to Marie Antoinette, otherwise known as “the beheaded queen.”
So of course, the horse rider was not meant to point to the pale horse and rider in Revelation that are followed by Hell, but was meant to celebrate Joan of Arc, who in France’s honoring of Christianity is their patron Saint.
“Awareness and being mindful of the absurdity of violence aren’t exactly character traits of conservative evangelicalism.”
But awareness and being mindful of the absurdity of violence aren’t exactly character traits of conservative evangelicalism, given that the Public Religion Research Institute found Republicans are 2.5 times more likely than Democrats to support political violence.
So it’s not shocking to hear words like these from men like Mohler or Cosper.
What was surprising about this story was how it provoked the ire of some of the more moderate leaders in conservative evangelicalism who tend to have more awareness than many of their peers about topics related to gender.
‘A direct undercutting of God’s design’
One of the more notable responses came from Andy Wood, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, this morning. Wood was selected by Rick Warren to take over after Warren retired.
You may recall Saddleback being in the news last year because Warren had an epiphany on allowing women in church leadership and the Southern Baptist Convention expelled Saddleback — the denomination’s largest church — as a result.
Andy Wood
Despite recent attempts by Saddleback to moderate its positions on women, and despite the Olympic Games clarifying the interpretation of the Friday night ceremony, Wood stood at Saddleback today and read the following statement:
One of the most appalling parts of the ceremony was the enactment that was a representation of the Lord’s Supper done with drag queens in a very evocative fashion. They took what is a piece of art, but more than that is a rendering of a sacred moment when Jesus was informing his disciples about his impending crucifixion for the sins of the world. It was a complete offense to the most sacred event in human history. Make no mistake, this was a direct undercutting of God’s design — God’s design for sexuality, God’s design for marriage, and most importantly, a mockery of King Jesus. If I were the president of France, I would feel the responsibility to repent on behalf of my nation. If I were the leader of the Olympic Committee, I would feel the need to say I’m sorry to every parent who watched the Olympic opening ceremony with their family. And I would feel the need to resign now.
At this point, he was interrupted by applause from the congregation. Then, without ever mentioning the Olympic Games’ statement about the Greek God Dionysus, Woods stated, “It is wrong to cram a value system down the throats of our children through the opening ceremony of the Olympics.” He concluded by saying the enemy has overplayed his hand and that we’re on the verge of a new Great Awakening, calling it “the greatest time in church history to be alive!”
‘You owe the West an apology’
Andy Stanley is a familiar voice in conversations about LGBTQ people given his willingness to host the Unconditional Conference in 2023 despite being accused at Christianity Today of seriously undermining a New Testament sexual ethic and “sending people to hell.”
Andy Stanley
So it was surprising when he posted on X about the 9,238 Americans who lie in the Normandy American Cemetery after coming to France’s aid during World War II. “Their final prayers were to the God whose Son you mocked in front of the entire world,” he wrote. “You don’t just owe Christians an apology. You owe the West an apology.”
As more information came out regarding the Olympic Committee’s intentions, however, Stanley deleted his tweet. He also didn’t speak during this Sunday’s service. So he hasn’t explained yet why he felt the need to say something originally or why he took his post down.
‘The most vulgar mockers of Christianity’
Glenn Packiam is a popular pastor, songwriter and author who left the well-known New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., to become lead pastor of Rockharbor Church in Costa Mesa, Calif. He’s typically a calming voice online and uses his platform to affirm women preaching and leading in the church.
So I was not expecting him to chime in on X as he did: “France has historically provided the most vulgar mockers of Christianity — thru literature, philosophy, & art. Most of the West moved from militant atheism to indifferent agnosticism to wounded cynicism. But in some places, crude criticism parades as enlightened progressivism.”
Glenn Packiam
When people pushed back on him, he doubled down with responses like: “Reading the cultural moment is a key to living faithfully as Christians within it,” and “French critics of Christianity have always drawn on the vulgar and obscene.”
Then he tried to clarify: “I’m not surprised or even offended. We know what the world does. But I think reading the cultural moment is a key to living faithfully as Christians within it. That’s one reason to offer a comment. If mockery was the goal, it’s nothing new. It happened to Jesus, and he said it would happen to his followers. But nothing is more scornful than a crucified God — and God lowered himself to that depth willingly. He did it for us. If a statement of belonging was the goal — subverting a Christian symbol for a modern message — then it’s fascinating that there’s no more powerful symbol than Jesus’ table.”
While Stanley deleted his tweet after more information came out, Packiam wouldn’t budge. After someone mentioned the Feast of Dionysus to him, he responded: “I think it was meant to be some sort of creative mashup. The halo around the central figure and her placement in the middle is at the very least a nod … it’s then a pagan Last Supper of sorts with Dionysus presiding and perversions abounding.”
‘When the world acts like the world’
Other seemingly moderate pastors chimed in as well. Rich Villodas, author and pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, N.Y., wrote: “Christians being surprised when the world acts like the world is always interesting to me.”
Derwin Gray
And Derwin Gray, pastor of Transformation Church just outside of Charlotte, posted: “As a follower of Jesus, I’m more concerned about the evils of sexual abuse in the church, leadership corruption, greed, sexual immorality, Christ-less preaching, poor discipleship, and political idolatry, than I am unbelievers mocking the Christian faith at the Olympic ceremony.”
Despite the more measured tone of Villodas and the more legitimate concerns of Gray, they’re still assuming the Olympic Games were targeting Christians with mockery, which implies that drag queens are sinful and that Christians are on the underside of power.
A spectrum of responses
Notice the spectrum of responses here. All the men mentioned above are nonaffirming of LGBTQ people and of drag queens in particular. In that, they are consistent. But they also demonstrate a spectrum of responses in the moment that include:
- Denouncing the Olympic Committee for mocking Jesus and undercutting God’s design
- Naming this moment as a cause for “sheer horror”
- Condemning it as pornography and calling it Babylon
- Claiming it’s the moral equivalent of marital abuse
- Calling for an apology to the West
- Accusing France of using vulgarity to mock Christianity
- Doubling down with logic about faithfulness
- Admitting it wasn’t totally about Christianity, while calling it a mashup
- Deleting the post upon further reflection
- Encouraging Christians not to be surprised
- Pointing the church’s attention to abuses in the church
It’s also interesting to note how the spectrum of outrage runs from white leaders to Black leaders. Even though Villodas and Gray remain unaffirming of LGBTQ people and drag queens, their proximity to the underside of power in Christianity seems to accompany a different approach to the Mohlers and Cospers of the world.
Who is Babylon?
According to Mohler, “Paris aspires to be the new Babylon, with a drag queen at the center behind the altar.”
Al Mohler
In other words, Mohler believes in a cultural cosmology where drag queens are in the top floor of the Tower of Babel and Christians are on the bottom.
As wrong as I believe Mohler is on this topic, I actually agree with his metaphor. There is a Babylon-like power dynamic at play here. But the placement of the people within the tower needs to be reversed. The reality is that drag queens are on the bottom floor, while white men and Christians in particular are at the top.
One way we know this to be true is that there are plenty of white men and Christians with large platforms sharing their thoughts about what happened and very few examples of drag queens sharing their perspective.
Imagine if conservative Christians could take this cultural moment as an opportunity to learn from the Olympic Games about how absurd it is to celebrate justice as retributive violence. Maybe then they wouldn’t be 2.5 times more likely than Democrats to support political violence.
Sure, Jesus said the world would hate his followers. But that was in the context of empire, with the world being defined by the hierarchy status values of empire. It’s simply not applicable to modern Christians who are having their position of privilege checked, not even so much by people calling them out, but by their own self-indulgent paranoia.
Even if France were making fun of Christians, and even if Jesus opposed LGBTQ people, there isn’t a single example in Scripture of Jesus freaking out about Romans making fun of him for opposing LGBTQ people.
Learning to celebrate the diversity of those at the table
Thankfully, there are some examples of Christian leaders familiar with the grief of those on the underside of white male Christian power who are reminding us of the beauty that’s possible to experience at the Table.
Joash Thomas, national director of mobilization and advocacy for International Justice Mission Canada, reminded us: “If we resisted the urge to get offended by this, we might look a bit closer and be reminded that *everyone* has a seat at Jesus’ Table.” Then he added, “If we looked even closer, we might even see ourselves at Jesus’ Table.”
Matt Tebbe
New Testament scholar Laura Robinson added: “Don’t bring people who can’t speak for themselves into this. You could just as easily, and perhaps more truthfully, say that because of the troops that stormed the beaches of Normandy (including, yes, the Jewish ones), the Nazis were beaten back and France is now the country we know it today, with a vibrant counterculture, a long tradition of theater, a major hub of modern drag, and a home for working artists of color and queer artists.”
And for those who claim we’re promoting an idea that white men are irredeemable, there are white male pastors who understand the dynamics at play here too.
Matt Tebbe, a priest at The Table Indy, reflected: “This is what happens when you can’t see power and how it works. Christians in the U.S. have been brainwashed by culture war propaganda to believe they are under attack and persecuted. We aren’t. We are the majority.”
Then he concluded, “Also turns out many Christians may be offended by something that was never even about them. Culture war will do that to you.”
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He recently completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.
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