The Olympics are over, but we have a bit of unfinished business.
I recently wrote about the offense Christians took at the Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris. The ceremony recreated the famous painting The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, with transgender and drag queen participants. I explained that offensive things should offend us. But some Christians have pushed back—not against the offensive scene, but against the outcry of Christians who were offended.
I want to talk again about what really happened at the ceremony, along with what really happened with the backlash and a better way forward in the future.
What Really Happened at the Ceremony?
The Opening Ceremony clearly intended to recreate da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper. The facts are not up for debate at this point. The Paris Olympics’ media relations sent an email that has been preserved in full by Valerie Richardson of The Washington Times.
As you can see, the email specifies that the ceremony’s director Thomas Jolly “took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting to create the scene.” The actress in the center of the scene, Barbara Butch, has no problems connecting the presentation to da Vinci’s painting. Not long after, she deleted the photo and reposted it as “the feast of the gods.”
The story about the meaning of the scene was clear, and it still is clear. The organizers and actors started backpedaling when a loud and diverse set of global complaints came flooding in.
Which is more likely—that all of those who were involved were mistaken by calling it The Last Supper or that it actually was portraying the painting and the story changed when the offense was called out?
The New York Post—not my first go-to on art news!—did get it right when its headline noted, “Paris Olympics admitted opening ceremony drag show was based on ‘Last Supper’—then tried to walk it back.“
What Really Happened With the Backlash?
While I expected pushback from secular leaders, I was disappointed (though no longer surprised) by the criticism of some Christians, particularly those who blamed “triggered” American evangelicals.
Even though the earliest and strongest reactions against the display were global Christians—the first rebukes coming from a French bishop in attendance and the archbishop of Malta—some American evangelicals saw this as yet another episode of our movement’s obsessive delusion of persecution.
In reality, offended American evangelicals joined a diverse global outcry of hundreds of millions of Christians who were offended by the mocking display. Those who criticized these offended Christians were themselves on the wrong side of the facts of the situation. They were more offended by their brothers and sisters in Christ than the display itself.
Emblematic of this critique is a piece at the Anxious Bench by historian Joey Cochran. In the article, Cochran objects to the “old guard evangelical outrage” that pounced upon the Olympics display as further evidence of their oppression. In his opening salvo, Cochran writes:
Sober-minded Christians or, for the sake of it, just reasonable, decent human beings ought to wonder why conservative Christians are passing what they believe to be “disturbing” and “offensive” content around to one another in voyeuristic fashion.
Cochran misses the mark here for two reasons. First, something being offensive does not necessarily mean that it is graphic. As a scholar, Cochran should know better than to mix the meanings of words in this way. Second, accusing evangelicals of voyeurism, implying that they derive joy in a voyeuristic image, is both childish and inaccurate.
In addition, being offended by something does not create a direct line from offense to persecution. I don’t feel persecuted as a Christian for the mockery of the Last Supper painting, but I am offended, because the content is offensive.
According to Cochran, evangelicals should be better global neighbors by listening to other voices. Unfortunately, nearly every leader he cites is an American, and everyone is based in North American ministries. Ironically, in calling evangelicals to listen to the global church Cochran ignores his own counsel.
