26th July, 2024; the Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony dazzles audiences despite the rain. Shortly after conservative social media finds reason for outrage in the depiction of Da Vinci’s Last Supper by a group of drag performers, including a dj in the place of Jesus.
The insult is seen as analogous to the suffering of the first Christians. Arms twist to self-pat backs for responding gracefully even as the depravity, blasphemy and mockery to be found in this depiction of the Last Supper is insisted upon.
Look the pundits cry, when will these anti-Christian secularists lay off with their deliberate attempts to mock Christ?
First of all, it’s not mockery.
If a homophobic person depicts Jesus as queer then that would probably be mockery. That’s fairly safe to assume, after all in their mind to suggest Jesus is queer is to insult Jesus. But if a queer person depicts Jesus as queer that's very unlikely to be mockery. There’s no insult in the implication that Jesus might be queer. The depiction of the Last Supper at the Paris Olympics can only be understood as mockery if we imagine that a group of self-hating queer people put it together. That would be so sad if that unlikely scenario is the case.
It's like if a Trumpian depicted Jesus carrying an AR-15 they probably aren't mocking Jesus. Assault-rifle Jesus is not a humiliating depiction to the Trumpian. You can disagree with that depiction but to suggest the creator of the image desires to mock Christianity and Christ would be a bizarre interpretation. Their intent is to celebrate Jesus and guns and the both unironically together.
If you assume that a queer depiction of Jesus is mockery then that is your homophobia speaking and you should own it rather than ascribe such opinions to the creators of the depiction.
That mockery depends on intention can be seen in the depiction of Jesus with a crown. When the Romans put a crown of thorns on Jesus they were mocking him. When Christians depict Jesus with a crown they aren't mocking him. Perhaps if you, with your homophobic and transphobic friends were to stage a scene in which Christ is depicted as queer you would be mocking him and your image would probably feel mocking towards queer people too. But that simply isn’t what a queer imaging of Christ means to queer people.
If intent doesn’t matter stop playing the victim.
Some will try and claim that the image is mocking even if the intent wasn’t to humiliate or denigrate Jesus or Christians. Okay, lets imagine there is a meaning for mockery which does not care about the intent of the person accused of mockery. This seems like a risky concept to entertain but if we do entertain it, we can’t then make the jump that this is part of a secular attack on Christians akin to the suffering of Christians in the first century or the persecution of Christians in places around the globe.
You can’t try and insert yourself, having to briefly look at a depiction of a Queer Christ, into the struggles of the early Christians being whipped and even killed for professing a belief in the risen Jesus when the offence is accidental. Yet sadly, this is the tone some conservatives have taken. Okay, they probably didnt intend it, but at the same time this is a deliberate ridiculing of Jesus Christ, which was only done because Christians are an easy target.
Denying the relevance of intent when paying attention to it would make it hard to get angry and then manufacturing it in order to get even angrier just means you want to get angry. That’s something to interrogate in yourself.
Stop getting outraged that people disagree with you.
At the end of the day, what we have here is disagreement. Queer people don’t find ourselves disgusting. When we go to the shops or work or church, or the Olympics we aren’t thinking of how we will defile everything we touch. Enacting, as queer folk, the famous art work of Da Vinci’s Last Supper is therefore not seen as trashing it.
Some conservative Christians do think queerness is disgusting. They consider the expression of queerness and gender diversity the height of depravity. They think a drag queen or drag king in any religious context would be blasphemous. They certainly think that Jesus is not happy being portrayed as a queer person surrounded by queer folk.
There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with a depiction. To return to Assault-rifle Jesus that depiction makes me so deeply sad I have to limit my exposure. I think its fundamentally at odds with a historical Jesus. I intend to express my disagreement. I would certainly be upset if the Olympics included that depiction.
You have the right to disagree with elements of the Olympic ceremony. You have the right to feel upset by them. But outrage implies something else. It implies that you don’t think people have the right to disagree with you. It implies that when it comes to Christianity and Jesus what other people think has to be run by your sensitivities, including your homophobia and transphobia. If they don’t they are attacking you and mocking your God. All this also implies something menacing, because if people are supposed to respect your outrage, what happens if they don’t? Where does your confected sense of persecution take you?
Many conservative Christians have taken pains to stress that they are willing to endure this “attack” peacefully as if it would be legitimate for a heathen not to, but Christians must live to a higher standard. Before we hand out any medals, can we just point out that is the bare minimum of what is expected of you. There are no prizes for not being terrorists. We shouldn’t have to feel grateful you aren’t going to shoot up the town.
Stop thinking you own Jesus.
Some conservative Christians are willing, begrudgingly, to tolerate queer people being out but wonder in response to depictions like this one why"the queers just can't leave our Jesus alone". And I would respond to you, that its not "your" Jesus. Leonardo’s Last Supper is just nostalgia anyway. Jesus didn’t actually look like that. The Christmas cards from your childhood did. The image from the Olympics is a contemporary piece of art. You can dislike it. But you shouldn't assume it isn't made by admirers of art, or Jesus himself. It seems perfectly likely it would be.
Some conservative commentators have also got outraged at a use of rainbow coloured bread for the Eucharist in an affirming Christian church. (see pic). Images have been shared and cries of “blasphemy” raised. While members of that church are insulted, those making the insults in their social media pack act like they are the victims of disrespect. That rainbow host is an attack on them.
I’m not just saying that conservatives in these moments take on the role of policer of every church. That would be arrogant and annoying but still fair. If you think you are right, and you want to profess that, you certainly can. Make every sermon about the evils of your intellectual opponents if you want. I’m not coming to listen anyway. But stop acting like somebody stole your property whenever they don’t subscribe to your pet interpretations. You didn’t paint Da Vinci’s painting or write any of the hymns. You don’t own any of Christianity any more than a Star Wars fan who will never produce any creative work in that universe can claim ownership over that franchise because they’re a really big fan. Don’t go to the affirming church. Criticise it all you want. But hopefully understand you’re not being oppressed or robbed because somewhere its being done differently. Nobody is mocking you.
After all half of the worlds Christians are adamant that the other half aren’t proper Christians. There are lots of disagreements between Christians. Hopefully you know that it’s not an attack on Protestants when a Catholic prays the Rosary. And hopefully you know that someone who speaks in tongues isn’t mocking someone who puts no stock in it. The behaviour of conservatives in relation to a queer Christ or a Rainbow Eucharist however suggests that this realisation is not deeply held. All of a sudden it becomes an attack by "them" on a monolithic "us" called “Christians”, even when “they” are clearly Christians too.
Take a moment and ponder what has occurred.
If my words have managed to convince you then please don’t just drop this issue for the next issue you can find that proves how really oppressed you are. Instead think about how all over the world queer people have been publicly told they are inherently offensive and that their visibility tarnishes Christianity and humiliates Jesus. Think about how you have participated in this and how your leaders have encouraged, or perhaps discouraged, you to do so. Think about how easy it was to see yourself as the victim while lashing out and hurting others. Before either of us moves on to the next battleline in the culture war we're being drafted to fight let's consider whether we can disagree with something without having to imagine it’s designed to mock.
Maybe we can all think about how even an event designed to bring us together is somehow used to pit us against each other.
