The outrage over the so-called mockery of the Last Supper during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Summer Olympics — a presentation that offended some Christians and darn-near every right-wing politician eager to make an issue of it — is curious at best and contrived at worst.
It’s a reflection of an environment in which prominent people are so quick to lash out at others, an environment that we’ll get to further in a minute.
Answer the aforementioned controversy with the now oh-so-familiar-and-frequently-asked question: What would Jesus do? Or, how would Jesus have reacted?
Not exactly sure on that, but from what I’ve read about Jesus, what I’ve learned about him, he likely would have shrugged and loved the folks who created and participated in the acting. He would not have freaked out over it. Moreover, he would have been astute enough to have known the scene was neither aimed at the Last Supper nor at Christianity.
It was left to the French to put on their Olympic celebration, and they did it according to their own sensitivities. Let the French be the French. For some Americans to flip their lids over it seems like a case of people looking for reasons to be incensed, to shake their fists at the world in defense of a faith cause that wasn’t intentionally dinged to begin with.
Some smart folks who are aware of such historical and cultural things have come out to say the presentation had nothing to do with da Vinci’s famous painting of Jesus’ Last Supper. The French themselves have said that. A Paris 2024 spokesperson said the scene had not been intended to disrespect “any religious group.”
Instead, it was aimed at the absurdity of violence between human beings, meant to celebrate community tolerance, and was more closely related to the Feast of Dionysus, a celebration of the Greek gods, and the last time anyone checked Greek culture is, in fact, connected to Olympic competition that originated in Greece.
The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings. #Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/FBlQNNUmvV
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024
It is notable that the French apologized if anyone was offended, but they fittingly did not apologize for the presentation.
That some prominent American Christians — including politicians in Utah and elsewhere — blew a gasket over what they understood to be a blasphemous display, at least inside the discomfort of their own ignorance, is embarrassing. Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing inside any circumstances. Maybe that’s a misstep we all have made in one way or another in the past.
But the mob mentality of certain groups nowadays, scanning any and all radars for reasons to get enraged over issues that are or may not be issues at all, that are self-serving rallying calls for those who have, in their minds, something to gain by crying out, spans an arc from the serious to the silly to the downright stupid.
Not just that, but hyperbolic protests based on manufactured mortification undermine and do real damage, in some cases, to authentic causes that should be defended, undercutting high-profile high ground that should be held.
To that point, there are important criticisms to dish out from time to time. Hills to die on. Lies and misrepresentations, untruths told and improper offenses to be exposed and made right. But when there is offense eagerly found around every corner, all that does is obfuscate what actually should be corrected, what should be made clear.
It’s a bit like the boy who cried wolf when there was no wolf. Repeatedly. And, then, when there was a wolf, well, you know the unhappy story.
It’s ironic that so many of today’s politicians were the ones jumping all over the purported offense to Christianity in the Opening Ceremony, because they so often are the tone-setters of taking and giving offense. So-and-so is said to be the worst person to ever hold this office or that; this position taken by so-and-so is the worst affront ever to a righteous cause.
Sometimes tamping down the rhetoric is the best route to a better end. And then, when outrage is appropriate, it can be rightly elevated and addressed.
What would Jesus do? Here’s what he wouldn’t do: Get his shorts in a bunch over a matter that never would have bothered him from the start. Hopefully, no Christian will find outrage in that declaration.
