Offended?

One of the incidents in the Olympic opening ceremony that caused most controversy was the decision to create a tableau mimicking Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper and featuring drag queens.  The incident was seized upon as offensive to Christian viewers around the world, something that the organisers have since accepted whilst denying that this was intentional. 

I only mentioned it in passing when reviewing the opening ceremony because I didn’t think that this was on its own the biggest problem with the ceremony.  Indeed, I am concerned that much of the outrage seems to be driven by political figures with their own agendas.  We should be wary of those who seek to coopt Christian outrage and grievance for their own culture war agendas. 

Indeed, I think rather than rushing to outrage and condemnation of one incident, we do better to recognise the way in which the whole event offers a window into a Godless, soulless society.  We should be seeing to use the opportunity to share the Gospel.  The opening ceremony showed both the way in which this world longs for the things that only Christ and the Gospel can offer but because it turns away from and rejects Christ, it receives a distorted imitation which cannot satisfy.  In particular, the current desire is for unity in diversity but without Christ there can neither be true unity nor true diversity.

So, whipped up outrage is unhelpful but I also saw some Christians moving quickly in the other direction.  They wanted to argue that we shouldn’t be offended at all.  Some people on social media put the focus on the fact that the artists involved were drag queens. That is understandable because I think that’s where much of the media outrage was. Their argument was that Jesus would not be offended because these were humans, made in God’s imager and so worthy of dignity and loved by Jesus. 

The problem is that this misses the point.  To give another example, when Donald Trump marched out of the Whitehouse to hold aloft a Bible and later had a patriotic edition of the Bible endorsed in his name, many found it offensive.  I suspect that this included many who are now arguing that we should not be offended by what happened in Paris.  Now, I hope that those who found Trump’s actions offensive would have recognised that he was made in God’s image, worthy of dignity.  I hope that they would have seen that as a sinner, he is fallen just like the rest of us but that God’s love is offered to sinners in the Gospel.  This did not take away from the offence of an action that mocked the Gospel by coopting it for another agenda.

Incidentally, I think there was a conflation here of two issues.  A drag artist is not the same as someone who identifies as transgender or transvestite, although there may well be overlap. Rather, it is about a particular type of performance that caricatures aspects of female identity by exaggerating them, often for comedic effect.

Notice too, the implication seems to be that we should never get offended, that to be offended is itself the offence and seems to becoming one of the few recognised, and unforgivable sins among believers.  

Yet is it really such an act of virtue not to be offended? If your spouse, sibling or closest friend were mocked and insulted, then would it be virtuous for you not to take offense on their behalf? Of course, there is the question. Do we worry more about others seeking to mock and offend us or seeking to mock and offend Christ?

Along with the idea that taking offense lacks virtue comes the belief that it doesn’t matter because God isn’t bothered.  Yet, the Bible is clear, first that yes God does take displeasure in idolatry, finding it to be an offensive stench. Indeed, the Ten Commandments point to God’s zeal for his own name and honour.  Meanwhile, whilst idolatry, as a distortion of God’s image is offensive, God is not one who rages helplessly against his belittlers. Rather, Psalm 2 points to the God who sees the nations raging against them and laughs in derision.

So, whilst we do not need to become overworked about these things, we should not pretend that they are not offensive.  A better way is to recognise the offence and to see what God does with it.  Glen Scrivener shared this meme.

This is a reminder that God himself subverts our mockery and offence, using it for his glory and our good in salvation.