July 30, 2024
“Just turn the TV off!”
That’s the advice Whoopi Goldberg gave in response to Christians outraged by the apparent depiction during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony of da Vinci’s The Last Supper by a troupe of drag queens. First of all, Goldberg explains, it wasn’t meant to be the Last Supper. It was a portrayal of a different painting, “The Feast of the Gods,” by Dutch painter Jan van Bijlert. Secondly, if it offends you, “just turn the TV off,” Goldberg said to applause from The View audience.
The debate will continue as to whether the scene was meant to parody da Vinci’s The Last Supper. One drag queen who participated in the depiction explained that they were not attempting to portray Jesus himself, although they were recreating the famous scene with Jesus’ apostles around the table, in order to bring a new perspective.[1] My own hunch is that the portrayal was always meant to be a both-and, with a Dionysian feast as the primary context which included a subtle parody of the Last Supper.
But honestly, my own view of whether the Paris opening ceremonies meant to mock The Last Supper or not is unimportant. That’s a debate for social media, and candidly, I wouldn’t care if you align with me on that debate or not.
Instead, I’d like to take another look at Whoopi Goldberg’s second point: If you don’t like something that’s on TV, just turn it off.
Is that good advice?
“If it offends you, ‘just turn the TV off,’ Goldberg said to applause from The View audience.”
I suppose that, whether it’s good or bad, we all obey it in our own ways. As Christians, if there’s a movie that has content we don’t want in our minds, we don’t go to that movie. If we start watching a TV show but realize that it consistently mocks our faith and convictions, we’ll turn it off. Should it be any different when it comes to Olympic opening ceremonies? It’s not as though anything happened during those ceremonies that isn’t already happening on any streaming service (excepting PureFlix or Angel Studios).
And yet, even though I turn off the TV, I am uncomfortable with Goldberg’s logic. I’m uncomfortable because I’ve seen the same logic used to muzzle Christians over all manner of ethical issues. You don’t like the idea of same-sex marriage? Then don’t get married to someone of the same sex. You don’t like the idea of porn? Then don’t watch it. You don’t like the idea of abortion? Then don’t have one.
What this logic fails to acknowledge (but doesn’t fail to notice) is that with every muzzled conviction, the world changes a bit more. When we go cold on one of our convictions, a sort of “convection” occurs in the culture. Convection is what happens when you boil water and the cold water sinks to the bottom as the hot water rises and bubbles to the surface. Intersectional feminists have long called for society to bring marginalized voices to the center, and to de-center traditional voices. Applied to sexuality and gender, this means that we need to bring the voices and convictions of homosexuals, pansexuals, bisexuals, transgender people, etc. to the center and dial down traditional Christian beliefs. What’s being called for is a convection of sorts in which Christian convictions go cold and sink to the bottom and LGBTQ+ views of sexuality and gender rise to take their place.
“What’s being called for is a convection of sorts in which Christian convictions go cold and sink to the bottom and LGBTQ+ views of sexuality and gender rise to take their place.”
In other words, “Just turn the TV off” doesn’t tell even a fraction of the full story. The picture it paints is of a world going on as it always has, much like your hometown’s ice cream parlor where there will always be a similar assortment of flavors to choose and not choose from. What that logic doesn’t clue you in on is that, when you’re told to turn off your TV and made to feel guilty for keeping it on and getting angry, if you obey that logic, your convictions will sink further into a dark oblivion where they are meant to die.
I’m just as uncomfortable with red-faced, outraged social media posts as you probably are. But we’ve got to remember that there are powerful people who aren’t merely trying to rock a Christian’s individual world; they’re trying to reshape the world to where convictional Christians no longer fit. And before you respond with something like, “Well, were we ever supposed to belong in this world? This world is not our home, after all,” please remember that true prophets never let the places they lived, whether Israel or Babylon, go to hell without warning it with truth.
I remember reading about how in the 1790s a group of Jacobins marched to Notre Dame Cathedral and “enthroned a dancer of doubtful morals as the ‘goddess of reason.’”[2] I can imagine the response of infuriated Christians for whom Notre Dame had always been a bastion of Christianity. And I can imagine the response to the outrage: C’mon, Christians, you shouldn’t get angry. Just don’t watch, got it? But the problem with that logic is that powerful people were changing the French world in all sorts of ways, such that “look away” really means “go away.” If you want to get philosophical about it (probably not, but here we go anyway), their world was changing ethically (“a dancer of doubtful morals”), metaphysically (a “goddess”), and epistemologically (“goddess of reason”).
And here we go again.
“I remember reading about how in the 1790s a group of Jacobins marched to Notre Dame Cathedral and ‘enthroned a dancer of doubtful morals as the goddess of reason.'”
So, don’t let anyone make you feel like it’s somehow unchristian to call evil evil (Matthew 15:19). And don’t ever feel guilty for grieving over peoples’ lostness and impending judgment (Luke 19:41-44). And yet, do feel free to turn off the TV. But not to tune out the changing world, but to do what you can in your corner of the world to change it in a Godward direction. Our best efforts in really moving the needle are to change minds and hearts, one at a time, through making disciples by baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Jesus taught us. We challenge the corrupt and grotesque not by fixating on it but by “contemplat[ing] the Lord’s glory” and “being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV). A confused world shouldn’t have to settle for seeing a parody when we can show them the real thing.
[1] Par Marie Poussel, Florian Niget, and Camille Ducrocq, “Polémique sur la Cène lors de la cérémonie : « Personne n’était habillé en Jésus », se défend la drag-queen Piche,” July 21, 2024, Le Parisien, https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/polemique-sur-la-cene-lors-de-la-ceremonie-personne-netait-habille-en-jesus-se-defend-la-drag-queen-piche-27-07-2024-SEML2J73VNBVHHCTSTWKOHE6CA.php.
[2] Wayne Detzler, “Europe in Revolt,” in Introduction to the History of Christianity, ed. Tim Dowley (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 509.
