Tim Wilson is executive director of independent think tank Maxim Institute and was formerly an award-winning journalist in print, radio and television.
As the culture wars deepen, a particular gambit has emerged. Call it the “Conspiracy Theory Conspiracy Theory”. By this, I mean the incorrect charge that a particular assertion is actually a conspiracy theory or weak thinking.
Such was the tone of many responses to Christian outrage at the “satire” of the Last Supper in the Olympics opening ceremony recently. For the handful of you who missed it, the segment, which strongly referenced Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper (and thus the actual Last Supper before Jesus Christ’s crucifixion), featured drag queens and some blue bloke as pagan deity Dionysus.
Cue: a very natural reaction to the mockery of a sacred moment. Catholic apologist Bishop Barron noted, “Christians were offended because it was offensive. And it was intended to be offensive.”
The response? Outrage about the outrage, plus Conspiracy Theory Conspiracy Theorists. No, these commentators insisted, you’re wrong; the Last Supper wasn’t being trammelled; it was actually about an otherwise little-known Dutch painting named The Feast of the Gods. The real issue? Culture, not faith.
Religious studies professor Anthea Butler, writing for MSNBC, labelled it a “moral panic”, adding, ”… the fact that Christians immediately identified the scene as being the Last Supper suggests an intellectual simplicity and a knee-jerk reaction”.
She continued: “… not understanding the allusions … has coincided with [conservative Christians’] ignorance of art, culture, history and society”.
The sole problem with this well-wrought judgement and “drag-splaining” is the facts.
The tableau in the Olympic opening ceremony was clearly about religion, as Christian critics had averred. Even those performing in the piece knew this.
French DJ Barbara Butch, who played a central role in the segment, proclaimed as much on her social media. She displayed an image of The Last Supper and a collage of the ceremony, calling it “The New Gay Testament”. Later Butch deleted this post, got back on message, and referred to the Dutch painting.
The Olympics offered conflicting explanations, mentioning the Dutch painting in some statements but telling the New York Post the segment’s maker “… took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Last Supper painting to create the setting.”
Perhaps both images were referenced, complicating the narrative… for them.
These reactive attacks on this Christian “conspiracy” are telling. They seek to suppress an emotion now deemed a heresy in our post-faith age: anger at blasphemy. Ironically, the words “conspiracy” and “heresy” are, according to one philosophy lecturer, “used to stigmatise and marginalise people who have beliefs that conflict with officially sanctioned or orthodox beliefs of the time and place in question”.
But you already know this. Our times and our cultural establishment now oppose religious faith rather than being merely neutral on the matter. Moreover, different rules apply to offending invalid (rather than valid) victims. As has been shown, half-truths are duly weaponised. Let the Conspiracy Olympics begin!
No thanks. The next time you’re told Christians (or indeed any other heretics — political or otherwise) got something wrong because they’re thick, lazy, reactive or misguided, please do a little digging yourself.
The whole truth will set you free.