As innocent children watched the lavish opening of the 2024 Olympics in Paris with their parents last Friday night, a moment in the midst of the extravaganza has caused controversy that continues today.
One small part of the opening ceremony of the Olympics included imagery of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting of “The Last Supper,” as a barely-dressed man painted in blue rises from the center to sing as drag queens dance. The scene was a resemblance of a Greek pagan festival celebrating the gods on Mt. Olympus.
Those who created the scene for the opening celebration said it was never meant to mock or offend anyone, but that didn’t stop many Christians from freaking out over the scene with drag queens - one appearing to have his testicles emerging from a dress.
The threat of drag queens on American society has been a recent battle in the culture wars started by right-wing Republicans intent on creating fear that Americans and their children are being sexually attacked by drag queens. This is a false premise and a superficial attempt to create fear over a threat that doesn’t really exist. There are no studies that indicate that drag queens are a greater menace to Americans today than throughout history. Yet, some Americans have fallen for the fake fear that drag queens are a threat. Statistics show that it is the men who dress in men’s clothes, including religious leaders, who pose the real threat to children in America.
The new sensitivity over drag queens certainly added to the outrage over that segment of the opening ceremony that included drag queens. As I said on my talk show, that part of the opening ceremony to the Olympics was tasteless and unnecessary, but there would be no lasting negative impact on children, American society, or Christianity.
During my entire show, I asked listeners to explain what negative impact would result from that part of the opening ceremony. Not one person had any legitimate explanation as to what the actual negative impact would be. Why were people freaking out if there is no negative impact? If you’re going to freak out over something, then it must be because what you are freaked out over is going to have a negative effect. My point was to illustrate that too many Americans are freaking out over things that really don’t matter and really have no negative manifestation on American society or Christianity.
One angry listener called into the show and explained how she was watching with her children and when the scene with the drag queens came on her kids said, “Hey, mom, what’s that?” She said something about how that’s nothing and we’re not going to discuss it and shut off the TV. WOW! Good way to make sure your kids have no curiosity over what they saw. Wouldn’t it have been easier and less alarming to just say, “Hey, kids, those are just men wearing dresses. Isn’t that silly?” and leave it at that? Wonder if the kids talked after mom shut the TV off and wondered why mom didn’t want to talk about that?
I asked the angry caller if she thought her kids might turn gay or start wearing dresses because they actually saw it before she turned off the TV. Her answer: “No, no, no, no!” I thanked the woman for supporting my point that the segment with the drag queens will have NO negative impact on her kids or on American society.
And for those who are offended that the depiction of “The Last Supper” may have not been honored as authentic - let’s be honest and admit that any of the popular depictions of “The Last Supper” are not realistic because if the depictions we see were realistic we would not see a group of white men sitting at the table. The time and geographic location of “The Last Supper” make it nearly impossible for Jesus and the disciples to be white. But that’s a story for another controversy.
One caller to the show said that the drag queen segment of the opening ceremony will have a negative impact because God will be displeased at what was done and His wrath will rain down on America. There are things people do everyday that can be argued are displeasing to God and we don’t proclaim that God will punish us all. That comment reminded me of the religious wackos who say that God will direct hurricanes to hit a city like New Orleans because He is unhappy with the acceptance of homosexuality in the French Quarter. Absurd!
The outrage over that part of the opening ceremony is but a microcosm of how many Americans react to things today. Something that has no impact on American society is elevated to a level of apocalyptic proportions. We have to call this out when we witness it and caution people to stop wasting time and energy on nonsensical bull****!
