Kristen Gyles | Christianity as the easy target

What some ‘artistes’ can’t say out loud for fear of being accused of hate speech, they vocalise through their music or express openly in other forms of art. It is quite clever. While I wouldn’t ordinarily be able to say libellous things about you without risking a trip to the courthouse, I can sing all my worst insults, true or not, and have the coverage and protection of being able to say “It’s just art”. While I can’t insult Jesus Christ or Prophet Muhammad or most other significant religious icons in my everyday speech without facing major social consequences, I can sing whatever I want about them or paint lewd pictures of them and someone somewhere will remind any complainants that “It’s just art”. At what point does hate speech become artful and no longer hateful?

The organisers of the Olympic games now under way in France made an utter mess of the opening ceremony by creating a controversial display of lewd and obscene behaviour out of what should have been nothing more than a unifying global multi-sport event. One scene in particular triggered widespread backlash from Christians across the globe. The scene appeared to be a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper. The Last Supper is often recalled during holy communion which is intended to commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the depiction of the painting at the Olympics, several drag queens are seen surrounding an individual who supposedly played the role of Jesus. The individual playing this central role is a self-proclaimed lesbian ‘love activist’ identified as Barbara Butch.

Amid the backlash, some people have claimed that the depiction had nothing to do with Christianity and was not inspired by the Last Supper at all, but instead was a recreation of the feast of Dionysus, an ancient Greek festival. This would make sense were it not for a statement from a Paris 2024 Olympics Spokesperson who admitted that the scene was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting and were it not for a now-deleted tweet from Barbara Butch referring to the depiction as the ‘new gay testament’.

DENY

Since the backlash, the creative director for the opening ceremony apologised to those who felt offended by the depiction and claimed there was no intention to mock or offend anyone but rather to send a message of love and inclusion. At this point, the Olympic team began to deny any intention to depict the Last Supper.

Regardless of the motivation behind the scene, why would the opening ceremony of a sports event need to include anything relating to the Last Supper, drag queens, transgenderism or Greek mythology?

But let’s give the French Olympics planning team the benefit of the doubt and assume that perhaps the performance had nothing to do with Jesus. The numerous other examples of so-called artistes using their work to mock and ridicule Christian values and beliefs is disturbing.

For example, Lady Gaga, an American pop artiste released a song in 2011 entitled ‘Judas’. In the song she repeatedly asserts that she is in love with Judas. The video features a man walking around with a crown of thorns on his head, much like the Jesus of the Bible. Lil Nas X, another American artiste, also released a song three years ago titled Montero in which he is seen giving Satan a lap dance as a part of a longer sexual performance in what appears to be a depiction of hell. Earlier this year, he released a song titled J Christ which shows him strapped to a cross and dressed as Jesus.

For some strange reason, Jesus seems to be a hot topic among some of the people who claim to care the least about religion.

DOUBLE STANDARD

What is apparent is a clear double standard in the way free speech is viewed in relation to religion. While it appears that many artistes are confident in mocking and deriding Christian values and deity, it is doubtful that these cowardly artistes would have the courage to make similar artistic displays in relation to other religions or even in relation certain non-religious movements. Instead, in the few instances where artistes are bold enough to disrespect the deity of other religions, they are met with frightful consequences.

For example, throughout 2015, there was a series of deadly attacks starting with the shooting of the Charlie Hebdo magazine based in France that displayed an offensive cartoon of Prophet Muhammed. Roughly 130 persons were killed in association with the attacks over a period of several months.

In 2022, Kanye West (now ‘Ye’) had his Twitter account deactivated twice for posting antisemitic messages including a picture of a swastika inside an image of the Star of David. Other celebrities have faced boycotts and other economic and social sanctions on account antisemitic speech. In many countries, holocaust denial is also considered antisemitism and is punishable by law.

It seems in an effort to chip away at the influence religion holds across the global society, secular powers have found an easy target in Christianity, which in modern times has been the main proponent of the principles of free speech.

While it is obvious that there is a push to promote inclusion, diversity and a global coming together, that coming together seems to exclude Christians. It is almost as if Christians who want to be afforded certain rights and privileges must first distance themselves from their Christian beliefs. Is the Christian religion the easy target?

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com