CV NEWS FEED // According to Catholic apologist Casey Chalk, the now-infamous Olympic drag “parody” of the Last Supper is not a manifestation of the secular world’s efforts alone, but of the rising percentage of pro-LGBT Christians who have shed belief in traditional views on sexuality.
“As much as drag artists reenacting Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” is offensive to Catholics who adhere to the Church’s teaching on sexuality,” Chalk wrote in a July 29 op-ed published in Crisis Magazine, “terming this a ‘mockery’ to Christians the world over fails to fully interpret the meaning and significance of the event.”
The show does not merely “ridicule” Christianity, Chalk asserts. “The drag show was performance art in service of political and theological goals: namely, to co-opt Christian imagery in the service of the sexual revolution and its progeny.”
As Chalk points out, many Christians across denominations share this goal.
Citing Catholic organisations such as DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry, Chalk notes that there are millions of self-professed Catholics who have adopted increasingly progressive views regarding homosexuality and the extent to which the Church should embrace it.
Beyond this, Chalk continues, many Protestant denominations across the US such as the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, and the United Church of Christ all “expressly affirm gay marriage.”
The United Church of Christ notably features an article on its website, “Drag Performance as Worship and Praise,” Chalk adds.
Therefore, he said, the Olympic drag show embodied the principles of a status quo that has well established itself in the Catholic Church and across Christian denominations: that Christianity is not only compatible, but can also act conscientiously in service of the sexual revolution.
Ultimately, he concluded, the Olympic ceremony’s sexual parody of the Last Supper “weaken[s] Christian witness in the public square by demystifying the Eucharist of its holiness and the special respect even non-Christians [had once been] inclined to offer it.”
