Drag Queens vs. Drama Queens
When Christians cry out in offense, does God care?
This week, an atheist friend posed this question.
Religious people (of all faiths) reading this:
There are a number of you that I hold in the highest regard, and I have a genuine question (and if you answer, you almost certainly have an attentive audience here):
Was your god offended by the Olympic opening ceremony? Regardless of whether the answer is yes or no, can you help us understand why you hold that belief?
I had to answer, of course, because I appreciate good faith dialogue across religious (and especially irreligious) boundaries, and also because I had some things to say about Christians who are Drama Queens in public space.
To steal a line, I was living in a powder keg and giving off sparks.1
Many Christians had spent the week shouting, “This event was a mockery of God,” but was that really the case?
Was the 2024 Olympic Ceremony really mocking God, and would God really be offended by it if it were?
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Here is an expansion of my semi-random thoughts to my atheist friend:
1. Christians being offended ≠ God being offended.
While many Christians seem to feel the need to block and tackle on behalf of an Almighty with seemingly adolescent emotions, I tend to think that the God who supposedly spun it all into existence probably isn’t as easily offended by a bunch of random Drag Queens on a Friday in France as many Christians would like to believe.
2. Christians should be unoffendable.
Dallas Willard (a leading Christian thinker of the 20th Century) said that “a mature Christian is someone who is very difficult to offend.”
What causes someone to be offended? Often,
They have unhealed emotional or psychological issues related to past experiences.
They perceive that their honor, personal or ideological beliefs, or public image are being threatened.
They are self-conscious about something.
Their emotional state, in general, is negatively impacted by excessive news and social media consumption, unhealthy lifestyle habits, undiagnosed or under-treated mental health conditions, etc.
They simply have the mental habit of taking things too personally and may struggle to consider things from someone else's point of view.2
In a word, insecurity. Last year, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist April Eldemire pointed out that people who are “insecure will constantly see other people's actions (or inactions) as a threat…,” and this seems unfortunately true of Christians these days.3
3. Was God Offended?
No. This is a ridiculous thing for any Christian to say if they know the story of their faith. The problem is that Christians don’t know their own story.
No, God was not offended by Drag Queens doing performance art of a painting featuring men in dresses by a gay man.
Some of the Bible’s greatest heroes were queer men. There is a compelling argument from the biblical texts, Hebrew language usage, and Jewish Midrash that Joseph (sold into slavery) was queer. Even his “ketonet passim” (coat of many colors) is a hint of it, with the only other usage of the word in 2 Samuel 13 where it is said that “this was the kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore.”4
There is strong evidence that King David was bi-sexual and had a sexual relationship with his friend Jonathan.
Eunuchs (among which Nehemiah was most assuredly numbered) were so prized among ancient royal courts that many were castrated before adolescence and intentionally raised as third-gender/non-binary individuals. Having not experienced chemical adolescence, they would literally look neither fully male nor fully female, and they were certainly treated as neither. Desired by Kings but rejected by the community, Jesus himself affirms Eunuchs and (by association and Intersex individuals in Matthew 19.
In short, God is clearly okay with breaking traditional “norms” in sexuality and gender. Even without Joseph, David, and Nehemiah, Jesus sets the record straight on God’s nin-binary world. And this should not surprise us, the Bible teaches about a God who is non-binary (neither make nor female) and lives in tri-unity as three in one.
God wouldn’t have thought twice about Drag Queen performance art, IMHO. Besides, God has a universe to run, right!? … who has the time for Christian nonsense?
Certainly not God.
God’s been avoiding Christian nonsense for nearly 2000 years at this point… and maybe if Christians would get their act together and end the nonsense, he’d come back.5 😉
God was not offended by the supposed mocking, IF that was even the intent.
Let’s assume that it WAS the intent of the Olympic Ceremony to mock. And let’s also assume that it was the worst version of the mocking: i.e., that the performance art in question was a take on a wedding at which Dionysus, the God of Wine, has replaced the wine/bread of the Christian Eucharist, and Apollo (God of the Sun) has replaced Jesus (the Son of God).
In this “mocked” version of the Last Supper painting, a pagan God is giving out wine for hedonistic pleasure rather than as a symbol of sacrifice (as Jesus intended it). Even in this “worst take” on the Opening Ceremony, I just don’t think God cares that much.
I much prefer to think God is spending his time moving along the process of evolution or natural selection to get rid of Christian nitwits who get offended every time someone does something of which they do not approve.
I mean, Jesus (who is said to also be God, in human flesh) is known for his first miracle being the transformation of water into wine. A close reading of the text shows that it is actually Jesus/God’s closest friends (the disciples) who ran the wedding out of wine.
Jesus and entourage arrive; the wine evaporates.
So Jesus creates more wine for the hedonistic pleasure of already drunk people, and the text says that it is the best (most potent) wine imaginable!
God seems to not mind a little hedonism. Which, again, shouldn’t surprise us. The original story in the Jewish and Christian canon involves Eden, a lavish garden of delights where God waves his hand with a flourish and says: “Enjoy!”
“Eat, Drink, and Be Merry” is a line from the Bible, not Shakespeare, you know.
4. Is it okay to mock God?
This one is tricky. But let me be clear, Paul seems to indicate a firm “No.”
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” — GALATIANS 6:7
But before we pack up our crayons and move along, we should pause for just a moment and be certain that we understand the mocking of which Paul speaks. Because Paul has just walked through a very intriguing series of situations before he states that God cannot be mocked.
Paul is speaking to Christians in the Church at Galatia. So when he is speaking of a group being deceived, he is not speaking of Drag Queens, the LGBTQ+, or any other “worldly” groups. No, he is speaking to Christians's capacity to be deceived and, thus, mock God.
Paul gives a list of ways that Christians mock God, and it’s pretty direct (which is kind of Paul’s M.O.):
Divisiveness that leads to the shunning of others who are thought to be living in sin.
Arrogant church leaders and influencers.
Comparing one’s righteousness with another’s.
The outright ugly treatment of teachers.
Paul says that all of these are true mocking of God, and if you sow that kind of thing, Paul says, don’t be surprised when you reap bad things in return
... like the ire of a world tired of Drama Queens lashing out at Drag Queens for no godly reason.
TL;DR — “There is no such thing as bad publicity” (PT Barnum). If it weren’t for all the Christians going freaking insane, God would probably be pretty thankful for all of this free press.
Total Eclipse of the Heart, song by Bonnie Tyler
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/couples-thrive/202306/are-you-easily-offended?eml
Ibid.
2 Samuel 13:18
This is a joke. Calm down.