I am beginning to wonder if Christians have Rejection Sensitivity. Are we so expectant of mockery and rejection that we see it even where none is intended?
RSD is extreme emotional sensitivity and pain triggered by the perception that a person has been rejected or criticized by important people in their life. It is really difficult to deal with and often means that I take offense quite easily at a perceived slight or insult, even where none is intended. For me this response is often internalised and results in me shutting down and disengaging. At other times it can be more visible as an impressive, instantaneous rage at the person or situation responsible for causing the pain. Watching the Christian response to the opening of the Paris Olympics feels very much like the latter.
(Edit: RSD is very real and the pain and rejection felt are difficult to deal with. This will also be true for many people who feel slighted or insulted by the Olympic opening celebration. For me the question is what do we do with that hurt once we have calmed down from the initial reaction?)
I’ll be honest, I did not watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics and was surprised to see social media explode with outrage over the “mockery of Christianity”. I have seen a lot of very intelligent people apparently so keen to take offense That they have not actually stopped to consider what it is they found offensive. For many of them I suspect that if someone had not told them it was offensive they would not even have noticed.
I have since gone and at least watched the highlights. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy it, not really my thing. And that’s OK.
Having studied ancient Greece, (including the origins of the Olympics) as well as an entire module on art history (not my favourite) as part of my undergraduate course in History and Literature, it was pretty obvious where the inspiration for the presented tableau came from. In many ways it was quite fitting. The Olympics was closely linked to Mythology and the Greek Gods. Nothing to do with the last supper. The image being used to support this apparent connection is a cropped section from a much larger shot. Finally, Thomas Jolly, the artistic director the opening ceremony, has clearly stated that
"The Last Supper" was "not my inspiration … The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone.”
The official apology from the Olympic committee also reinforces this point, in effect saying we are sorry if you have taken offense, none was intended.
But here’s the thing. Even if this was intended to represent the Last Supper, so what? Look who was represented at the table (well catwalk) Those who are often considered to be outcast from society, who are marginalised and who often are really attacked for who they are. In other words, just the type of people Jesus spent a lot of his time on Earth hanging out with.
If our viewpoint is so narrow that we find this offensive, then maybe we need to zoom out and look at the larger picture and consider for a moment the size of the feast God invites us to join in with. As followers of Christ, we are not called to take offense, but instead to go and invite the outcast and the marginalised to the table. What an opportunity, if only we were not so intent on taking offense and being the victim.
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