The majority of people today, especially Evangelical Christians, are unaware of the power of symbols. But this unawareness does not translate to immunity from that power.
Consider the cross. Christians may not agree on what the symbol of the cross means, or whether we should display one at all. But hopefully all Christians would be appalled by an upside-down cross hanging in a friend’s home.
A wedding ring is another symbol. When a spouse loses his or her wedding ring, the marriage isn’t over. Because unlike the One Ring of Power in “The Lord of the Rings”, the marriage isn’t contained in the ring. The ring is just a symbol of the marriage covenant, not the covenant itself.
Finally, when we reflect on the countless corporate logos we’re exposed to every day—all of which are trying to direct our spending habits—it’s clear we’re awash in symbols that shape our daily lives. That last part is key. Whether we like it or not, symbols influence not just our thoughts but our actions, as well.
The Christian Symbolic Language
The Christian faith has its own vocabulary of symbols meant to shape the thoughts and actions of believers. Part of the appeal of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy is their widespread use of symbols such as the Crucifix, statues of Mary, icons, and more. For better or worse, these symbols are meant to communicate theological concepts in a compact and visual form.
Evangelicals generally rejects the use of symbols, and for good reason. Because what I take from a symbol is not the same as what any other person will. That ambiguity is one reason why symbols cannot be an infallible source of authority.
Furthermore, as we read in John 20:29, “Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” Then Paul later writes in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
So for evangelicals who prioritize scripture, faith comes by our ears, not by our eyes. This weakens the emphasis on symbols in favor of written and spoken language. (God did write a book, after all.)
That said, even evangelicals can’t avoid the use of symbols. Instead, we tend towards a slimmed-down vocabulary: the cross, the “ichthys” fish of the early church, the dove to represent the Holy Spirit, and a couple of others.
Unfortunately, evangelical illiteracy toward symbols has wide-ranging effects beyond regulating proper worship and avoiding idolatry. Because there are other symbols that have meaning to Christians as part of our shared cultural heritage, common to all denominations.
All too often, Protestants only discover the value of that heritage once a symbol from it has been misused.
Symbols Rule the World
With that in mind, I can address the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. During that broadcast, Christians worldwide saw a representation of part of our shared symbolic heritage: Leonardo DaVinci’s painting “The Last Supper”, which depicts Christ with his disciples in the upper room on the eve of his betrayal.
While Christians were outraged at what they saw, I don’t think they understood what was happening. They instinctively knew it was bad, and knew they should be mad, both of which were correct responses.
But without comprehending what the moment was trying to communicate, Christians didn’t get mad enough. They saw it as a failing of the Olympic Organizers rather than a failing of the pastors and Christian institutions that have betrayed them for generations—a betrayal which God, once again, bailed His people out of.
Let me explain.
The “Last Supper” performance featured an obese lesbian DJ named Barbara Butch standing in the place of Christ in DaVinci’s famous painting. As her Wikipedia article states, Butch “campaigns for fat acceptance” and “grew up in a traditional Jewish family.”
The choice of Butch, a Jewish female musician, to stand in for Jesus, a Jewish male laborer, cannot have been a coincidence. Surrounding Butch were several drag queens and a pair of homosexual men standing behind a little girl. This motley crew filled out DaVinci’s Upper Room table, implying that homosexuals and transgenders were the disciples of their central Christ-like figure: an obese lesbian wearing a sun-disc halo as a crown.
Afterward, defenders of the performance attempted to claim that the performance was merely a reenactment of a “feast of Dionysus.” But even ESPN acknowledged that the scene was meant to recreate “The Last Supper.”
A Symbolic Faceplant
It’s not difficult to see why Christians would interpret this as a mockery. And I’m pleased that Christians around the world had enough bones remaining in their spinal columns to push back.
BUT…
I also think their reading of the performance misses the mark. Because, following the outrage that accompanied the performance, a strange thing happened. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued a statement saying the Organizing Committee “never [had] any intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief… [I]f anyone was offended by certain scenes, this was completely unintentional and they were sorry.”
Many understandably took this statement to be a lie. You might not believe this but I think the statements are true, insofar as they go. I don’t think the Organizing Committee meant to be offensive. I think they wanted to accomplish something else.
On one hand, yes, they WEREN’T trying to mock the faith. On the other hand, the statement leaves out what I believe they WERE trying to do: lay claim to a treasured Christian symbol, absorb it, and make it one of their own.
Put simply, what Christians witnessed was an Elite attempt to syncretize Christianity into the globalist transgender religion, aka Globohomo. The Elites were trying to say, “This is ours now,” with the new owners being women, gay men, and transgenders accompanied by their favorite audience: little children.
Seen this way, the use of the “Last Supper” imagery wasn’t an offensive mockery of Christ. Rather, it was an attempt to supplant the Risen Lord in His own story, saying in effect, “We appreciate your contribution to humanity, Jesus. But lesbians, gays, and transgenders will be sitting on your throne now. Thank you for your service.” And it backfired spectacularly.
It’s OK to be mad.
With that in view, let’s examine how we got here, and what Christians should be prepared to do about it.
Earlier I referred to symbols as a “vocabulary,” which is what they are: a visual language. Like any language, a word or phrase that a faithful pastor uses in a sermon can be the same word or phrase used by a dictator in a speech. The meaning depends on who is using that piece of vocabulary and what they’re trying to communicate.
Last Friday night, I believe the Elites co-opted a piece of Christianity’s proprietary symbolic vocabulary to communicate their own message of dominion:
“This is our savior (a lesbian woman) and these are her disciples (gays, transgenders, and children). We are the doorway to earthly salvation now. Worship us.”
So while it’s appropriate that Christians were mad, again I don’t think they were nearly mad enough. Because what we witnessed wasn’t a mockery; rather it was an attempted false coronation.
By the sheer grace of God that coronation was bombed out beforehand, rained out during, and blacked out after. So the failure was total.
Nonetheless, the Elites still tried.
I think they only felt brazen enough to do so because Christians have retreated from the Western cultural sphere so far, so fast, that we left our symbols behind. It’s a bit like President Biden’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan that left more than $7 BILLION dollars of American military hardware remaining in the country for the Taliban to use.
Christians and our institutions have done the same thing with our symbols, many of which form the core of Western identity and culture.
So the question must be asked: do Christian men, women, pastors, and institutions have the warrior fortitude to reclaim what’s ours? Please note this isn’t the same question as Christianizing the government or corporations. This is a reclamation of our symbolic language: it was ours to begin with!
Are we willing to tell unrepentant degenerates that the idea of a Savior, His disciples, and a heavenly crown belongs to one man and one man only—the God-Man Jesus Christ—and that He tolerates no pretenders to His earthly throne?
For those who prefer to believe “this world is not our home,” I ask: does Christ get to claim dominion over even His own story on this side of heaven?
Or will Christian institutions and leaders—in the name of Pietistic Gnosticism and urban “winsomeness”—continue to blanche at hurting the feelings of fat women and gays who are playing with our symbolic language like a child plays with matches?
Because God, in His infinite mercy, clearly lit the Elites on fire this time. Next time, we might not be so blessed.
