The Real Issue with the Drag “Last Supper”

Catholics are going to have a field day with this. I said as drag queens in a pattern akin to the Last Supper splashed across my screen. A wave of heaviness came over me. I was frustrated by the backlash I was sure would follow from Catholic figures, and Saturday morning did not disappoint as I heard words like blasphemy, abomination, and satanic used to describe the event.

I’m angered by Catholics’ responses. We should know better and be better, but the response isn’t surprising. It is merely indicative of a culture of defensiveness that pervades the American Church. Catholicism, just like society, perpetuates the rhetoric of us versus them. The response to the Olympic opening ceremony is another clear example of how the church fails to love those it calls enemies.

When it comes to culture wars, drag queens are often depicted as the epitome of sin by Catholic speakers. They are cited as men confused about their genders dressing up in over-sexualized costumes of women, debasing their dignity as men and mocking the beauty of women. But I wonder how many of those same critics have gone to a drag show or even talked to a drag queen. They’ve clearly never seen one perform in an anything-but-flattering inflatable cow costume—and they’re missing out. If you’re claiming that all drag queens are lude, you’re over-sexualizing them.

But this is why Catholics found the image so offensive. It wasn’t because some people did a rendition of the Last Supper—I posted one with my friends last year without critique—it’s because drag queens did a rendition of it. It’s not that the image is blasphemy; it’s that Catholics view drag queens as blasphemy (or at least the things drag queens do). These people, then, are the image of a woke culture war set to upturn the gender binary and everything Catholics hold to be sacred.

No, what concerns me most is this is how Catholics treat their enemies—with vitriol. We, the Catholics, must defend our faith from the world, as they are set to destroy everything good, true, and beautiful that we are trying to protect. But I’m just reminded of the Pharisees. In order to protect the law, they kept the people from God. In order to keep the faith pure, they’re keeping it from being anything worth loving. It’s us versus them and devoid of mercy.

I’ve heard people say that it was okay that Jesus ate dinner with prostitutes and tax collectors because they weren’t actively sinning. Sure, it caused a scandal, but Jesus didn’t condone their sin. But how many of those tax collectors had pockets full of stolen coins used to finance the dinner they were having? How many sex workers had just come from a job, outfit still askew and smelling of their previous customer? They might not have sinned in front of Jesus, but he still let them bring their sinfulness to the table. We don’t want to imagine a God that would allow this.

We want our God to demand that we ritually clean ourselves before approaching him because that’s a God we can understand; that’s more like how we act. We can’t imagine a God who is content to only wash our feet and say we are clean all over. We can’t fathom a God who would tolerate a drag queen at his communion table. But if Jesus were to appear today, he would be right in the center of that table, and most of his church would be grabbing stones to drive him out of town.

If drag queens are the enemy of the church. If the Paris Olympic Committee is your enemy, then how are you choosing to respond in love? I wish the recent energy spent calling out sacrilege could have been used to show those communities that they are loved and belong in the church. I wish Catholicism could’ve spent that time constructively engaging with the queer community instead of responding in a manner that would only deepen the divide. Even if this image was meant to be explicitly provocative, why would Catholics—who claim to have the King of Love—respond to hatred with a batch of anger. That’s not Christian; that’s just like the world.

The church has forgotten those people they claim are sacrilege are the very people that have a place at the table. Catholics are mad about an image, but Jesus didn’t defend images; he defended people. It’s time Catholics followed their savior’s lead.

Photo by Last Supper according to Patricija