Among hundreds of examples, we could listen to Egyptians Protestants. Although we can safely assume that these Christians have plenty of “real” persecution to worry about, they took the time to put out a statement:
We also stress that The Olympic Games ceremonies should never be used as a platform for religious or cultural conflict or for an attempt of offense in any shape or form. On the contrary, these ceremonies should play their historical role in accommodating and encouraging athletes from all over the world, respecting diversity and promoting understanding among peoples, nations and cultures. What happened in Paris strikes the roots of moral values aimed by the athleticism of the Olympic games, We warn that such acts may cause the International Olympic Committee to lose its distinctive athletic identity and humanitarian message.
Today I am in Seoul and I’ll be meeting with thousands of other global leaders at the Lausanne Congress here. In Seoul, I will spend time listening and strategizing, and I have in the lead up to the Congress. In such meetings with our global brothers and sisters, I always walk away convicted and inspired by their courage in mission, dedication of evangelism, and love for historic Christian orthodoxy. Global Christians seem to be better at standing on truth than American believers.
Since I have written much on outrage, both in books and articles, the ending of Cochran’s article was interesting to me:
Whatever the matter, evangelical outrage isn’t a good look on evangelicals, and it doesn’t help its global image one bit. But curating an appealing global image is not what it’s all about anyway. Christians should be first and foremost concerned about being good global neighbors.
I’ve written on the desire some Christians have to feel perpetually persecuted, but an obsession with being “liked” is also a problem. Yet neither of those require us to remain silent when sacred symbols of our faith are mocked in public.
It’s not hard.
A Better Way
As followers of Christ, our interactions with one another should reflect the love and truth of the gospel. We are called in love to reflect Christ’s unchanging truth in our interactions. “Love rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6). The truth is that we believe in a faith of eyewitness testimony. Christians who were offended know what we saw. Other Christians shouldn’t try to convince them they didn’t see it.
As I said in my last article, linked at the bottom:
The New York Times reported (before the confirmation), “‘The idea of the central figure with a halo and a group of followers on either side—it’s so typical of the Last Supper iconography that to read it in any other way might be a little foolhardy,” said Sasha Grishin, an art historian and professor emeritus at the Australian National University.
But that’s just a “foolhardy” American evangelical like me who thinks, “Being Offended by Offensive Things Is Good, Actually.”
You can believe your eyes. And you can believe the planning committee, the performers, and global Christians, like the Vatican—not exactly a bunch of triggered American evangelicals. (The Vatican put out a statement to “join the voices raised in recent days to deplore the offense done to many Christians and believers of other religions.”)
Catholic, Orthodox, Mainline, and evangelical Christians from around the world expressed offense in unison. They don’t need a lecture on how they were misunderstanding ancient pagan mythology. In a sad irony, the evangelicals who pushed back against those who took offense missed an opportunity for joining the united voice of Christians around the world.
Maybe, instead, we should be offended by offensive things—along with the global church.
