Last week, we were joined by Andrew DeBerry to chat about innovating finance the Christian way. We discussed the complexity of making financial decisions consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church and the unique mission of investment firm Arimathea: enabling investing without moral compromise. Check out the conversation here!
On the blog this week I want to continue the theme I discussed last week, and I will start with a psychological concept and draw upon the definition offered by Psychology Today:
“Gaslighting is an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true, often about themselves. They may end up doubting their memory, their perception, and even their sanity.”
Gaslighting is antithetical to the truth. And we Christians are and must be for the truth.
In the aftermath of the Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday, 26 July 2024, at which a flamboyant troupe of transvestites performed a bizarre rendition seemingly of the Last Supper with a lone child in their midst, the Christian uproar (not to mention the uproar from Jewish and Muslim communities too!) has met its own counter-uproar. This counter-uproar seems laden with gaslighting.
Christ-haters, anti-Christian activists, “liberal Christians” and self-professed art experts online have instantly become know-it-alls, posting and sharing on social media that the scene which has resulted in such anger was never meant to evoke the Last Supper but rather the Greek god Dionysus (and that if you had studied art history rather than praying to your imaginary or poorly understood God you would know this). Some of the commentary and excuse-making has been, frankly, ignorant and stupid (the very things we Christians are being accused of) and even grosser than the actual performance itself (which, as I wrote last week, was offensive not only because it seems anti-Christian but because it is pedophilic, with a child surrounded by grown men mocking women and womanhood, one of whom was partially exposing his genitalia merely inches away from the child). And, in response to this commentary and excuse-making, many self-professed (some of them perhaps sincere but overreactive) Christians have sadly not conducted themselves well. This makes those of us who are trying to be reasonable and charitable have to work even harder. Christians are not believable when they do not behave like Christians!
The Coffee, Commerce & Catechesis podcast exists to help Catholics specifically, Christians generally and non-Christians potentially navigate the hostile secular world. Thus, my concern in this blog post given the above is to address the following:
Are the Paris 2024 Olympics’ spokespeople, their secular apologists, their anti-Christian comrades and even their “liberal Christian” allies engaging in a form of hostile gaslighting?
And was the (non-)apology issued after the event just “a masterpiece of woke duplicity” (as explained by Bishop Robert Barron)?
As an aside, before I perform an analysis to answer the above questions, I want to note that at the very least a deliberate effort is underway to install an “official version” of this event that exculpates the ceremony organizers and, perhaps, makes the upset Christians look stupid. Clearly, the Paris 2024 Olympics’ spokespeople and the International Olympic Committee (as I will demonstrate below) want to ensure that any future mention of this blasphemy and/or pedophilia will be invalidated, even if only because it is embarrassing for them. Better for them to be able to craft a narrative which allows people to label us Christians as homophobes or transphobes or whatever “phobe” comes next.* (see note at the end of this essay)
Now, to the issues at hand: is gaslighting happening and are we witnessing woke duplicity?
For better or worse, I am an analyst. The only way to succeed as an investment analyst (beyond dumb luck) in the sort of investing I practiced for nearly a decade is to develop a knack for detecting bull****, nonsense, outright lies and half-truths. I had to do precisely that in order to advance in my investment career, and I went from being an analyst (2015-2016) to a senior analyst (2016-2017) to a director (2017-2018) to a managing director (2018-2023) in the investment industry. So I will perform some analysis on the opening ceremony event and the fallout thereafter, looking for any bull****, nonsense, outright lies and half-truths in the stories and statements from the Paris 2024 Olympics, the opening ceremony’s creative director (Thomas Jolly) or the online apologists to assess whether we are indeed being gaslighted and witnessing duplicity...
First, the painting that Jolly is widely presumed to be playing on (i.e., Jan van Bijlert’s “The Feast of the Gods”) was inspired by the Last Supper itself. This is common. There are literally dozens or even hundreds of famous or semi-famous pieces of artwork that drew upon the Last Supper for inspiration in one way, shape or form. We Christians didn’t imagine this connection. The claim that Jolly drawing inspiration from van Bijlert’s painting means it isn’t offensive to Christians is nonsense. The painting itself drew inspiration from the Last Supper! And when I investigated, this is what I found:
Leondardo Da Vinci was a Catholic who “died a Christian death on May 2, 1519, after both Confession and Communion” and his famous painting was completed between 1495 and 1498.
Between 1512 and 1514, Giovanni Bellini first and Titian (who altered the original work) later finished “The Feast of the Gods” which is a painting featuring gods (with Jupiter, Neptune and Apollo among them) reveling in a wooded setting, eating and drinking, attended by nymphs and satyrs.
Around 1600, Hendrick van Balen the Elder seemingly used Bellini and Titian’s piece as inspiration and added a table to his own “The Feast of the Gods.” In van Balen’s painting, the table becomes the focal point where humans and the gods interact.
Finally, between 1635 and 1640, van Bijlert created yet another version of the “Feast of the Gods” using Da Vinci’s perspective of the table, substituting Jesus with Apollo as the focal point of the piece.
This story is incomplete. There are other paintings to be considered in this string (but I cannot exhaust the readers’ time). But, look at these four paintings in sequence...
Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” (completed between 1495 and 1498):
Giovanni Bellini and Titian’s “The Feast of the Gods” (completed between 1512 and 1514):
Hendrick van Balen the Elder’s “The Feast of the Gods” (completed 1600):
Jan van Bijlert’s “The Feast of the Gods” (completed between 1635 and 1640):
As an analyst, I cannot yet render a decision or recommendation. I am not sure whether the Last Supper was directly being mocked or if van Bijlert’s work was indeed the motivation, and thus I cannot yet assess the level of bull****, nonsense, outright lies and half-truths.
But even if I charitably assume that Jolly and/or the other opening ceremony organizers did draw purely on van Bijlert’s work, it is a literal mashup of one of Christianity’s most sacred moments with a scene of bacchanalian debauchery! That alone is provocative and offensive. Is that appropriate for a venue like this?
Second, comments made by other producers of and participants in the event say flatly that the Last Supper was at least one element they were going for (i.e., they refute Jolly and his apologists). At least two of the performers involved said they were aware it was a Last Supper parody, an email to an American reporter from the communications team of the Paris Olympics literally states “Thomas Jolly took inspiration from Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting” (evidence below) and a social media post on the personal account of the woman who was at the very center of the Last Supper scene states “Oh yes! Oh yes! The New Gay Testament!” (evidence also below).
Email from a Paris 2024 spokesperson to journalist Valerie Richardson on 27 July 2024:
Social media post by DJ and producer Barbara Butch (a popular LGBTQ+ personality), who was at the center of the spectacle:
That is pretty conclusive. Any claims of coincidence, misunderstanding, misinterpretation and alternative innocent inspirations are refuted by the very people who should be making those claims. As an analyst, what else could I conclude other than that we are indeed being gaslighted and witnessing duplicity?
Third, multiple reports have claimed the official name for the segment supplied to the media was “La Cene sur la Scene sur la Seine” (i.e., “The Last Supper on Stage on the Seine”). This information is being retroactively scrubbed from the internet, just as the whole video of the incident has from the Olympics’ website. This is not conspiratorial. Media scrubbing happens in China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, etc. every day! Why would we ever assume it does not happen in the West? The real question is: why is it happening? A now-deleted page from Sortir à Paris (a tourism website) apparently stated the opening ceremony would include “a recreation of The Last Supper, another famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, against the backdrop of the Seine” (evidence below). This just strengthens my analytical view that we are being gaslighted and witnessing duplicity.
Now-deleted page from Sortir à Paris:
Fourth (not that it is even necessary now), there are standing historical and cultural conflicts that are so obvious it hardly even warrants mentioning, and these conflicts are particularly pronounced in France. Recall how earlier this year France officially became the first country in the world to guarantee the right to abortion in its constitution (perhaps the most anti-Catholic position a nation can take). These conflicts cast significant doubt on any claim that this was an innocent misunderstanding (albeit of an undeniably perverse scene). LGBTQ+ activists and their social elite allies are currently engaged in what can only be described as a war against perennial religious norms and moral teachings. That war is not against ancient Greek myths. It is against the religion that still opposes it and tempers its activism (on that topic, I highly recommend this excellent recent book by Bishop Peter J Elliott and also this slightly older but equally excellent book by Noelle Mering). Again, we are being gaslighted and witnessing duplicity.
Fifth (and now I am just piling on...), Paris 2024 removed without explanation from its YouTube page the opening ceremony footage and several prominent X (formerly Twitter) accounts alleged they had been told by the International Olympic Committee to remove the opening ceremony video clips for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Further, NBC Universal (i.e., the largest official Olympics broadcaster in the world) likewise removed its footage of the opening ceremony, and if you go to this link (as of 4 August 2024) you can see where the footage is supposed to be. When you click on the links they take you to a completely different and unrelated page. Evidence below. Inevitably, the footage will re-appear sometime... doctored to exclude precisely what we all know they do not want us to see.
On NBC Universal's website, where you should be able to view the opening ceremony footage (screenshot from 1 August 2024):
Click on either link and you get directed here (screenshot from 1 August 2024):
I reiterate: we are being gaslighted and witnessing duplicity.
There is more. I could go on. But I won’t. If you want more, I recommend this video from Jonathan Pageau, who is a renowned liturgical artist. If I haven’t convinced you, he will.
If you are naive enough to believe at face value whatever you are told by people in one of the most anti-Catholic nations on earth scrambling in a public relations crisis scenario to save their jobs and their reputations after they put a group of adult men dressed (barely) as women on stage next to a child and exposed male genitalia within inches of that child, I feel true sympathy for you. Life is complex and requires hard decisions, which are made even harder by the rampant deceit which prevails in our relativistic culture (and which, sadly, even infects some corners of the Church).
Some men are unfaithful to their wives. They lie.
Some employees steal from their employers. They lie.
Some portfolio managers misrepresent performance to their clients. They lie.
Some students cheat on their exams. They lie.
Some priests betray their vows. They lie.
Some politicians rig elections. They lie.
We all know this.
So, yeah, some artists, international institutions, multinational corporations and woke idealogues do deceive, gaslight and behave duplicitously. They lie.
As Christians, we should pray for them. We must do so, in fact. And we must forgive them even if they do not seek it. But, equally, we must not pretend they are not engaging in evil right before our eyes. We must love and defend the truth.
This week on the podcast, we are chatting about fatherhood and preparing for it with our friend Angelo Nwigwe. The rampant lying and perversions in our secular culture discussed above are among the things that give us expectant fathers reasons to be stressed. Hopefully, we will chat about some of the things that give us reasons for hope! Please tune in.
God bless,
Travis
*The thing is, I have yet to meet a single Christian homophobe or transphobe. There are, no question, many people in this world who have shown hatred and unjust discrimination towards same sex attracted persons or intersex persons (both historically and today), but these people are not behaving like Christians nor are they phobic. A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. I have an actual phobia of public speaking, which I received counseling for, medication for and even hypnosis therapy for when I was younger. It is crippling. When I speak in public (which I force myself to do regularly in order to expose myself to the thing I am phobic of), my heart rate accelerates as if I am about to jump off a building, my palms sweat profusely, my vision blurs a little and it is as if I have no control over the words coming out of my mouth. That is a phobic response. I have never even heard of someone who experiences anything remotely like this when they encounter same-sex attracted persons or intersex persons. It certainly does not happen to me when I spend time with the multiple same sex attracted persons in my extended family and social circle, yet I am told by woke warriors that I am definitionally phobic of them because I am committed to my Catholic faith and its perennial moral teachings.
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