It’s the Last Supper as you’ve never seen it before. The participants aren’t much interested in eating, more how macho they look in their leathers and other assorted gear, with a gorgeous red dildo on the table in front of them (as well as other assorted, well, things that polite people don’t talk about).
What it is is an ad spoofing Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, not, as some critics would have it, taking the mickey out of the Last Supper itself.
The ad is for the Folsom Street fair in San Francisco, due to take place on Sunday. It’s a just a big get-together for the gay community. Sounds like a lot of fun for gays and straights alike.
A sort of raucous street party with knobs on.
But no fun if you’re a frothing-at-the-mouth Christian who just can’t stand the idea that someone might want – mildly – to take the piss out of a painting that depicts something that may or may not have happened, but, anyway, is itself depicted in a story in a book.
“In response to the ad,” says Crosswalk.com, which carries the story, “Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth (AFT) – an organization that says it aims to expose and counter ‘the homosexual activist agenda’ – said the homosexual movement contains a strong anti-Christian element.”
Well, that’s hardly surprising when you consider where most of the antigay venom comes from. The story continues:
However, Folsom Street Events, the non-profit organization putting on the 24th annual Folsom Street Fair next weekend [30 September], put out a press release that indicated the design “is the first in a series that draws from well-known paintings, album covers, movie posters or other iconic images”.
Andy Copper, president of the group’s board of directors, said there was no intention “to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to be reminiscent of the Last Supper painting”.
There you go, then – no harm done.
However, Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the conservative Family Research Council (FRC) was not a happy bunny.
He said that using The Last Supper to promote the event was “a very bad idea, and it’s naïve of them to suggest that this is only a take-off of a work of art and think that it would not be offensive to people who worship the central figure in that work of art, namely Jesus Christ”.
Tell that to the pagans whose festivals and images Christians bagged and incorporated a few centuries ago in order to get them on side.
Anyway, parody and spoof have, like the poor, always been with us. It’s usually harmless and “victims” take it on the chin. Some Christians, it seems, can’t even turn the other cheek.
UPDATE: US Catholics are now calling for a boycott of the brewer Miller because it is part of the event’s sponsorship and its logo appears on the publicity material. You can read the story in the Pink News.
Bill Donaghue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, called for the boycott of Miller on the US breakfast show Fox and Friends this morning. He said the fair is “an incredibly outrageous and palpably anti-Christian event”.
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The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 28th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
“an incredibly outrageous and palpably anti-Christian event”
Yeah, but what did he say was bad about it?
Ooooo. I’m going to hell.
September 29th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
There are plenty of bigots on both sides of this controversy.
“Anyway, parody and spoof have, like the poor, always been with us. It’s usually harmless and “victims” take it on the chin. Some Christians, it seems, can’t even turn the other cheek.”
Christians can parody too. Look at the silly Folsom Street Fair press release, which you quoted.
http://www.folsomstreetfair.co.....?relNum=77
And compare it with my parody:
September 25, 2008
FOLSOM STREET EVENTS™ LAUNCHES POSTER DESIGN FOR 25th ANNUAL FOLSOM STREET FAIR™
Poster image draws inspiration from the annual Islamic Hajj, in a poster entitled: Masjid al-Harem.
Folsom Street Events has released its latest poster design for the 25TH Annual Folsom Street Fair. This year, the official poster, drawn by renowned artist Theo van Gogh, uses well-known community members as players in a strikingly original interpretation of the annual, worldwide pilgrimage to Mecca. The poster is the second in a series that draws from well-known paintings, album covers, movie posters, or other iconic images. Community members celebrate exuberant sexuality by donning their S/M regalia, and dancing around not the Kaaba, but a 10 story phallus.
According to Andy Copper, Board President, “We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this poster, and we are looking forward to a particularly inspirational event season. There is no intention to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to celebrate the sacred roots of raw sexuality. It is a distinctive representation of diversity with women and men, people of all colors and sexual orientations. Just as Mecca draws people of all races throughout the world, we hope people from all continents will come come celebrate with us!”
Folsom Street Events acknowledges that many of the people in the leather and fetish communities are spiritual and that this poster image is a way of expressing that side of the community’s interests and beliefs. This year, Folsom Street Fair is dedicated to “San Francisco Values,” previously used against the San Francisco community for its support of sexual diversity and now used by Folsom Street Events as a way to reclaim power by the fetish community.
Andy Copper, adds “We hope that people will enjoy the artistry for what it is – nothing more or less. Many people choose to speculate on deeper meanings. This is one artist’s imagining of a pilgrimage that is at one both sexual and sacred - all we did was adopt the iconography of Mecca and make it our own. The irony is that homosexuality has a long and wonderful history in Islam. In truth, we are going to produce a series of inspired poster images over the next few years. Next year’s poster ad may take inspiration from American Gothic by Grant Wood, the flag raising at Iwo Jima, or even Raphael’s ‘The School of Athens’ - community members are already preparing for roles in that one!”
When asked about the murder of the poster artist, Theo van Gogh, and the worldwide rioting that has claimed dozens of lives, Copper said: “I guess it wouldn’t be Folsom Street Fair without offending some extreme members of the global community, though.”
February 20th, 2008 at 3:24 am
A careful read of any well-done biography or history of Da Vinci will reveal that the church intensely disliked his depiction of The Last Supper. So why now is it considered a “holy relic?”