Fried Chicken and the Blasphemous Graffito

Knowing the signs of the times

In the late-second century, someone got the smart idea to make fun of a Christian named Alexamenos. He or she scribbled a cartoon onto the plaster wall of a building on Rome’s Palatine Hill. The cartoon depicted Alexamenos worshiping a crucified man with the head of an ass. Its inscription read, “Alexamenos worships his god.” This cartoon is known today as the Palatine Graffito. It is also called the Alexamenos Graffito and the Blasphemous Graffito.

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

At the time of poor Alexamenos’s public ridicule, the cross had not yet become an object of veneration among Christians. Rather, Christian symbolism normally consisted of Old Testament imagery such as Jonah and Noah’s ark. The fish and the anchor were also early Christian symbols. In a Roman world where people were still crucified, the cross was too closely associated with dishonor, torture, and death. Non-Christians certainly wanted nothing to do with it. It was considered the “slave’s punishment,” and the worst way to die. The point of the drawing is to shame Alexamenos. No doubt many people got a good laugh out of the drawing. As we know, Christianity was often subject to ridicule, contempt, and much worse in the second and third centuries.

Today I saw a fried chicken commercial. For a moment it caused me to despair of the Western world, but then I rallied. It depicts a kind of religious ritual with a baptism, only the object of veneration is a giant egg, the baptism is in gravy, and the person baptized comes out as a chicken strip.

No, I’m not making this up. Watch it for yourself. I’ve linked it below.

The video is accompanied by the following… what is it… a hymn?

Do you find yourself lost in the woods of modern life?

Fear not, for salvation in sauce is near.

Trust in the thumping sound of the golden egg.

Trust in the liquid gold elixir.

Trust in the divine dunk.

And whisper the sacred words ‘All Hail Gravy’.

Because there’s some things we can still believe in.

Believe In Chicken.

I mean, for the love of Pete… “The divine dunk” …. As the millennials say, I can’t even.

In a not-unexpected turn of events, some people were disgruntled by this commercial. The Christian Post reports, “According to DecisionMarketing, a U.K.-based news site about advertising, the reason for the complaints about the KFC ad varied, with some alleging it was disturbing for children to see a man apparently drowned, while others were offended that the ad appeared to make light of baptism.” The drowning part didn’t occur to me, but drowning in gravy? Yeah. That’s disturbing. Other critics have suggested that the commercial may promote occultism. I myself would never join a cult, but were I to join one, it would probably have to involve fried chicken, which is one of God’s greatest gifts to humankind. Nevertheless, I am not aware of any such cults, and I suspect the commercial has not contributed to the rise of occultism in the U.K. or elsewhere.

This post isn’t about yelling at the kids to get off my lawn. I’m not losing any sleep over a fried chicken commercial. I am, however, interested in what a commercial like this means. The parody of the sacred ritual of baptism should tell us something. In this case, I think at least part of what it shows is the extent to which Christianity is no longer taken seriously, particularly in the U.K. Would a fried chicken company parody Islam in this way? Fat chance. In the U.K., Islam is taken very seriously, as it should be in light of the speed at which it is growing. Come to think of it, I can’t imagine any other religious tradition getting this kind of treatment.

Christianity, though, is old hat, particularly in those parts of the world that long had state churches. Where Christianity is part of the latticework of civil society, it has tended to become no more significant than the other parts. And where the church once wielded civil authority and the state wielded religious authority, the faith has come to be seen as an authoritarian appendage of the government. Particularly in places that have experienced wars of religion and intense violence between Christian factions, the role of Christian faith has receded dramatically.

Are we again in a time like that of poor Alexamenos? In some ways, yes, and in others, no. History repeats itself, but never exactly. Indeed, it is perfectly acceptable to deride Christians in the public square now. It happens all the time. We shouldn’t feel sorry for ourselves over this. Jesus told us we wouldn’t win any popularity contests by following him. Yet I don’t think the point of the commercial is to mock Christians. Rather, the point is to sell chicken by being funny, and the reaction of Christians to a parody of their most cherished ritual is irrelevant. In other words, the opinions of Christians simply don’t matter very much. With decline has come irrelevance.

As in the second century, however, we must pay attention to the mission field that lies before us. If the Western world is less Christian than it once was, we know our assignment is to change this. Throughout history Christianity has ebbed and flowed in various contexts. Faithful followers of Jesus have always stepped up to face these challenges, often at great expense. If our reputations suffer, if we lose family and friends, if people with whom we once associated consider us strange, that’s okay. Jesus taught, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (Matt 13:45-6). Alexamenos and his fellow Christians bought the pearl of great price. Eventually the faith ridiculed in the Blasphemous Graffito spread across the globe.

It’s important for us to be like the sons of Issachar, who knew the signs of the times. The world has changed rapidly in just a few decades. By facing our context with clear-eyed resolve, however, we can understand more clearly the task before us and get to work in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.