The 2024 Summer Olympics, formally known as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, have been overshadowed by intense controversy involving the Opening Ceremonies. Specifically, the Opening Ceremonies featured a scene that either depicted Dionysus (also known as Bacchus), the Greek god of “wine, vegetation, fertility, festivity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre” amidst a pantheon of debauched revelers… or Jesus and His disciples at the Last Supper.
According to NBC’s the Today show, “The sequence included a dinner platter being lifted to show a mainly nude Katerine singing in French. In the background, dancers and drag queens struck poses along a long table. Panning through the tableau, a camera first showed a person crowned with an aureole in front of DJ turntables. The next shot showed the rest of the table lined with performers holding their poses. The table then transformed into a catwalk, as the drag queens and models took the stage in homage to Paris’ fashion scene.”
Speaking to French newspaper Le Parisien, Katerine said that the entire ceremony was “moving” and “grandiose.”
“I was proud of it because it’s my culture. We are full of different people and each person lives in their own way and above all has the right to do so. I loved doing it,” he said. Katerine added that he hoped to get the following message across: “If we are naked, there is no war because there are no weapons.”
For the record, the opening ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, claims that Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was not his inspiration for the performance. “We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that,” he said. “In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country. I didn’t have any specific messages that I wanted to deliver. In France, we are republic, we have the right to love whom we want, we have the right not to be worshippers, we have a lot of rights in France, and this is what I wanted to convey.”
“Dionysus arrives at the table because he is the Greek God of celebration,” Jolly explained, adding that the scene was entitled “festivity.” “The idea was to create a big pagan party in link with the God of Mount Olympus — and you will never find in me, or in my work, any desire of mocking anyone,” Jolly said.
“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” Jolly added. “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”
However, Jolly’s explanation did nothing to quell the outcry, and neither did the following statement from Anne Descamps, the spokesperson for Paris 2024…
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps said. “Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
Well, Ms. Descamps, you can remove the “if people have taken any offense” disclaimer and replace it with “lots of people were offended.” Here are just a few of them that have spoken out about their displeasure:
“To all the Christians of the world who are watching the Paris 2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation,” prominent French right-wing politician Marion Maréchal posted on the social platform X, a sentiment that was echoed by religious conservatives internationally.
“This ceremony has unfortunately included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we very deeply deplore,” the Conference of French bishops said in a statement.
Actress Candace Cameron Bure, whose husband is a two-time Olympic medalist, said that “[To] see the opening ceremonies completely blaspheme and mock the Christian faith with their interpretation of the Last Supper was disgusting,” she said in an Instagram post July 28. “It made me so sad. And someone said, ‘You shouldn’t be sad. You should be mad about it.’ And I’m like, ‘Trust me. It makes me mad.’ But I’m more sad, because I’m sad for souls.”
Even Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova chimed in as did the Anglican Communion in Egypt, which expressed its “deep regret” Sunday, saying the ceremony could cause the IOC to “lose its distinctive sporting identity and its humanitarian message.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson shared an image of the scene on X and said that “Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs place kicker, also quoted the Bible on X after the ceremony. “‘Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting,’” he wrote, citing, “Galatians 6:7-8.”
Here (no pun intended) is the real kicker…
To me, it doesn’t matter whether the scene was a depiction of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” or “The Feast of the Gods”, a 17th century painting by Dutch artist Jan Harmensz van Biljert that hangs in the Magnin Museum, in Dijon, eastern France. Regardless of the intention and the explanation, the scene was completely unnecessary and totally inappropriate for a worldwide audience that included tens of millions of children.
What, pray tell, do drag queens have to do with the Olympics? I have yet to see a man decked out in women’s clothes compete let alone win a sporting event against other biological men… and I pray that I never do.
The International Olympic Committee should keep doing what it does best, which is to provide a venue for the world’s greatest athletes – most of them amateurs – to compete against their peers. The IOC’s Charter includes seven Fundamental Principles and an 18-point Mission Statement, none of which mentions promoting debauchery or sexual depravity.
Let’s keep it that way, folks. The focus of the Olympic Games should be on the world’s greatest athletes, not celebrating and advancing the radical LGBTQ+ agenda.
