A series of serious misunderstandings has led to an uninformed outcry in the Christian West over a short scene in the Opening Ceremony at the Paris Olympics, writes Cathy Vogan.
By Cathy Vogan
Special to Consortium News
The moral outrage spread like a bush fire across social media from right-wing to left-wing politicians and many people in between: They asked how dare the organizers of the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympic Games insult millions of Christians around the world by making a mockery of the Last Supper, one of the holiest events in the Christian calendar?.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson lashed out:
“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)”
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… pic.twitter.com/s88c9ymG9j
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 27, 2024
Left-wing talk-show host and British politician George Galloway referred to the performance as an “offensively queer last supper,” citing from the blog of French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who also condemned the mockery of Leonardo’s Last Supper and thus, the Christian faith.
The Olympics and the offensively queer last supper. Tottering on the brink of all-out war in Lebanon. Not just Biden’s brain is missing. Where is the president? Follow @MoatsTV #Olympics #France #Biden #LastSupper https://t.co/PzMJgPfgSF
— George Galloway (@georgegalloway) July 28, 2024
It is unclear however whether some were more angered at the perceived blasphemy or other issues, such as the weight of a central character in the tableau and trans performers.
She gonna be the face for Ozempic now? pic.twitter.com/NxErqNg4Gp
— Petey Jones(same on truth) (@petejonesintx) July 28, 2024
A scantily clad bearded man dances provocatively at France's Olympic opening ceremony.
Why are they trying to normalise this filth?
How far the West has fallen. pic.twitter.com/dTHTSyqEOh
— Turning Point UK ?? (@TPointUK) July 26, 2024
Further adding to the perception of many, inspired perhaps by those with wide reach on social media, Maltese Archbishop Charles Sciclunan wrote to the French ambassador to Malta, complaining about the mocking of Jesus.
Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna has written to the French ambassador to Malta, expressing his distress over the act that mocked Jesus’ Last Supper during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. pic.twitter.com/hSou7WH1sD
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) July 27, 2024
Comparing the controversial segment of the Parisian Olympic opening ceremony to the Bolshoi ballet’s performance at the 2014 Sochi games, an attitude was expressed that this is how it ought to be done: traditional European culture with bodies as disciplined, fit and elegant as the athletes, even if Russian, banned from the Paris games.
Speculation about what was really going on here even included cannibalism.
London 2012 was also a Satanic feast. Let’s compare with 2014 at Sochi. I would rather see the tacky pre-revolutionary Petersburg soirée than “Lady” Gaga and then a perverted Last Supper of Spirit-cooking, I.e. cannibalism! pic.twitter.com/NyzmSJbndU
— FelixtheBlack.Cat????? ??? (@FelixTheBlackC4) July 27, 2024
The problem is that the fundamental(ist) assumption behind the outrage is not true. The tableau is not a scene from the Last Supper. The characters in the skit are not even sitting at a table. It is a fashion show runway.
The living tableau, pictured at the start of a catwalk performance, is not based on Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, but on Jan Harmensz van Biljert’s Feast of the Gods, which was painted around 1635, said Thomas Jolly, the opening ceremony artistic director.
He told French TV: “The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone.”
The Games’ official account on X said: “The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.”
‘Apollo’ making a heart symbol against violence. (9Now Screenshot)
The reference is to painterly depictions of the Greek gods – unsurprisingly within the context of an Olympic ceremony.
The Musée Magrin in the south of France, where van Biljert’s painting is exhibited, describes the scene thus:
“The gods have assembled on Mount Olympus for a banquet to celebrate the marriage of Thetis and Peleus… Apollo, wearing his crown, and identifiable by his lyre, presides at the centre of the table… The Satyr dancing on the table and Bacchus lying in the foreground, holding a bunch of grapes above his mouth…”
The scene played out is not that of Jesus with his disciples at the Last Supper, but rather the Greek god Dionysus at a Bacchanalian feast, although the museum’s website does include an interpretation that Biljert’s painting “disturbingly blends the iconography of myths with that of the Last Supper.”
Reuters reported:
“Thomas Jolly, the artistic director behind the flamboyant opening ceremony, said the scene had not been inspired by ‘The Last Supper’ and depicted a pagan feast linked to the gods of Olympus.”
TIMES WHEN CHRISTIANS CARED WHO RECREATED THE LAST SUPPER:
Once… because, drag queensTIMES WHEN THEY COULDN’T HAVE CARED LESS: pic.twitter.com/oxmQRXKFdn
— Dr. Kevin M. Young (@kevinmyoung) July 27, 2024
The character of Dionysus, as portrayed by French singer Philippe Katerine, is not completely naked, as some commentators have claimed. His costume is inspired by “Les Schtroumphs” (“Smurfs” in English), French Belgian cartoon characters who led a simple life, and ‘Asterix the Gaul’, who cleverly resisted the invading Roman Empire.
The ceremony’s entertainment is not only about Greek but French history, and Mélenchon at least acknowledges the latter by complaining about too much focus on (“Let them eat cake!”) Marie Antoinette, rather than her husband King Louis XVI who dictated the policy that starved the poor – and was also guillotined during the French Revolution. There’s a message for the world there for sure.
This is the original painting of Feast of Gods (in Olympia) by Van Biljert that inspired the show. And yes, it was common to depict Appolo with an enlighten crown. So all Last Supper believers should get a life… ? pic.twitter.com/mJH7VbYuQO
— franck bayard (@vinnouveau) July 28, 2024
A shame no attention was paid to the anti-war song Katerine was singing, his latest hit entitled Nu (Naked), whose lyrics begin with:
“Would there be wars if we’d stayed completely naked? No
Where would you hide a gun when you’re completely naked?”
Cathy Vogan is a filmmaker and executive producer of CN Live!
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
No one asked what Jesus might think. If He embodies the qualities attributed to Him, it is plausible that He would not mind at all; in fact, he would even enjoy it. While diversity in expression may not resonate positively with some individuals or the majority, it nonetheless constitutes a legitimate form of expression for those who cherish it. Diversity of expression represents an exchange of ideas that enriches our collective experience.
Unfortunately, much of contemporary art has become subservient to political agendas and propaganda, thereby diminishing its intrinsic value; the politicization of sport is what gives the opening ceremony a grotesque appeal.
The foundations of our deeply entrenched xenophobia can be traced back to Christian doctrine.
Even today’s “progressive ideologies” have evolved from Christian tenets, revealing a degree of prejudice, hypocrisy, manipulation, apocaliptysm, among progressives, who often view themselves as superior – akin to zionists – endowed with the power to kill and destroy, to “purify” the world from “evil”.
Many liberals, progressives, whatever you call them (all the same when it comes to wars and violence), lacks the ability or willigness to accept, respect, love individuals or cultures that do not conform to their narrowly defined notions of humanity, absoluteness, and good.
Furthermore, Christianity has propagated a misinterpretation of Jesus’s message, with the symbol of the cross representing a distortion of His essence—symbolizing instead, human bestiality, malevolence, and narcissism.
Jesus would not have wished for the cross to serve as a reminder of His existence, his symbol (perhaps the circle would have best represented him); rather, He would have preferred being remembered for His boundless love, forgiveness, openness, and transcendence instead of His suffering and pain. His desire would be for us to partake in His joy and love through transcendence rather than share His agony and pain.
He would encourage us to focus on the inherent beauty within humanity rather than on its associated ugliness and “evil”—the true ruler of this world.
If the Christian Church had genuinely represented Jesus’s teachings, there would be no outrage surrounding events such as the Olympic opening ceremony; there would be no conflict in Ukraine and Gaza (a liberal-progressive wars – a fight for democracy); we would not be engaged in discussions about nuclear war or viewing Russia and China as adversaries, we would not have rich elites and hypocritical and prejudicial politics… we would live in a different world, our lives well lived and spent without the need of much riches and military security.
2000 years later and Jesus’ words are still lost in translation.
Our culture DNA appears rooted on sado-masochism, fear and violence, and that is why we accumulate beyond needs, we seek to control everything under the pretext of fighting evil, but evil is within us and you cannot fight it by projecting it into others, it just makes it stronger
What a lot of noise about an event. One event in gazillion events occuring right now. It would be wonderful if all the rest of the world was peaceful and bambis were gamboling in the fields, but there are real things going on and it is up to us to push our many western countries’ governments to stop supporting genocides and to stop sending weapons – period, and money to the corrupt puppets in Ukraine and holding the reconstruction monies until the Ukrainian government holds an election, appoints a negotiator and speak to Russia. No matter what one believes about that war/SMO, ending the murder of the population of Ukraine just for the hegemon and its vassal western leaders to enjoy enslaving the rest of the world. Then of course, all the western countries will apologize to the rest of the world for trying to start WWWIII because it’s easier to suck the life out of the non-OECD countries in order to ensure our billionaires are kept like kings and queens while we cannot afford our rents, food, transportation or the bills that come due monthly. Why do we care about overweight individuals other than their humanity or blue actors other than their humanity, nor any persons other than their humanity if they do not wish harm on others. I was far more disturbed that they are holding the water events IN THE SEINE! The Seine, regardless of the work the city has done to vastly improve it, is still far too polluted to hold triathlon and marathon swimming. Raw sewage from the city is still flushed into the river and the day of the triathlon, apparently the bacteria was well over the European limits for safety. These are the things we need to do and brainstorm together on how to change the direction in which our countries are moving to our own destruction – the chaos being sown will not bring us anything but grief. We will be what we have been calling small countries that invariably have “dictators” that will not listen to what the USA tells it. You know it as third world, or in your former president’s words “shithole country.” Only all of our nations will fall to this future unless we rise up and challenge our politicians. Piles of land don’t vote – people do and we have to let them know we mean business – we want our needs fulfilled, not those of the military, hedge funds, corporate greedheads nor even grifting pols themselves.
Stop arguing about the little distractions they throw at us to distract us and let us have a real communication event where we learn about each other enough to ensure we do not burn, nuke, pollute, or war on our planet. We have too much real work to do and far too little time to save our world from ourselves.
No one asked what Jesus might think. If He embodies the qualities attributed to Him, it is plausible that He would not mind at all; in fact, he would even enjoy it. While diversity in expression may not resonate positively with some individuals or the majority, it nonetheless constitutes a legitimate form of expression for those who cherish it.
This diversity represents an exchange of ideas that enriches our collective experience, regradless, as long is bound on respect.
Unfortunately, much of contemporary art has become subservient to political agendas and propaganda, thereby diminishing its intrinsic value; this phenomenon evokes what I perceive as a grotesque appeal.
The foundations of our deeply entrenched xenophobia can be traced back to Christian doctrine. Even today’s progressive ideologies have evolved from Christian tenets, revealing a degree of hypocrisy and manipulation among many progressives who often view themselves as superior. They exhibit an inability to accept individuals or cultures that do not conform to their narrowly defined notions of absoluteness and universality..
Furthermore, Christianity has propagated a misinterpretation of Jesus’s message, with the symbol of the cross representing a distortion thereof; representing human bestiality and egocentrism. Jesus would not have desired the cross as a reminder of His existence; rather, He would prefer to be remembered for His boundless love, forgiveness, and transcendence, rather than for His suffering and pain. His wish would be for us to share in His joy and love through transcendence.
If the Christian Church genuinely represented Jesus’s teachings, there would be no outrage surrounding events such as the Olympic opening ceremony; there would be no conflict in Ukraine; we would not be engaged in discussions about nuclear war or viewing Russia and China as adversaries…
and yet here we are, 2000 years later, still missing out, still lost and scared… Jesus’ message still lost in “translation”
These comments!!
Such outrage over an entertainment spectacle.
Outrage more usefully directed at the IOC’s inclusion of a genocidal nation in the midst of an ongoing genocide.
Which murders people daily.
Folks. Why upset? It continues what western Civilisation demonstrated since the 15th Century. A profound ignorance of anything “outside the garden”. As we have send our preachers to the natives of the world to enlighten them so we will send our airwaves to them today. just to say “are you really human? or apes? can’t you see that our truth is the only truth? that our way ist the only way? and by the way. give us your natural goods!”
Sorry, I couldn’t be bothered to watch the so-called Olympics. The idea of international sporting games is great, but this is a politicized media spectacle that is all about advertising, propaganda and profits. If I want real sports, I will watch women’s college basketball, or a little-league baseball game, or local football/soccer game.
It struck me as a pretentious and weird-for-the-sake-of-weird performance art that the French have kind have become known for.
But I was curious what the Pagans, particularly Hellenic Pagans (the people whose gods were actually depicted) thought of it. And in typical pagan fashion, the reaction was mixed. Some thought the transgressive nature of the show reflected the transgressive nature of Dionysus himself. Others were offended by seeing their god portrayed as a big blue smurf.
Most however were offended by the Christians latching onto it and the Pagan erasure. As one pagan commented: “They took OUR religion and made the oppression about them.”
hxxps://wildhunt.org/2024/07/hellenic-pagans-polytheists-react-to-the-olympics-opening-ceremony-controversy.html
The (nation-) State IS a religion.
Disclosure: I was reared in a strict evangelical “ Christian” household but no longer practice.
In the US at least they are insulted yearly by a supposed war on Christmas. And in the US at least they have backed a political figure whose behavior displays not even a hint of the teachings of the Christ they profess to follow.
That said, I cannot believe this reaction was not foreseen. So why stir them up like a nest of mad hornets for no good reason? Nothing is more dangerous than perceived victimhood amongst those who wield real power.
Leave religion where it belongs: in churches…whichever denomination.
During Chloe Cole’s childhood, she was mutilated. The justification given for the mutilation turned on the notion that people, including children, have “assigned gender”, “gender identity”, and “gender expression”. None of those three concepts is supported by evidence. But because of a religious belief in them, Ms. Cole was mutilated. Those who insinuate that human beings, rather than words, have “gender” are promoting the same beliefs that were used as the excuse to mutilate Ms. Cole, and so potentially, are promoting the mutilation of more children. People who so insinuate should take responsibility for what they are saying and where it leads.
hxxps://open.substack.com/pub/mattiasdesmet/p/yes-the-olympic-ceremony-was-about?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1mvuvq
The problem with the analysis offered in this article is that the Feast of the Gods painting is at least in part a rip off or palimpsest of DaVinci’s iconic painting from 100+ years earlier. The folds in the white cloth and the frontal arrangement of the table, along with the way the bodies are arranged around a central haloed figure were not the invention of Von Biljert, who is far from being one of the great Dutch painters, and whose name will ring few bells, even among art history buffs. It is no big leap to see the painting itself as a mockery of the last supper and a celebration of debauchery. Whether that is appropriate to the Olympic Games I can’t say. The flying babies, or Putti or cherubim did not flourish in Greek art though said to originate there. I dare you to find an example from the ancient world. I certainly could not find one on line. They came into fashion in the early renaissance and it is hard not to see a weird eroticization of very young children in their wild proliferation.
In general the average viewer, whether Christian or not, would be far more likely to see the original masterpiece turned into junk than to recognize a Von Biljert that is definitively not one of the many impressive works of art derived from Greek mythology. I think this average reading is far more perceptive than the idea that people should have recognized the obscure source or its translation into a sensitive technicolor drag show that will increase human tolerance for partying divinities.
The goal of inclusiveness is dubious to me since so little is included that most people identify with or even find provocatively interesting. Does it really increase tolerance to push extremes of taste front and center in a very exibitionist, look at me manner, and then call people intolerant who don’t care for the aesthetic or the apparent message? I would argue that a more artful and respectful approach is called for.
Exactly. The “bacchanalia” explanation sounds suspiciously expedient — to deal with the outrage over a perceived religious insult. BUT the tableau was actually off-putting, to me at least, because it was just cheesy and schlocky. The Olympics, as commercialized and debased as they now are, were designed as an aspirational event to celebrate the discipline, talent and exuberance of what it means to be fully alive and embodied on this planet. The tawdry, tatty Paris Olympic exhibition was just depressing, perhaps deliberately provocative, and utterly lacking in appeal.
Absolutely agree. It is comforting to know there are a few sane voices out there. Speaking from Africa. Not sure why everybody wants to emigrate to Europe and America. Just by the time they’ve settled in they will to their horror discover it is deliberately being dismantled. Sorry, cousin. You should have stayed at home.
Oh, Anna, I too do not understand why people want to come here other than desperation in their home countries. One of the saddest results is that people come here with their child for a better life, then their child is murdered, which breaks my heart. I had a Sri Lankan penpal — I have to say “had,” because we both got our last letters returned and marked “no such addressee” when we had been writing to each other for 19 years at the same addresses (the U.S. government at work) — who wanted to come here and it was hard explaining to him what a racist country this is, so full of hate and nastiness.
Not only that, but this article completely misses the point about the problems of inserting religious iconography into mass spectacle events like the Olympics opening ceremony. Whether or not the opening ceremony was explicitly mocking the Last Supper (and I believe it was), it’s simply not appropriate to offer imagery that could even be misinterpreted as such. Furthermore, the paganistic imagery of Dionysus, transgenderism and so-called “body positivity” is problematic in its own right. Why are the elites pushing this nonsense anyway? The decapitated head of Marie Antoinette was also a bit too much — don’t they know children are watching these things? Why can’t we just have normal, life-affirming celebrations rather than this satanic garbage?
If you are suggesting Christ in the Last Supper has a halo, look again. The Apollo figure in Thomas Jolly’s ‘Festivité’ event does, since Apollo is the sun god – and you’ll see that halo in ‘Feast of the Gods’. You might also reconsider whether bodies at that moment of Jolly’s performance are arranged in a similar manner to da Vinci’s painting, in groups of 3:3:1:3:3. Far from it. In the latter, Christ’s hands are stretched out on the table, possibly in resignation of an impending betrayal by Judas. The Apollo character makes the heart sign, love, as somewhat of a healing remedy. But more importantly, if you watch the whole performance (hardly more than a minute long), it includes many other characters, such as a handicapped man who drops his crutches and dances on his hands, a couple in traditional costume dancing a kind of polka and a ballet dancer (whose tights ripped in an unfortunate spot, but revealed nothing but thigh). One sees young and old, black and white, male and female… and a few trans dancers. One frame, a 25th of a second out of a four hour event (360,000 frames long) is all most people have to go on in making their assumptions. That, and what influencers had to say about the snapshot. One of the most moving parts of the ceremony was about assembling a refugee team, but no one seems to be talking about that.
Not being an art historian, I appreciate knowing the inspiration for this tableaux, if what was depicted at the Paris Olympics this week, can be so described. My quick search online, shows that Jan Harmensz van Biljert spent several years in Italy some 130 or so years after “The Last Supper” was painted. “Feast of the Gods” was painted after his return to Utrecht from Italy.
Perhaps, whilst there, that van Biljert saw Da Vinci’s painting,” or others of the like, as it seems this was a popular scene for artists of the time to capture. Quite possibly the similarity to such Last Supper paintings was deliberate, and, indeed, one might wonder whether van Biljert was intentionally parodying da Vinci’s painting. If so, does the Paris Olympics’ rendition, stop being an insult if those who chose it have intentionally contrived, no doubt with winks, to insult by way of proxy? The idea that the people who chose it weren’t aware of the visible similarity to the last supper in paintings, is ludicrous.
The ability to point to the fig leaf of this particular van Beijert painting likely offered them an excuse for being thoroughly demeaning of the religious sensibilities of people whose beliefs do not command respect from those making these kinds of “artistic” decisions.
As an atheist, I can see the appeal. As a human who has hopes for a better world, I find it a huge failure. They gave us petty-minded derision, rather than finding a way to expand common ground for us all.
Appreciate the additional information on Van Biljert. I would say any painter who spent time in Italy and didn’t look at a publicly viewable DaVinci would be rare. He obviously saw some Caravaggios too. Most of his work looks derivative if carefully painted. He was obviously not an inspired original artist with a unique body of memorable work, Like Leonardo or any of the great Dutch painters.
In this era, a painting has come to be worth even more than a thousand words of a cartoon picture.
Incitement is the name of the tune
Just another little ‘odd ditty’ song and dance, of western Democratic culture.
Speaker in the American Congress, house of representatives, Trumpian flunky, Mike Johnson’s incitement, in this particular incident, smacks of the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, who issued a fatwa against Indian born, British author, Salman Rushdie, because of a ‘disturbing’ work he wrote on Islam, published in 1989.
It was claimed, by those who profess to know, to be a mockery of islam.
However in the always self-serving, self-righteous West, it was regarded as nothing more than freedom of expression, rather than in any way anti-Islamic.
Rushdie himself too, came to the defense of the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, when it was criticized for a supposed inappropriate comic strip it had posted in response, and was thereafter violently attacked, because of it; with many journalists/artists being killed, at the behest of the Iranian Ayatollah.
It’s apparently okay for America – the West, to freely incite people to rage, in defense of the Christian religion, but definitely not for non-Christians to do the same!
The speaker of the American house of representatives now sees himself as the equivalent of an Ayatollah.
The distinguishing difference is that the American speaker is a little shorter in intellectual stature.
I agree, and the hypocritical comment from someone who considers genocide with the greatest cruelty is to be encouraged and helped by the government he speaks for tells us the value of the Christianity he claims to profess.
The same Constantinity most “Christians” profess (see Constantine’s Sword). They seem to love horrible Old Testament books such as Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but they never seem to have read the Gospels. Interesting, and explains why they love that ethno-state in the middle east so much. And anyone who believes in “the rapture” is psychotic.
From this commenters scant understanding of highly convoluted mythical issues: If Jesus was born into the Jewish religion, then he was also the first nonconformist; the embodiment of the contradictory/dual nature of man.
Was he the founder of the institutional religion of Christianity?
Just to be sure the argument is fully understood, a second question: Is an ethno-state regarded as one and the same as a state based solely on a religion?
” at the behest of *the* Iranian Ayatollah.” That is a very serious charge for you to make, especially regarding the terrible events at Charlie Hebdo. Please provide proof that the murders were incited by a specific person. Or else be prepared to prove that Biden did not personally put out a contract on Trump.
I believe that your analysis is 100% correct. It is almost incomprehensible that Mr Jolly would not have at least considered that what he presented as the Feast of the Gods, by an obscure artist, would be interpreted by many as a vulgar skit on the Last Supper. Common sense would suggest that it could have been easily predicted that the universally better known Last Supper painting would have been compared to the charade presented by Mr Jolly.
Under the circumstances, Mr Jolly’s words sounds hollow when he states, “My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock. Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”
It boggles my mind that people can’t tell the difference between a depiction of history having nothing to do with Christianity or the Last Supper and their own beliefs in Christian history.
The “Feast of the Gods” is from Greek history and the Gods worshiped by the Greeks long before Christianity ever existed. That the French would choose to portray something from ancient Greek history at the beginning of the games is not surprising as it was the Greeks who initiated the Olympic Games in that same period. And the Olympic Games were named after Mount Olympus which was the home of their Gods. And the games, themselves, were among their religious events.
All this outrage over the show clearly shows the staggering stupidity and ignorance of so many “Christians” who, themselves, don’t follow Christ’s teachings, as Jesus never showed outrage toward anyone and always taught forgiveness.
How many people would Jesus have murdered because of their beliefs or actions? How many bombs would Jesus have given Netanyahu? How many wars with other countries would Jesus have begun? As attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, ” I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians”. I have to agree with him.
If one defines a Christian as one who follows the teachings of Christ, then there are damned few Christians in this country.
Jesus never showed outrage toward anyone? You might want to get out your bible and do some reading. He overturned the money changers’ tables and whipped them out of the temple. Want to know what he said about proselytizers? “You turn your converts into whited sepulchres.” He also had some nice [sarcasm] words to say about the rich and powerful, and was not sympathetic toward public displays of religiosity.
And your last paragraph is SPOT ON!
Were Art misunderstood, what of the rest? The fetes return
though oaks be felled and fields gone dust. Religion remains
mockery, regardless of intent.
Thanks for the clarification. The modern Olympic Games revives of a great tradition from classical antiquity. Dare we reflect that the Christian Emperor Theodosius shut down the games in 383 CE, after they had been held every four years for eleven centuries, in his vicious campaign to eradicate Rome’s traditional culture and religion. Pardon me if I do not care one little bit about the hurt feelings of modern adherents of Theodosius’ intolerant faith – which has compiled a ghastly track record of abusing and murdering gay people for committing a crime that exists only in its fanatic doctrine.
You might want to familiarize yourself with other religions doctrines towards homosexuality.
It’s laughable to claim that treating homosexuality as a crime it only exists in Christian doctrine. There are dozen nations TODAY where homosexuality is a crime, and more than a few where it is a death penalty offense, and not a single of one them is majority Christian. Christianity is one of the most tolerant religions on the planet. Even when it wasn’t particularly tolerant by modern standards, it was still more tolerant than other religions of the same era.
The Islamic empires were far more tolerant of other religions than “Christian nations.” From what I have seen of today’s Christianity, it has devolved into liberal mush with sex mimics in the pulpits. There’s some dude in the UK who calls himself Bingo, is an ordained priest, and general creepy weirdo. Meanwhile, find me a church where genocide causes outrage. People OBJECTING to their daughters having to share private spaces with boys causes outrage, but not mass murder.
What is your impression of e.g. Orthodoxy as practiced in Russia?
The broadcast showed a Divinci (fake of course) last supper painting floating in the Seine. All screaming is sad. All justifying is sad. The real issue is they wanted Drama and they got it….. which distracts from the athletes. It’s just not much fun anymore. But it’s making a lot of money
More evidence, if needed, of the moral degeneration of the West. A continual drip, drip of filth polluting everything we believe is important. How the rest of the world must look at us in disgust and despair. And, does anyone believe the circus of deviants does anything positive for the rights of gays and trans people who just desire a quiet, normal life ?
It was a stupid piece of theater that anyone with half a brain would have figured out would outrage millions of people. Just another sign of how totally out of touch and clueless the so-called EU “leaders” are about the rest of the world. The games are supposed to unite people, not piss them off. Dum dum dum dum dum.
The outrage was a feature, not a bug.
They wanted it. They got it. And they wanted it from Christians specifically, because Christian outrage manifests as kvetching on twitter and maybe saying a prayer for the poor lost souls who invoked it. You’ll notice they didn’t do a depiction of Muhammad. Because Islamic outrage manifests as a fatwa and artists wind up getting stabbed or beheaded. Charlie Hebdo taught Parisian artists not to anger Muslims. But Christians are toothless and still fair game.
Exactly. You put it succinctly.
Christians need to be a little —or a lot—less “nice.”
If you trash our religion, our symbols, our art, expect riots and overturned cars and attacks on the ministers who back such filth. .
I mean that.
@litchfield:
while some, too many, feel outraged
over the – more? or less? misguided –
introduction to sports games that are
held in the global north …
the REAL FILTH happens in the south,
where millions of people have been
dying of unnatural causes for decades,
for centuries and are dying right now!
this simultaneity is far beyond outrageous.
WHAT are we going to do about it?
as to religion:
THINK WELL.
SPEAK WELL.
ACT WELL.
zarathustra had it right very early on.
it’s as simple – and as hard! – as that.
And this ceremony is some kind of outlier admidst the blizzard of schmaltz and commercialization that threatens to bury the actual sporting events at any moment? The whole presentation needs a much heavier dose of this thinly disguised slapstick to lighten the mood. Maybe that was the director’s intent.
Wow! Consortiumnews has so many writers I truly respect, who offer deep knowledge and insights. Why was it necessary to publish an article defending a public performance that offended millions if not billions of people?
Cathy Vogan’s rationale for why this performance was not offensive isn’t convincing. Her notion that she can decide what’s offensive and what’s not for other people is silly at best.
Yes, Christians were offended, but so were people who oppose the trans agenda, parents who want to enjoy sports without their kids being exposed to highly sexualized drag queens, people who think a male performer should keep his testicles inside his costume while onstage, and Olympics fans who expected something dignified and inspiring, based on past ceremonies.
I was offended and continue to be, in spite of being patted on the head and told that I just don’t get it and if I did I wouldn’t be upset.
Yes!
Agree 100%
I feel so lucky as I have zero interest in the olympics, so can’t be offended at any of it, including the obviously drugged “athletes,” the endless nationalistic blathering, the utter boredom of it.
Ha Ha! I also have zero interest in the Olympics, and therefore cannot be ‘offended’ by any of it! To me all this ‘offence ‘ is a non issue; the same with relgion and all that goes with that. Life is too short to be permanently offended as a lot of people seem to be. It seems to me that the reason religious people get so upset by any criticism of their religion I because they have zero evidence for any of it, and subsequently do not like to be reminded of that obvious fact.
I’m with Sharon.
My issue with the opening is that France completely wasted an opportunity to bring the people of the world together at an extremely difficult and divisive time. I cannot think of a better indication that the West is incapable of doing this anymore. It all started of course with the mayor of Paris (?) declaring that Russian athletes are not welcome, and it ended with this Pagan display that is a clear signal to the world that the only thing the west has to offer is a fraudulent inclusivity which is merely a brittle cracking veneer over genocidal imperialism.
Thank you!
I am a born again atheist, and I thought it was a horrid mess of petulant posturing and pompous preaching. And it was only very occasionally anything close to actual art. What does that make me?
Normal
Haven’t subjected myself to CN ‘review’ since best-ever Comments rejected, but thought Ms. V might like this.
L VINCENT ANDERSON
@lvincenta1·
2m
Lost in Translation: Outcry Over the ‘Last Supper’ hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2024/07/29/lost-in-translation-outcry-over-the-last-supper/
By Jove, I think she’s got it! “The drain in Seine sucks mainly on the brain…”
“…not only about Greek but French history.”
But Mélenchon has cause for plaint: election win, Games lockout by Macron.
I fail to see how anyone, despite their views, could be comfortable watching this obscenity. Not only religious people, but most observers not told it was something other than a Last Supper parody, would conclude that it was indeed just that. How did this conception from twisted minds become a reality? What did it have to do with the Olympics? Was this vulgarity vetted? By whom?
Let’s mock religion every chance we get,. The idea that god is on our side continues to be one of the most egregious forms of justification.
“Religion poisons everything!” – Christopher Hitchens. Never truer words spoken
If the Olympics are supposed to be a gathering of international camaraderie and solidarity (overlooking its all too politicized nature these days) whatever morons thought a depiction of an ‘uncontrollably promiscuous, extravagant, and loud party’ fit in the paradigm of such a gather of diverse countries and the inherent religious sensitivities of its participants, all they have actually accomplished is the understandable incomprehension from much of the world. Myself included. If the world is supposed to see this and not find it a mockery of da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” they think the world fools. Narratives don’t change what eyes see plainly enough. If they think this somehow helps build bridges between the LGBT community and others, they failed miserably. If they think it clever—well, I’ve already stated my thoughts on that. It was moronic.
Try as they might explain it away after the fact, they can’t put the poop back in the horse. Joe Biden can say that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world, but sayin’ it so don’t make it so. Narratives don’t change what our eyes see plainly enough.
I really don’t care. It, to me, was just another idiotic display by LGBTQ folks that gave fundamentalist Bible thumpers something else to whine about. Much too much time being wasted on this story.
Oh come on. The French have always been “avant-garde” with their arts. And remember the uproar when “Life of Brian” was released. Great song from Phillipe.
Thank you, Carolyn. It’s amazing how ugly the West likes to present itself, always a characteristic apparently of collapsing societies.
I find this essay to be exceptionally revisionist, and I do not find the “opening ceremony” disturbing because of my religious views.
There is a movement afoot in the West to normalize sexual molestation of children, to view hyper-sexualization as normal, to destroy women’s and children’s boundaries. And this grotesquerie is appropriate for a country in which the head-of-state is married to his own male rapist. Why should any of us be exposed to others’ fetishisms? I don’t want to see naked men in the streets, women’s toilets, women’s locker rooms, women’s prisons, or anywhere else (apparently a dude’s testicles could be clearly seen under the “non-table”). The “opening ceremony” resembled a corporate pride parade, and many lesbians stopped going to pride parades in the 1990s because they did not want to expose their children to male fetishists.
This essay just seems like a lot of double-talk intended to persuade people that they did not see what they saw, a project rooted in transgender ideology. This is not a culture “different from one’s own,” this is a culture exactly like one’s own.
Amen!
I am an atheist, a law professor since 1972, lawyer since 1968, and a physician. My IQ is 178. And I am a curmudgeonish sceptic.
I dislike all religions, despise most “faiths.” Christianity is a hoax premised on myth and mass psychosis.
I cannot perceive that the drag queens’ performance was not a mockery of the Last Supper. I do perceive, however, that your queer Last Supper apology/defense is gross sophistry that, like the queer Last supper, insults all Christians (though not woke fake-Christians). Your *fat queer Jesus* argument was risibly specious.
Christians do not deserve such insult, just as neurotics and psychotics do not deserve cruelty simply because they suffer psychic pain.
Very well stated. If in fact art director Jolly was trying to draw a parallel to Van Biljert’s “ Feast of the Gods”, he has failed completely. It clearly more resembles the Last Supper than a banquet on Mount Olympus. Complete with characters from a local drag show. The criticism is well deserved.
Thank you Philip..Great summary.
Greek mythology God of Darkness,Son of Chaos….Erebus.
World Class Athletes with superb bodies and years of discipline,training and abilities have absolutely nothing in common with this unholy parody.
Well said!
While you are correct that the performance was not based on the Last Supper and in fact depicted Dionysus and the Feast of the Gods, b=having an obese woman and characters based on Smurfs is low “culture” if I ever saw it. Trash, in fact. I’m an atheist, so I have no skin in the religion game. But the display was ugly in my view. If that was meant to represent France (or Greece) it was not a flattering image of either.