South African swimming star Tatjana Smith struck gold in the 100m breaststoke in Paris on Monday night in some welcome bright news for South Africans in an Olympics clouded by a controversial opening ceremony.
The ill-conceived opening extravaganza on Saturday night sparked global outrage and justifiable charges of blasphemy over what appeared to be a transgender parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper.
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The Olympics organisers did not help matters by providing contradictory responses. Initially they confirmed that the scene that included drag queens, a trangender model and a semi-naked singer was inspired by Da Vinci’s famous painting, but said it was not meant to show disrespect to any religious group or belief.
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Subsequently they changed their story, saying the scene did not depict the Last Supper but that they had wanted to portray a big pagan celebration, linked to the gods of Olympus, and thus the Olympics. This interpretation was backed by some art experts who said the tableau more closely matches Dutch master Jan Harmensz van Biljert’s The Feast of the Gods.
The art experts may be correct — but the fact remains that at worst the opening ceremony was a blasphemous insult to God and to over 2 billion Christians, and at best a sleazy, woke way of turning what should be a uniting, family-friendly, global event into an epic culture wars misfire.
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In a statement released on Saturday Pastor Bert Pretorius, senior pastor of 3C Church and chairman of Rhema Family Churches said: “The controversy has highlighted a disturbing trend that is pushing the boundaries of tolerance and inclusivity toward a forced celebration of sexual diversity.”
In response to the widespread outrage over what many perceived as the Olympic organisers’ attack on Christianity, Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps said on Sunday: “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think Thomas Jolly [the opening ceremony choreographer] did try to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we of course are really sorry.”
Perhaps more telling than the apology, which some say is not an apology at all, is that the International Olympic Committee has removed an official video of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics from its YouTube channel. The same goes for a similar video on the YouTube channel of NBC Sports, the official broadcaster of the Games in the US.
Other video clips which deserve to be taken down, falsely purported to show Christian worship breaking out on the streets of Paris following the Olympic opening ceremony. In fact the clips were of an incredible March for Jesus in Paris on the 25th of May. Sadly these misleading videos were posted on apparently Christian social media channels and shared by many well-meaning Christians.
On Thursday, South Africa’s swimming heroine Tatiana Smith is a favourite to win another gold in her best event, the 200m breaststroke. [UPDATE: She won a silver medal] And over the next 11 days we have an opportunity to watch the best athletes in the world from 206 nations competing against each other.
May these Olympics produce many inspiring sporting moments. May valuable lessons be learned by all of us after the shaky opening. May Christians on the ground in Paris shine for Jesus, like the French Bible Society volunteers who will be handing out 200 000 special edition New Testaments and the Ensemble 2024 initiative which is uniting French Evangelicals in sharing the Gospel at the Olympics. May the evil plans of terrorists be annulled as multitudes of believers pray for Paris.
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This outrageous and audacious uncoordinated dancing has no place at the world olympics which should showcase ‘inclusitity’ of all nations and yes of Paris life.
This parody was entirely ‘exclusive’ for a gay audience to enjoy.
I would expect this to be done at the Gay games for specific viewership.
If by some weird chance the organizers had chosen to showcase a Christian or any other religious group dance routine there would’ve been an outcry of an idealogy being imposed upon viewers.
In closing this was a blatant and deliberate way of imposing themselves over others.
Christians must show restraint and pray for these folks.