Le Pont de la Honte
The Bridge of Shame, but should it spark outrage?
August, 2024
Last month's editorial mentioned the modern demand for approval. That explanation came with an Olympics analogy; this month, the Olympics obliged with a related example. The controversial opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris games brought controversy another challenge for Christians trying to live "in" but not "of" the world (John 14:17). How we respond(ed) says something about our expectations. We shouldn't be surprised at mockery (Matthew 5:11). We don't need to amplify grievances, either, let alone invent them (Proverbs 19:11). The fallen world hates faith, and the truths it stands for. Why be surprised, let alone scandalized, when ungodly people do ungodly things (1 Corinthians 2:14)?
A key moment in the ceremony was when a group of performers—highlighting homosexuality, transsexualism and drag queens—appeared in a particular arrangement. Many thought the array looked like a parody of The Last Supper, DaVinci's famous depiction of Jesus' meal with the apostles. Some thought this was obvious, others didn't even notice. Some thought it was a deliberate insult to Christians, others disagreed. Some claimed it mimicked a completely different work of art. Reactions comparing the scene to The Last Supper were worldwide and immediate. These were followed by snide and dismissive rebuttals from the non-offended. As of this writing, there is still a barrage of misleading claims, angry social media posts, and bitter arguments about the issue.
Believers might be tempted to wade into the melee with righteous indignation. A better and more realistic response is to verify claims, then focus on what's important. Among those is recognizing our own limitations: I can speak to how things "seem," but I'm in no position to give the definitive answer on such things. Most importantly, whether the offense at the opening ceremony was accidental or intended ultimately changes nothing. At worst, it simply affirms the world's existing rejection of biblical faith. Believers shouldn't be surprised or breathlessly agitated by that: but we can be sad and honest when it comes up in conversation.
Knowing what's true or false is always helpful, especially when there are so many conflicting claims (Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1; Proverbs 18:13, 17). For this situation, it's important to know that:
• The ceremony included many morally offensive elements, including exaggerated emphasis on unbiblical sexuality and quasi-nudity. Lennon's atheist mantra Imagine was once again used as a theme. Even without the scene in question, the pageant bucked Christian ethics.
• The moment in question superficially resembled The Last Supper, but didn't exactly duplicate it.
• DaVinci's representation has been imitated relentlessly, in multiple forms, and with varying degrees of respect.
• Observers worldwide—secular and religious—immediately noticed the performance's similarity to the famous painting.
• The ceremony's director labeled the segment "Festivity." The title "La Cène Sur Un Scène Sur La Seine," a triple pun literally meaning "The Last Supper on a Stage on the Seine," comes from a Belgian news headline reacting to the imagery.
• The director's initial response to the controversy pointedly mentioned "the right to believe and not to believe."
• The center figure of the scene in question made later-deleted remarks on social media referring to the scenario as "The Gay New Testament."
• While the organizers deny it, many insist that this was a deliberate blaspheming of Christian beliefs.
• Despite immediate worldwide reactions, some reject any similarity to The Last Supper or reasons for offense.
Motive matters, but it's hard to verify another person's thoughts (1 Samuel 16:7). With that limitation in mind, I'm inclined to think the production organizers knew they were mimicking—or at least hinting at—The Last Supper. It's absurd to claim one was inspired by Biljert's Le Festin de Dieux but completely missed resemblance to a nearly-universally recognized image. If millions of people instantly saw it a certain way, common sense says someone involved in the choreography did as well.
That doesn't necessarily make it a deliberate mockery of faith. More likely—once again, only in my opinion, which is subject to change—it was meant as a flourish or joke that got out of hand. Such things have happened before: a message or visual is included and expected to be glossed over, but it touches a nerve and is then disavowed. It's hard to accept the theory that this was completely by accident. Hypocritically waxing poetic about "inclusion," as the creators did in response, rings hollow when scripting something common sense says would be interpreted as ridicule.
More telling even than the event itself was the general reaction to Christian offense: condescending, derogatory, snickering. While some seemed merely puzzled, others used it as an opportunity to be even more directly insulting to people of faith. Some non-believers were almost as offended that Christians would even suggest the scene was inappropriate. coming and going, the world piled on contempt for faith.
Believers don't need to sit in silence when the world attacks faith (1 Peter 3:15; 2 Corinthians 10:5). Slights like this are worth noticing, understanding, and addressing. But they don't justify losing sleep or being baited into arguments (Colossians 4:6). The world rejects biblical faith; that's old news (John 16:33). Nonbelievers sneer and condescend when Christians are offended; that's expected (2 Peter 3:3). Western culture is becoming more and more overtly anti-biblical; this is nothing new or unforeseen (2 Timothy 3:1–4). Anything inappropriate in the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony is covered by 1 Peter 4:3–5:
"For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead."
It's heartbreaking to see overt hostility to biblical truth (Isaiah 1:4; Proverbs 14:34). But born-again believers have no valid reason for angst (1 Thessalonians 5:14–15). Christ already warned us not to expect a warm welcome from the world (John 14:29). Let the crass, fallen world rage and snipe—whether it's intended or willfully ignorant. Once we've given loving answers to those who care to hear (Ephesians 4:15; James 5:20), God's power is more than enough to handle the rest (2 Corinthians 10:10).
-- Editor
