Did the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony Go Too Far with Religious Mockery?

The USA defeated Serbia in Olympic basketball yesterday, while America’s Coco Gauff won her tennis match and Simone Biles dominated in women’s gymnastics despite calf pain. However, many are still talking about the opening ceremony’s depiction of a bacchanalia that was clearly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The tableau included drag queens, a transgender model, and a naked singer. Reaction was swift:

Piers Morgan posted, “Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision.”
Elon Musk called the parody “extremely disrespectful to Christians.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed, calling it “shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world.”

I was similarly grieved as the parody ridiculed our Lord and denigrated the event which Christians around the world commemorate as the Lord’s Supper. Many include this sacred observance as part of their worship every week.

But there’s more to the story. And the more we learn, the worse it gets.

“We have the right not to be worshippers”

A Paris 2024 spokeswoman said yesterday, “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” claiming that the opening ceremony “tried to celebrate community tolerance.” She added, “We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we are really sorry.”

How could they believe that their parody would not “show disrespect to any religious group?”

For an answer, listen to Thomas Jolly, the opening ceremony’s artistic director, defending the production:

Our subject was not to be subversive. We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. . . . In France, we are [a] 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.

In other words, his purpose was to use what he saw as a cultural artifact to make a cultural point. In a country where only about 5 percent of people attend church weekly and less than half the population even believes in God, the ceremony’s producers were surprised that a depiction of what they consider an archaic and irrelevant religious story would offend anyone. His secularized cultural context also explains how Jolly could view The Last Supper as merely a painting and its subjects as objects not to venerate but to use for his personal purposes.

The man who commissioned the painting likely saw it in the same way.

The man who invented secular politics

Ludovico Sforza (1452–1508) was the Duke of Milan and Leonardo’s patron when da Vinci painted his masterpiece. The Sforza coats of arms appear with the family’s initials on the three lunettes above the mural. The painting was part of a series of renovations to the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan, Italy. Sforza intended the location to become his family mausoleum.

He was known for his many mistresses and for his ruthlessness as a prince. He was especially infamous for usurping power from his nephew, Milan’s rightful ruler, through a series of foreign alliances. When these alliances failed him, he lost his throne and died in prison.

Sforza was chided by Niccolo Machiavelli in chapter 24 of The Prince, not for being so ruthless, but for relying on others rather than on defenses he could control personally. Written five years after Sforza’s death, Machiavelli’s famous (or infamous) study of power claims that a ruler must divorce his public behavior from his personal character. In his view, the prince should do whatever is needed to protect his position, such as lying, cheating, cruelty, or even murder.

He applied the same thinking to religion, arguing that an appeal to God can help a ruler convince his people to follow his edicts, but adding that he must choose cunning, strength, and adaptability over humility and compassion. Machiavelli is, therefore, said to have invented secular politics by “liberating” them from religion, showing us how to save ourselves without depending on God. In his view, religion is merely a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

Thomas Jolly and the drag queens who parodied The Last Supper would obviously agree.

“A journey without as yet a fixed abode”

Here’s my paradoxical point: I actually wish Jolly had intended his parody to persecute Christians. This would signify that he saw our faith as a present reality worth opposing. Instead, he clearly views it as an outdated, irrelevant cultural artifact.

This is precisely how many in our secularized culture view Jesus. To change their minds, we need to show them how Jesus has changed our lives.

For example, Christians should express our hurt and disappointment at the opening ceremony’s depiction mocking our Lord. However, we should then pray for those who created the parody, those who acted in it, and the country whose spiritual lostness explains it.

God’s word is clear:

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
“Whenever you stand praying, forgive” (Mark 11:25).
“Love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return” (Luke 6:35).

When we forgive in prayer, and then in action, we show our lost culture the difference Jesus makes in those who follow him. While secularists use religion to advance themselves in the world, we use the opposition of the world to advance the kingdom of our Lord.

St. Augustine observed:

We are but travelers on a journey without as yet a fixed abode; we are on our way, not yet in our native land; we are in a state of longing, not yet of enjoyment. But let us continue on our way, and continue without sloth or respite, so that we may ultimately arrive at our destination.

What “destination” will you seek today?

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the Day:

“People are often tempted to take the place of God, to consider themselves the criterion of all things, to control them, to use everything according to their own will. It is so important to remember, however, that our life is a gift from God, and that we must depend on him, confide in him, and turn towards him always.” —Pope Francis

Published Date: July 29, 2024

Jim Denison, PhD, is a cultural theologian and the founder and CEO of Denison Ministries. Denison Ministries includes DenisonForum.org, First15.org, ChristianParenting.org, and FoundationsWithJanet.org. Jim speaks biblically into significant cultural issues at Denison Forum. He is the chief author of The Daily Article and has written more than 30 books, including The Coming Tsunami, the Biblical Insight to Tough Questions series, and The Fifth Great Awakening.