The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity

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Getting cross really isn’t the Christlike response to that Olympics scene

I’ll be honest, when I saw Philippe Katerine emerge from his cloche, all blue and covered in fruit, I was already at the end of my rope. ‘What on earth is going on?’, I enquired of the TV, and then promptly fell about laughing.

Yes, today we’re considering that scene from the Olympics opening ceremony. In case you missed it (wise choice), here’s a quick précis. In a very rainy Paris, a handful of dancers, models, and drag artists stood on one side of a runway and posed for the camera. Moments later, the aforementioned Katerine popped out of a dish and sang a bit.

It perfectly summed up an opening ceremony that now appears in the dictionary under ‘damp squib’. The antics were flat and wet, delivering anything but explosive spectacle. But that didn’t stop the internet from duly blowing up. Some interpreted it as an abhorrent mockery of the Last Supper; others defended it as a skit on ancient Greek bacchanalia; neither side comported itself with much grace.

Personally, I doubt enough thought went into the whole undercooked mess to merit the outrage it got. If it was trying to be a devilish provocation, it was a pretty naff effort; Jesus and the church have certainly dealt with worse. But rightly or wrongly, many leaders have been expressing anger and demanding apologies (which, to a degree, they got). You may share their views. So the question is: if I feel Christianity’s being mocked by my culture, what’s the Christlike way to respond?

Well, to my memory, Christ isn’t recorded demanding an apology from the Pharisees, Saducees, or Romans. That’s not because their mockery didn’t matter, or because he didn’t care. It’s because his mission wasn’t to carve out respect for true religion in an ungodly world. It was to open the way for all creation to be restored. That meant living the self-sacrificial way humans were always meant to, and speaking the truth in love.

If we lament our society’s skewed or insulting view of Jesus, the Jesus-like response is not to get cross and demand everyone just stop it. It’s to ‘live such good lives among the pagans that […] they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us’ (1 Peter 2:12).

In other words, if we reflect God’s awesome goodness in our everyday lives, it won’t really matter what a few dancers are doing on a soggy Parisian bridge.

Josh Hinton
Head of Communications, LICC

Comments

  1. Interesting read, thanks for sharing. I’m in the process of planning a trip to Edinburgh Fringe – there’s quite a few acts among there (and across comedy generally) based around giving Christianity a kicking.
    It’s often more Organised Religion that takes a kicking (let’s be honest, the Church is very much not perfect) than Jesus Himself. Important that we show the authenticity and genuineness of our faith, which is more compelling than popular negative stereotypes of Church

    By Malcolm Harland  -  2 Aug 2024
  2. It was reported, “The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus,” Jolly (the ceremony’s artistic director) told the BFM channel on Sunday.

    The last time Paris hosted the Olympics was 100 years ago, 1924. During those games God was both honoured and glorified through Eric Liddell. The enemy has been fuming over that ever since. So, by his infernal design and inspiration God has to be mocked at these games. Job done!

    The devil knows how to hold a grudge.

    By Brian  -  2 Aug 2024
    • But if that wasn’t the intention… is our own cultural lens affecting our perception on what was presented in a way that is actually not helpful and ends up making us look cranky and foolish?

      And for the record I think God’s glory was seen in the lives of a goodly number of Christian athletes in Paris 2024 too! Maybe we should celebrate that more!

      By Isla Dowds-Skinner  -  23 Aug 2024
  3. 2 Timothy 4:1–4. Need i say more. And please don’t twiste the Scripture and say it’s out of context!

    By Roelof J Vermeulen  -  2 Aug 2024
  4. Thanks Josh!! Love a bit of Christian sense.

    By Wendy Phillips  -  2 Aug 2024
  5. Excellent response Josh. Thank you.

    David

    By David Hoey  -  2 Aug 2024
  6. Thank you, Josh, for making the point so precisely (and humorously).
    Now to extend that point across all the areas of social “concern” that we Christians engage with. Whatever our position is on sexuality, economic policy, status of refugees, climate change, drug policy, gambling etc etc – can we please address it by reflecting God’s awesome goodness in our everyday lives? I suspect that example is far more powerful than argument – and if our example and focus is Christlikeness, then the argument loses power, anyway.

    By Steve Stubbings  -  5 Aug 2024
  7. Thank you Josh,a thoughtful response.It wasn’t a particularly wholesome opening ceremony but I do feel that too much was read into it by certain Christian groups

    By Angela Somerton  -  8 Aug 2024
  8. Thanks Josh for your view. I’d only say that Jesus may not have demanded an apology from the Pharisees but he did on occasion call them a ‘broad of vipers!’

    We cannot forget that we can lovingly challenge each other to be better. Jesus did this many a time, truth needs to be spoken (even when it hurts). I feel sometimes as Christians we try to act with goodness but we fail to speak up when we need to.

    Getting angry and demanding an apology may not be the best way to go, but we can state that we were hurt by the mockery of our Lord and Saviours last supper. His last supper before he endured the cross. This way we can open up conversations that lead to us talking about Jesus and be honest about the fact that we believe him to be a figure not to be mocked but to be the Son of God who gave himself up so that we may live in freedom and in the unending love and grace of God the Father.

    By Maya  -  22 Aug 2024

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