Futile Thoughts and Foolish Hearts in Paris

The debacle at the Olympic games follows what we are told in the Scriptures.

As you have probably heard, the 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony in Paris was a disaster. It was an odious display of the cultural, spiritual darkness of our time. The honor of hosting the Olympic games always gives host countries a tremendous opportunity to display and celebrate the very best of their culture and values.  

Unfortunately for Paris, its leaders thought a debauchery-celebrating version of “The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, with famous LGBTQ+ French activist and DJ Barbara Butch in place of Jesus featuring an ornate halo and famous drag queens and other hyper-sexualized characters as disciples (including a very young girl—to add insult to injury) is what France is all about. The ceremony was objectionable to many, not just Christians. 

The loathsome, faith-mocking display also featured a golden calf and the French singer/actor Philippe Katerine, almost nude, covered in blue body paint while reclining on a dinner platter to imitate the pagan god Dionysus—the god of wine and ecstasy. Apparently, “lavish festal orgia (rites) in his honour” were a thing, so it fitted the vision that artistic director Thomas Jolly wanted to celebrate. 

“Our subject was not to be subversive,” he said, “We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that.”  

However, the inclusion they wanted to celebrate at the Olympics does not include Christians. Believe it or not, Brazilian surfer Joao Chianca was told two weeks before the games commenced that he must remove an image of Jesus Christ (of the famous Brazilian statue) from his surfboard if he wanted to compete. The anti-faith theme was the point. “In France, we are republic,” said Jolly, “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 his disdain for “worshippers,” Jolly fails to see his own intensely dark religious convictions. He, too, is a worshipper. His devotion was on full display at his twisted ceremony. 

The debacle at the Olympic games follows what we are told in the Scriptures. Many in our society “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Many have rejected God and His ways, including the Olympic committee, which now allows men to hit women in the women’s boxing category, suppressing the simple, plain reality that men are not women.  

The Scriptures tell us what happens when we suppress truth in our rebellion against God. “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21). Dark hearts and futile minds follow our suppression of truth. So, it should be no surprise that that is precisely what we witnessed at the opening ceremony. “Claiming to be wise, they become fools” (Romans 1:22). 

Pity is the proper response to such foolishness. The man cursing the skies is never a winning position. No one wins against God. His track record is perfect. 

He is graceful and rich in mercy. He shows His loving patience with man’s arrogance every single day. It is one of the reasons we praise Him, for we, too, were blindly rebellious at one point. 

But we must warn our society of the consequences of our unbelief. The Romans 1 passage explains it plainly. “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (v. 24-25). 

It is a sad picture. You need not wonder what you saw at that opening ceremony. We are suffering the results of a “debased mind” insisting on doing what ought not to be done (Romans 1:28). And the only answer is repentance—a turn to God. 

Therefore, it is not much use to get angry. Instead, we must pray for God’s grace and shine the light of Truth every chance we get, continuing to provide every opportunity to turn from our wicked ways. 

We can be wise once again. But wisdom cannot even start without the fear of God (see Proverbs 9:10). Let us pray for that.