I remember the moment clearly: I had gathered around the TV to watch the Super Bowl in 2004 with my wife and young son. I was an avid NFL fan and wanted to bond with my family and enjoy the game, which I did until Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake decided to turn it into a strip show.
I’m not a prude, but I was trying to show my seven-year-old the joys of football, not Jackson’s bare chest.
Wokeness and culture wars have continued to infect sports in the years since, as evidenced by Friday night’s offensive clunker of an Olympics opening ceremony where some performers appeared to be starting a threesome while others seemed to mock Leonardo da Vinci’s "The Last Supper." (The organizers deny this.)
What does this have to do with sports?
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reacted:
Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 27, 2024
The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always… pic.twitter.com/s88c9ymG9j
The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
This is the kind of stuff that they thought was appropriate for an event meant to celebrate the sporting world and goodwill among nations:
The opening ceremonies in Paris included a group of performers, some of them in drag, in a scene that appeared to resemble the da Vinci painting of “The Last Supper.”
The painting depits the final meal of Jesus with his apostles, night before the crucifixtion.
Johnson wasn’t the only one who thought it crossed the line; there were plenty of reactions like this:
Drag queens and little children at the #OpeningCeremony of Paris Olympics 👇
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) July 27, 2024
This is disgusting and repulsive beyond words, and maybe best symbolizes the decline of Europe 🤮pic.twitter.com/RF9jhm1O8C
Twitter owner Elon Musk responded to another user's post:
This was extremely disrespectful to Christians
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024
Meanwhile, many social media users are seeing the videos they’ve used in their posts disabled, reportedly because the Olympics are claiming copyright infringement. Or possibly it’s because they don’t want you to remember what they did?
Here’s Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, whose video is no longer viewable, as you can see:
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.”
— Harrison Butker (@buttkicker7) July 26, 2024
Galatians 6:7-8 pic.twitter.com/bhCHoO1HXk
Editor's note: the above video is appearing again after this article was published. However, earlier today, I took a screenshot of the tweet and it read, "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner."
It’s probably impossible to completely divorce politics from sports, especially during international events, but there’s no reason to bring threesomes, drag queens, and mockery of Christianity into play. It seems like they went out of their way to be offensive—and they succeeded.
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