OUR REACTION TO THE SHAMEFUL OPENING CEREMONY DEBACLE

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Hi friends, Bill Hobson here from Church Pew Sports and I thought it was important to take

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: a few moments to address the bizarre, the offensive, the surreal, the horrendous opening

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: ceremony moments at the Summer Games, the Olympics in Paris, France.

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I decided to jump in front of a camera for our Facebook page and also put out a

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00]: new audio version of the podcast.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: It was just 48 hours ago that we put out our Olympics Preview podcast and had a lot

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: of fun talking about the games.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Never really imagining at the time what a bizarre twist and turn it would take just during the

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: opening ceremonies.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Now I for one, not a really big fan of the opening ceremonies, certainly don't care about the

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: closing ceremonies, but what those few hours do every Olympic cycle is give the world a

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: little bit of insight into the values, the celebration mindset of the host nation.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: You would like to think that they would focus on things like athletic achievement, dedication,

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_00]: patriotism and all of those things that we all appreciate about the Olympics.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we really as fans for the most part, what we really want are the goosebumps

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: moments.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see our athletes on the podium when the national anthem is being played.

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see them singing along.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see the tear trickling down the cheek.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see those moments.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to be reminded of iconic moments.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see Michael Phelps win yet another gold.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see our gymnast pull off the upsets.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see all of these things happen.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: What we don't really count on seeing is a direct attack on our faith.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't mean just a mildly questionable moment.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean an intentional direct attack.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what happened during the opening ceremonies.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: A little bit of background for you.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The opening ceremonies are the responsibility of the host nation.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: The International Olympic Committee of course has a role in it, but they're not the ones

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: that are shaping the messaging and celebrating the various cultural trends and the beliefs

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and the history of the host nation.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: That's on France, which is what makes what happened in the opening ceremonies so mind-blowingly

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: dumb, so ridiculously offensive that I'm having a hard time putting it into words.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_00]: It did not happen by accident that the host committee decided to mock openly the scene

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_00]: of the last supper with Jesus and the disciples.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't seen it by now, you'll find it.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Just go look for it online.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Actually from what I'm told, you may not find it because the incredible global backlash

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: is leading the IOC to begin scrubbing it from various social channels.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't really know if it's still out there or if it has been pulled down everywhere.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So let me paint just a little bit of a word picture for you.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: You know the iconic painting that depicts Jesus at the center of the table.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: The disciples fanned out on either side of him.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, culturally they would be sitting, they would be reclined, they would be on

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_00]: the floor.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And in the Paris version, Jesus was replaced by a morbidly obese woman.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: The disciples were replaced with various representatives from the LGBTQ world.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: There were some really troubling dances that took place with a bearded man dressed in drag,

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_00]: with somebody dressed kind of like a smurf except they were just wearing a loincloth.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean stuff that I can't wrap my head around.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying not to be the get off my long guy.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe somebody somewhere thought this was a good idea and thought that it would entertain

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and amuse somebody.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_00]: It did not.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It angered a good portion of the world because there's a line, a delicate line that for some

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: reason in some instances we will allow it to be crossed.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: You know we don't object too loudly to when somebody uses the name of the Lord in

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: the rain.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We kind of wish they hadn't said that, but we've become sort of numb to it and so we

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: don't say a whole lot.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: We just you know, I shouldn't do that.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Say golly instead, right?

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And then there's the line crossing where even people of marginal faith, people who

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: were perhaps raised with a background that you are to respect Christianity, that you

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: are to stay away from those things that would directly poke at the iconic moments.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: You know you don't mess with Easter Sunday, you don't mess with the cross, you

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: don't mess with the resurrection, you stay away from Christmas.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: You realize that these are distinctly faith-based occasions and when we think

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: about the scene of the Last Supper there's no mistaking the reality.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That is a faith-based scene except for the Paris Committee.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I want you all to know something about how the Olympics work and how presentation

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: works.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: That was not an accident.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: That did not slip by, you know there's nobody in the host committee who can

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: say, I really didn't have any idea.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh that really caught me off guard.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: No, here's what we know.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: We know that every moment of all of that mess had cameras set in the exact places

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: they needed to be so that the global feed wouldn't miss a thing.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Well how does that happen?

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It happens through rehearsal.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: That happens through elaborate scripting, that happens through elaborate planning

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: and it happens through multiple, multiple run-throughs.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: They didn't just happen upon this idea for the opening ceremonies like on Monday.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: We're talking months and months and months in the making and somehow at no point

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_00]: did anybody in a position of authority say, hey guys, man the rest of it's pretty cool.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Celine Dion singing, she was great and the whole weird thing with the horse.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess people could draw some inference from revelation from that but for the most part we're

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: good with all that.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, in fact if you still want to bring out all of your representatives from this community

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_00]: that you're celebrating, okay you do you France, but how about we stay away from the direct

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: assault on people of faith?

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody said that.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Somehow nobody said that.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: There are two things I want to share with you, one of, well neither of them were written by me.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Make that perfectly clear.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The first is a really well-written reaction to all of that by Andy Stanley, the pastor.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm reading his words directly.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Dear France, the Normandy American Cemetery is the final resting place of 9238 Americans whose

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: graves are marked by 9238 crosses.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: American soldiers who in most cases volunteered to come to your shores in your time of need.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Their final prayers were to the God whose Son you mocked in front of the entire world.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It was during the very meal you went to such creative pains to denigrate

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_00]: that Jesus instructed his followers to love one another and then defined what he meant.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: While you host the Olympic Games, remember your nation hosts a 172 and a half acre reminder

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: of what love looks like.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: You don't just owe Christians an apology, you owe the West an apology.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And as I read those really well-written words from Andy Stanley,

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I start to think to myself, how did we get to a place where it would even be thought of

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_00]: to take an Olympic platform and use it as a pummeling shot directed at people of faith?

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me stop for a moment and say, yes, it was a direct shot.

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_00]: My faith isn't shaken in the least.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just offended by what happened.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I hope all of you who are also offended are also very firm in your faith.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_00]: This didn't change a thing with my relationship with Christ.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_00]: It changed a few things about my enthusiasm for the Olympics, I can tell you that.

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm out.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00]: But having said that, how did this world, how did this culture, especially in Europe,

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_00]: how did we get to this place?

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember one of the shortest books of the Bible, got one chapter.

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_00]: It is the book of Jude.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to pick it up in verse three and read to you for a moment.

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_00]: See if you think these words have application in the year 2024.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share,

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_00]: entrusted to God's holy people.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Here you go, verse four.

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_00]: For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: slipped in among you.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: and deny Jesus Christ our only sovereign and Lord.

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to skip down to verse seven in a similar way.

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_00]: immorality and perversion.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_00]: In the same in the very same way on the strength of their dreams, these ungodly

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_00]: people pollute their own bodies, pollute their own bodies, reject authority and

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_00]: heap abuse on celestial beings.

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yet these people slander whatever they don't understand

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and the very things that they do understand by instinct as irrational

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_00]: animals do will destroy them.

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_00]: These people are blemishes at your love feasts or your opening ceremonies.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Eating with you without the slightest qualm, shepherds who feed only themselves.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_00]: They are clouds without rain blown along by the wind, autumn trees without fruit

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and uprooted twice dead.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00]: They are wild waves of the sea foaming up their shame, wandering stars for whom

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Down to verse 16, these people are grumblers and fault-finders.

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_00]: They follow their own evil desires.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00]: They boast about themselves and they flatter others for their own advantage.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_00]: They said to you in the last times there will be scoffers who will follow

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_00]: their own ungodly desires.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_00]: These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: they don't have the Spirit.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: But you dear friends, that's all of you, but you dear friends, by building

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_00]: yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_00]: to bring you to eternal life.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Be merciful to those who doubt.

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Save others by snatching them from the fire.

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_00]: To others show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And to him who was able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Christ our Lord before all ages now and forevermore. Amen.

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_00]: My friends, while many of us, myself included, were deeply offended by the opening ceremonies.

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And while I openly applaud the corporate sponsors who have withdrawn their

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_00]: advertising in protest of it, and while I am perfectly fine not watching any

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_00]: of the competition, I need to say this again at the end.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't change my walk with Christ.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It does not change the responsibility I have to accurately, consistently and lovingly

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_00]: present the hope that we find only in Christ to everybody who needs it,

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_00]: including those who took part in that celebration.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It was ugly.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_00]: But sin is ugly.

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So I hope you'll keep those thoughts in mind.

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And as we move forward, whether you decide to watch the Olympics or not,

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_00]: realize that we all, as followers of Christ, do have a very clear responsibility

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_00]: to stand for the truth, to speak out when it's being ignored or attacked.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: But in the end, it's also our responsibility to love others and show them the love of Christ.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_00]: That's our special edition of Church Pew Sports reacting to the opening

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_00]: ceremonies controversy.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a great weekend.

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk to you next time on Church Pew Sports.

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And I hope you'll subscribe, by the way, and spread the link around to this podcast

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_00]: so that others can hear a biblical approach to a worldly offense.

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_00]: See you next time.