In a shocking statement much like First Lady Jill Biden’s, Sen. Mitt Romney praised the Olympic opening ceremony, congratulating a singer in part of the same performance that seemingly mocked Christianity by featuring the pale horseman of Revelation and mocking the Last Summer, as memorialized by Da Vinci’s famous painting of it, with transgender performers and drag queens.
As background, the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, in addition to performances by singers like Celine Deion, saw a mocking rendition of the Last Supper. The mocking Olympics of rendition saw drag queens and transgender performers reenacting the Last Supper while seated in the same formation, with an odd number of young children sprinkled amongst the performers, which many argued was highly inappropriate.
In addition to the Last Supper mockery, the opening ceremony referenced the book of Revelation, in what appeared to be a mocking display, with a white horseman, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, riding across water with a pyrotechnics display in the background. That rider signifies death, making it all the weirder.
It was offensive enough that one major company yanked its advertisements and many Christians sounded off. “I think, folks, what’s interesting here is this deeply secularist, post-modern society knows who its enemy is. They’re naming it. And we should believe them. They’re telling us who they are. We should believe them. But furthermore, we Christians, we Catholics, should not be sheepish. We should resist, we should make our voices heard,” said Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
Romney, praising part of the ceremony, wrote, in a post on X, “The @Paris2024 Opening Ceremony showcased the world’s most beautiful city. Imaginative, inventive and memorable. The performance by Celine Dion touched hearts. She epitomized the Olympic spirit with her determination, courage and incomparable talent.”
Commenters on Romney’s post skewered him. One, for example, wrote, “In case anyone ever wondered if you really are that bad… this is your response to an opening ceremony that literally mocked Christianity in as over a fashion as possible. I have more respect for AOC than you because you both believe the same things but at least she has the courage to say it loud…”
Similarly, in a statement, First Lady Jill Biden referred to the shocking, seemingly mocking of Christianity display in Paris as “spectacular,” saying, “So, last night, it was just spectacular. The rain did not dampen our spirits…. Every step of the way, I was thinking to myself, oh my god, oh my god. How are we going to top this?”
One the other side of those that criticized the performance, Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told a press conference that the performance was not meant to be offensive, saying, “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance, We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.”
By ERIC SALARD from Paris, FRANCE – Retour des medaillés de Tokyo 2020 au trocadero, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108316806
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