Woman (middle) depicting Jesus during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games
The organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games have apologized for certain scenes in the opening ceremony that drew criticism from Christian groups.
Artistic director Thomas Jolly explained that the intention was to promote religious tolerance and inclusivity, not to offend anyone. He emphasized that the scenes were meant to depict pagan gods and their activities, not to mock Christianity.
Jolly clarified that there was no intention to “mock or denigrate anyone,” and that the scene was meant to reference pagan gods.
“Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think Thomas Jolly did try to intend to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we, of course, are really sorry,” Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps stated as quoted by 3news.com.
Jolly further explained that the idea was to create a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus, aiming to bring people together and affirm values of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
The controversy arose after a sequence featuring drag artists, which some Christian groups felt parodied Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper.’
The Catholic Church in France condemned the ceremony for including “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity.”
Watch the video that sparked the controversy below:
The Olympic's Lords Supper mocking ritual is clearly to provoke Christians. The servants of Satan want you to see their dark side to push you to "fight" alongside the beast (self righteous false light system) to bring down the harlot (dark evil left side) pic.twitter.com/qMzdS5kxGK pic.twitter.com/39j1Ao2ct0
— Lizzie N (@LizzyRevelation) July 27, 2024
SB/OGB
