I am a Jew, not a Christian. Yet I found loathsome the mockery of the Last Supper — one of the holiest scenes in the New Testament — during the opening of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
In fact, it is actually troubling to constantly read the words, “Many Christians are offended” — as if only Christians are offended by France’s and the International Olympic Committee’s mockery of Jesus’ Last Supper scene.
Indeed, if only Christians were offended, there is little hope for civilization.
But we live in the age of groupthink, in which only members of targeted groups are expected to be offended. To write that Christians were offended by what just transpired in Paris would be as if one were to write, “blacks were offended” by slavery, or “Jews are offended” by Islamic attempts to eradicate Israel, or “women are offended” by the rape of women.
One assumes that moral individuals of every group would find men in drag, transwomen and a naked man enacting Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper — on the world’s largest stage — offensive.
In fact, “offensive” doesn’t do justice to how we all should view what the French and the Olympics did.
What was done in the opening to the 2024 Paris Olympics was far more serious than “offensive.” It actually represented the greatest threat to Western civilization in the Western world’s history: the Left.
You don’t have to be a Christian to understand that Christianity — more specifically, Judeo-Christian values and the Bible — made Western civilization. Without Christianity and the Bible, there would be no West. That is why contempt for Christianity and the Bible is synonymous with mockery for the West. The current civil war within Western civilization is a war between the Left and the Bible.
It is also the reason the Los Angeles Dodgers not only allowed a group called “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” — a self-described “order of queer and trans nuns” which mimics and mocks Catholic nuns — to perform prior to a Dodgers game. The Dodgers actually honored them.
It is the reason an “artwork” titled “Piss Christ” — a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine — toured museums throughout America.
It is why the European Union Charter does not once mention Christianity.
It’s why every left-wing group in America is apoplectic over Louisiana’s recent decision to require that the Ten Commandments be posted in Louisiana classrooms; and Oklahoma’s decision to make teaching of the Bible mandatory in public schools.
And why the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, praised his country’s opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, posting on X:
“Thanks to Thomas Jolly (the artistic director) and his creative genius for this grandiose ceremony. Thank you to the artists for this unique and magical moment. … Thank you to everyone who believed in it. We’ll talk about it again in 100 years! WE DID IT!”
And there’s more bad news: As of this writing, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has said nothing about the Olympics’ degradation of the Last Supper. Perhaps he was too busy preparing another encyclical about climate change.
It is crucial to note that the Left, whether in America or Europe, never mocks Islam. One would think that with virtually all religious violence in the world emanating from that religion, the Left would concentrate its antireligious fire against Islam, or at least fundamentalist Islam.
Why doesn’t it?
One reason is that leftists fear Muslims. If you mock Islam, you will have to spend your life in hiding or risk being beheaded. On the other hand, the Left has no fear of Christians. No matter how much the Left mocks and undermines Christianity, the Left assumes that not one of the world’s 2½ billion Christians will hurt them. And the Catholic pope will not only not issue a fatwa against you, he won’t even speak out against you. Because he, too, is a man of the Left.
The second reason is that fundamentalist Islam is the Left’s ally in attempting to destroy the West. That’s why the Left is allied with Islamic fundamentalists who seek to eradicate Israel and all its Jews. Israel is seen (correctly) as an outpost of Western civilization in the midst of the Muslim world.
The Left does not hate religion. It hates Christianity, Judeo-Christian values and the Bible. That is all you need to know to understand the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and columnist.
