Responding to the Spirit of the Age

Don't Be Surprised. Don't Fall Into the Trap.

As a Christian, I know I was supposed to be offended by the utter debauchery that was on display during the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony. I wasn’t. And I say that for a very simple — very specific — reason.

I didn’t watch it.

It’s hard to be offended by something you never see. And I don’t mean that to in any way imply that I am trying to brag about my incredible prescience, my moral superiority, or my astonishing powers of discernment. I say that because I’ve been burned before.

I admit I’m a little slow on the uptake. I mean, you can fool me once (Tokyo 2020), or even twice (Beijing 2022). But by the third time, I’m living proof that my mama didn’t raise no fool. I mean, come on.

What did you expect?

“Why would anyone want to waste their time with some secular, narcissistic ‘artist’ who is trying to lure the world into joining him on his acid trip?”

~ My good friend, Dan Loughran

I’m not judging people I don’t know (well, maybe a little). I’m just talking about demographic reality. The Olympics this year are in Paris, France. It’s part of the European Union. Europe became a “post-Christian” part of the world many years ago. It’s a place where some of the most beautiful cathedrals on planet Earth are empty caverns on Sunday mornings. It’s a place where, on average, 82% of the people either don’t believe in, or don’t practice, any kind of Judeo-Christian faith.

In Europe, the Spirit of the Age rules. We see it in European culture, politics, and economics. So, when that same Spirit is given the stage to strut its stuff with the whole world watching, we should not be surprised by what it will produce.

As some have put it, “Pagans gonna pagan.”

Filling a God-Shaped Hole

Europe rejected the very foundation of objective moral values and obligations more than 140 years ago when one of its greatest thinkers, Friederich Nietzsche, declared that “God is dead … and we have killed him.”

Those who have studied a little philosophy know that Nietzsche didn’t say that triumphantly. And he didn’t stop there. He went on to say that “belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable,” and that everything that “was built upon this faith, propped up by it, grown into it,” including “the whole of our European morality,” is destined for “collapse.”

In other words, unlike me, Nietzsche actually was a prescient guy. He saw the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremony coming 140 years ago. He was an honest atheist who acknowledged that removing God from the equation doesn’t end with people simply not believing in him. In G. K. Chesterton’s pithy way of saying things:

“When a man stops believing in God, he doesn’t believe in nothing; he believes in anything.”

The “anything” that was on display during the Olympic Opening Ceremony was a clear reflection of a godless culture trying to fill the God-shaped hole in its heart.

Choreographed Provocation

I have heard the resulting debate about whether the faceless horseman who galloped down the Seine River was supposed to be the Pale White Horse of the apocalypse. I have also heard the discussions about whether the infamous table scene was meant to mock DaVinci’s “Last Supper” and thereby provoke Christians, or whether it was a tribute to Dionysus meant to celebrate the Greek roots of the Olympic games.

Since the event, those who choreographed the extravaganza have been busy explaining that they intended no harm with any of it. They claim their only goal was to celebrate “inclusion.” They didn’t mean to provoke anybody and they have “apologized” to those Christians who took offense.

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and accept the claim that they didn’t intend to mock Christianity specifically. That’s actually a reasonable claim when you consider that European Christianity is not something they would care enough about to mock. In their mind, it’s archaic and irrelevant.

But let’s not be naive. They were mocking something, even if it wasn’t “Christianity.” They were thumbing their noses at the family and traditional views of human sexuality. How else do you explain four hours of scantily-clad drag queens, occultic image bearers, and other hyper-sexualized actors dancing and twerking on boats and in the streets of Paris?

The truth is they didn’t care if their actions were seen as provocative. If you were provoked by what they did, that’s your problem. Their goal was to challenge societal norms and dare someone to say anything about it.

The question for us is, “How should we respond?”

Reaction Is What They Want

Many Christians repulsed by the display have called for like-minded believers to react accordingly. They want us to man the pitchforks, proclaim our disgust on social media, and boycott watching the Olympics in retaliation. We must stand up for what is right!

May I humbly suggest that that is the last thing we should do? And I say that for another very simple — very specific — reason.

That’s exactly what they want you to do.

Secular leftist provocateurs call this “strategic provocation.” They purposefully engage in behavior that, if accepted, advances their socio-political agenda. But if they meet resistance from the culture, they frame the reaction as an unjust overreaction. Their opponents are labeled as tyrants and bullies. They become victims.

They have mastered this strategy. And they keep doing it because it works.

Knowing this, it becomes obvious that the reactions many Christians are calling for play right into their hands. We Christians look hateful and oppressive (whether we are or not) and the cycle continues.

Instead of that, what if we were to implement a more effective tactic we might call “strategic inattention.”

What if we just ignored them?

A Christian Response

Here’s how it would work.

In the future, don’t even watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies or any other similar event. Television’s lifeblood is ratings. They are what drive advertiser spending. I’m not naive enough to think every Christian is going to play along here. But if a huge segment of the population never turned on the show, it just might clue the planners and producers into the fact that they need to create something that appeals to a bigger audience.

Maybe.

But even if they continue to produce the same sort of nonsense every four years, you wouldn’t have to see it, be disgusted by it, or have the stuff you write about it on social media sabotage your Christian witness.

Remember, that’s exactly what they want you to do.

How great would it be to have people ask what you thought of the Opening Ceremony Show only to have you respond, “Oh, was that on last night?”

Blissful ignorance can be very neutralizing and attractive.

No doubt, you’ll hear stories of the debacle. But instead of reacting with disgust, what if we all responded with thoughtful kindness? What if, instead of launching into some diatribe about the debauched state of the culture, we were equipped and prepared to use it as a springboard to talk about how Christianity provides a deeper, more wholesome, and life-affirming explanation of the world in which we find ourselves?

Image Bearers

Whatever you do, please don’t “boycott” the Olympic Games.

Seriously.

There are very few things we witness in this world that are more unifying and awe-inspiring than the spectacle of world-class athletic competition.

Where else can you see the daughter of a drug-addicted mother, who was given up on and placed in foster care as a small child, become the greatest Olympic gymnast who ever lived?

Where else can you see some kid who lived in obscurity on an Indian reservation, or grew up on a crime-infested, impoverished Caribbean island, shock the world as the fastest human who’s ever strapped on track shoes?

I could go on and on but you get the picture. The Olympic Games are filled with stirring moments produced by people whose talent, hard work, tenacity, courage, and strength reflect a truth about what it means to be human that resonates with everyone who witnesses it.

We are made in God’s image. And that means that when we put the minds he gave us to good use, we can impact this world in ways that transcend our baser instincts. In ways that drive us to see the true, the good, and the beautiful in every human being.

That’s unifying, encouraging, and inspiring.

Let’s not boycott that.

Pagans gonna pagan. It’s what we should expect and there’s nothing we can do about it.

But Christians gotta Christian. Unfortunately, that’s not what the world expects. But it’s exactly what the world needs to see.