In May of 2023, I wrote an article about how every person of faith should boycott Major League Baseball (despite my deep love for the game) because of the L.A. Dodgers’ choice to honor an anti-Catholic transvestite group at their “Pride Night.” As I explained then, it was not because of their sexual proclivities but because of their anti-Catholic practices, such as men dressing as nuns and using holy items as sexual devices. Gen. Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, and Catholics for Catholics used that article as a rallying cry to have a demonstration at Dodger Stadium that was a powerful expression of people of different faiths (including myself) standing up for each other against the war on all religions. Athletics are meant to be clean of political agendas. They are meant to be an opportunity to show the excellence and potential of humanity in the physical form.
And yet, we must now all confront the same issue within the greatest sporting event in the world: the Olympics.
The Paris Olympics had their opening ceremonies, and instead of being an opportunity to honor the best athletes around the world, they became a weapon in the war against Christianity. Instead of honoring athletes, the ceremonies were a tribute to drag queens and child grooming -- and, most importantly, a direct attack on everyone who accepts the Gospel.
Included in the opening ceremonies was a “parody” of The Last Supper. Jesus was portrayed by an obese woman showing her cleavage in a bustier, and all of the disciples were transvestites, along with one child. In front of them was a nearly naked French actor in blue body paint (and almost nothing else) moving sexually as the Greek god Dionysus.
There were a lot of other blatantly sexual parts, including a menage a trois with three young adults going off to have their sexual romp, actors showing parts of their genitals, and other sexual scenes that are certainly inappropriate for young audiences.
But the Last Supper sequence was not just inappropriate. It was an act of war against Christianity and, as such, against all people of faith. The Last Supper is one of the holiest moments in the Christian faith. Every apostle (with the exception of Judas) is a saint. These are the founders of the religion having their last meal with Jesus. It is a transcendent moment of holiness and the last time these individuals assembled together in the physical world.
A mockery of this sacred moment is morally wrong at all times. To do so in a public forum with a large audience is not only disrespectful, it is despicable. To do it as part of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, an event committed to bringing people, cultures, and nations together, is even worse. It is the conscious use of depravity against the holiness of God.
And as painful as it is to do, my family will not be watching even one more minute of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The only act that each of us can do as individuals that will make a difference is to cause the ratings to be so low that it radically affects the finances of the Olympics, which rely on advertising contracts to survive. We need to stop supporting advertisers that are “official sponsors of the Paris Olympics.” Only through financially damaging these Olympics, and the city of Paris itself, will a large enough splash be made so that this type of thing never happens at an Olympics (or any sporting event) again. As individuals, we all need to do our part in this war against religion by ensuring that Paris suffers even more than Athens did in the 2004 Olympics when the city had a deficit of over 14.5 billion dollars.
For me, to step away from anything having to do with the Olympics is personally devastating, but I also believe it is ethically necessary. The first Olympics that I really remember were in 1972 in Munich. I remember the horrific pain of what the Palestinian terrorists did to the Israeli athletes combined with the ecstasy of cheering on Mark Spitz as he won seven gold medals (a record at the time) in swimming. Like many American teenagers in 1976, I rejoiced in the successes of American athletes like John Naber, Shirley Babashoff, and Bruce Jenner while marveling at the performance of gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who received the first perfect ten. The Olympics have held moments of inspiration for me and millions of other people. But no more. With the IOC and the French Olympic Committee allowing this attack on religion, no longer can any of us support sporting events that are used to destroy religion.
This is not about the overt sexuality of the opening ceremonies, as much as I was personally offended and think it was a poor artistic choice for a family event. This isn’t even about the participation of “Palestinian” athletes, which I find intellectually dishonest and an injection of a political agenda that I feel shouldn’t be there. Given that there is not, and has never been, a nation of “Palestine,” it makes even less sense to me to have a Palestinian delegation of athletes than to have a Lakota or Yaqui Indian delegation because at least at one point in history there actually were Lakota and Yaqui independent nations. But none of these reasons are cause enough to reject the Olympics as a whole.
What was done at the opening ceremonies is at an entirely different level, and we all must react.
The “parody” of the Last Supper was an attack on my Christian brothers and sisters’ religion. It was a conscious attempt to defile their faith tradition. As an observant Jew, I cannot let that go unanswered.
When I called for all people of faith to step away from Major League Baseball, I was extremely blessed to pray with Bishop Strickland, Jack Posobiec, Terry Barber, and others as we stood together as people of different faiths united in protest at Dodger Stadium.
As a Jew and rabbi, I stand with my Christian brothers and sisters in defending their faith, for it is a defense of my own religion as well. Together, we can and must make a difference by protesting this heinous act.
Pastor Martin Niemöller is credited with saying the following in 1946:
When they came for the Jews, I did not speak up because I was not a Jew.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
When they came for the Catholics, I did not speak up because I wasn’t a Catholic.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up.
There is a war against religion going on. It is not only a war against each faith; it is a war against all faiths and all religious values. We see it with the prohibitions against public prayer, the secularization of religious holidays like Christmas and Easter, the sycophancy of a national candidate going on a drag queen show, and most clearly in the disgusting show of the opening ceremonies at this year's Olympics.
Like Pastor Niemöller, we must all speak out.
Roger Hornsby was asked what he does during the off-season, and he famously replied that he stares out the window and waits for spring. Despite my life-long love for the Olympics, I will now patiently “stare out the window” and wait for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
I hope you will join me in fully rejecting the Paris Olympics and its sponsors, and hopefully, we will all rejoice together in 2028 in Los Angeles as victors in this war against religion.
Editor's note: Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told the media after the event, "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."
Thomas Jolly, the director of the opening ceremony, denied that the scene was inspired by "The Last Supper" and instead depicted the painting "Feast of the Gods," which "disturbingly blends the iconography of myths with that of the Last Supper," according to the museum that owns it. We'll leave readers to decide whether those explanations hold water.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member