If you’ve been on vacation, maybe camping in the wilderness with no cell reception, you might have been fortunate enough to miss the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and the ensuing controversy.
I don’t want to contribute further to it, I really don’t. So I’d like to offer the acknowledgement of a couple of biases on my part and a thought about where we go from here. Or, more accurately, where we should have gone and where we could go.
I like the idea of the Olympics. I can certainly imagine how they got started and admire the principles and ideals of the Olympic movement, although I wonder how it’s been impacted by power, politics and corporations. I like the celebration, not only of sport but culture as well, although I’ve never been very interested in the spectacle of the opening and closing ceremonies. While the entry of the athletes and lighting the flame are great, and I find some of it entertaining, I often find I don’t understand the meaning of a lot of what’s happening. That’s not a bad thing at all. It’s really an invitation to find out more and learn some things, maybe historical or cultural things, of which I was unaware.
That’s a bias right there, too, isn’t it? Because you can sometimes choose to learn more and you can sometimes choose to let it go because it’s just not something you’re interested in. Doesn’t mean others aren’t and they should certainly enjoy that.
It’s a tricky thing, though, when people present their vision of something and others see something entirely different. Something offensive and disrespectful, something which they perceive to be attacking something they value.
Again, a lot’s been said, good and bad, wise and foolish. I’m not rehashing that. I’d just like to say that an apology was offered and, more importantly, an explanation of what was intended. And that doesn’t seem to have made any difference. Conservative and evangelical christians don’t seem to be willing to acknowledge the explanation offered - what they saw is what they’re sticking with - or accept the apology offered by the Paris Olympic committee. Some suggest it was intentional and the apology isn’t sincere - it’s another battle in the war on christianity. Others point out the hypocrisy of christians who’ve modified similar images for their own gain or suggested the real concern was the diversity of the offending scenes.
Okay. It seems many voices have been heard, religious and not. Many voices, except Jesus.
I think Jesus would say a couple of things. Forgiveness, would be one. Another would be to ask why we felt so threatened. Didn’t we find out more of what was meant by the artists and performers who created it? And even if we were still wanting to stick with what we think we saw, well, go back to that first thing.
In John’s gospel, there’s a point at which the crowd following Jesus just wants to see him do another miracle. Give us a sign we want to see, they demand. I think, right there, Jesus was so frustrated that he did a face palm. I’m the sign, he says. It’s not about me, personally, but what I’m pointing at: love, understanding, forgiveness, openness to learning and knowing and engaging each other. All the things that seem to be missing in this part of our story. Maybe we need to be less religious and more Jesus.
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