Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson speaks during a Freedom Coalition’s God and Country Breakfast on Jul 18, 2024 Photo: Mike De Sisti / USA TODAY NETWORK
While most people tuning in to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies enjoyed the show of global unity and Lady Gaga’s performance, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had a completely different reaction.
Speaker Johnson ran to X on Saturday to condemn a part of the performance that featured drag queens as “a mockery of Christians.”
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“Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” he wrote on X.
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He and other Christians took issue with a portion of the ceremonies that featured performers, some of them drag performers, which they thought was an attempt to recreate Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
“The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail,” Johnson wrote. He then quoted the Bible, saying, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always… pic.twitter.com/s88c9ymG9j
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 27, 2024
The only problem? The performers were not impersonating Biblical figures. They were pretending to be Greek gods.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the ceremonies, told the French news channel BFM-TV that the scene was inspired by Dionysus, not Jesus Christ.
“There is Dionysus who arrives on this table. He is there because he is the God of celebration in Greek mythology,” Jolly said, according to NBC. “The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone.”
The feasting scene during the Olympics Opening Ceremony was a representation of the Feast of Dionysus, Greek God of festivity and feasting, and ritual and theater.
The Olympics are from Greek culture and tradition. French culture is deeply rooted in feasting and festivity and… pic.twitter.com/GQd0ImPeoS
Johnson wasn’t the only one upset by the performance. Piers Morgan, the infamous conservative television personality, also lashed out against the games on X.
“A drag queen mockery of the Last Supper at the Olympics? Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision,” he posted.
A spokesperson for the Paris Olympics also defended the performance. “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think that Thomas Jolly really tried to celebrate community tolerance.”
“We believe that this ambition was achieved.”
“If people have taken any offense, we are of course really sorry,” she added.
On X, the official account for the Olympic Games posted a picture of the performance, also referencing Dionysus. “The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” the post reads.
