Olympic Outrage
Christians Angry At Dionysus For His Party Looking Too Much Like The Last Supper
The opening ceremonies at the Paris Olympics set off closed-minded Christians, as they went into a rage thinking the interpretation of Greek God Dionysus and his drinking buddies looked like Jesus and his Apostles.
What we saw was a Bacchanalia, which is celebration of Dionysus, also called Bacchus when he’s feeling nasty. These parties would last for several days. A Last Supper lasts, as long as a dinner would take, plus a speech or two. At the opening ceremony, it was depicted with a table and a group of friends, so it’s easy to see the confusion.
Christians watching the opening ceremonies and saw a table and a person sitting in the middle and assumed it must be from the Bible. History has shown more than one group of people have sat a table though. So the table sitting-outrage became apparent online after the segment aired, for approximately 5 seconds. The Olympics of course was paying homage to their Greek roots and not the Bible.
The first Olympics were in Greece, where I’m sure a few orgies broke out and a ton a Dionysus-style binge drinking happened. The creative team at the Paris Olympics thought they could reference the Greek heritage without any flak. Little did they know, American television viewers can sometimes be disconcerted Conservative voters who get unsettled at any reference of Christianity, and usually miss the mark with art, unless it looks like all White people.
The clarifications & corrections quickly appeared online to set the record straight, but as we know with the Religious Right, facts be damned. They saw what they saw. They don’t need to see any history or research. They directed their anger to Facebook & Twitter/X quicker than parishioners turn their head to child abuse from the clergy.
Until a few days ago, not many people knew what a Bacchanalia was. Many Christians watching also didn’t know Jesus isn’t in the Old Testament and doesn’t follow the Ten Commandments. So a lot of mythology was learned this weekend.
While Olympic-watching Christians are being uptight over their misinterpretation of The Last Supper, the Dionysus Olympic-watching fans are still recovering from their hangovers by having a great time on Friday night.
