Commentary 24/08/01 How we saw Jesus in Bacchus at the Paris Olympics

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How we saw Jesus in Bacchus at the Paris Olympics

In France, you can abuse God as Father and Allah, but not as YHWH

The 'Last Supper' scene recreated during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics caused a huge stir among Christians around the world. (Photo: X)

By John Dayal

Published: August 01, 2024 12:15 PM GMT

Updated: August 01, 2024 12:38 PM GMT

Even as this piece is being written, the Indian government has not protested the float on the Seine river in Paris which opened the Olympics displaying a naked man in blue paint and a blond frolicking with twelve friends of uncertain sex and certain inebriation.

The highest in the Indian Christian community, from the Catholic cardinals and lay leaders to the Protestants, evangelicals, and independent churches, have collectively called it an insult to their faith, and to the Son of God.

The Dalai Lama has not spoken, not yet at least, and neither have the high priests of Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism, India’s other major religions. Muslim leaders in India have condemned the float, as indeed has Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, otherwise not greatly loved in the Western world.

India is a deeply pious country, even if it rates high in the consumption of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, human trafficking, and a love of weapons of war, the bigger, the better. It is also a rare country outside of the fundamentalist Islamic nations such as Afghanistan, where people can get punished for changing their religion.

Perceived insults to gods and religious leaders have led to much bloodshed in the years since independence in 1947. Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians have already fallen prey to such reactions.

Christians in India, a harried lot with dozens of their independent pastors in jails across northern Uttar Pradesh state, and close to 400 acts of violence against churches, schools, and worshippers so far this year, remain deeply conscious of any effort at stigmatizing their religion or mocking their God.

Back in February 2010, a small group of Christians clashed with a powerful and perhaps armed bunch of hard-line Hindus in Batala town in Punjab, outraged that an image of Jesus had been shown on a road banner, holding a jug of beer and smoking a cigarette.

Punjab's chief minister, Prakash Singh Badal, condemned the offensive image. But before peace returned, the right-wing Hindus had attacked three churches, injured 10 people, and damaged several shops.

Indian protests this time against the Paris float have been limited to press statements, letters to the French embassy, and appeals to the papal nuncio to take the matter up at the highest level.

The letters show that while some are offended by the blatant bacchanalian drunkenness, others are outraged at the presence of drag queens, LGBTQ persons, and the nudity of the lead actor. All agree this is a slur on their religion.

The protesters don’t accept the explanation of the Olympic Games organizers that the references were not to Jesus Christ as painted by Leonardo da Vinci in his "Last Supper," a print of which hangs on the wall of almost every Catholic home, and several Protestant ones too, looking down at the dining tables of the poor and the rich. They see it as an insult not as much to the all-forgiving Jesus the Christ, as to themselves as devout Christians.

The actor Philippe Katerine’s figure, his body painted blue, is reminiscent of Dionysus, or Bacchus, the ancient god of feasting and wine.

Thomas Jolly, the ceremony's artistic director, has himself gone blue in the face trying to convince people that this is a reference to another painting, the "Feast of the Gods," directly linked to Olympus.

But not every Christian finds his faith outraged, or the modesty of Jesus assaulted. Any thirteen bearded men — one or two beardless perhaps — do not make the table, some have said on social media.

Many, including men and women lay activists, took to social media to wonder if Church leaders and the common faithful had perhaps overreacted — in India and the world.

Bacchus had meetings entirely bucolic. We must discern the difference. Otherwise, we fall for the arguments of Hindu and Islamic blasphemy laws.

There is also surprise that among those protesting are people who do not believe in any statues or depiction of Christ, the Holy Family, or men and women that the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations hold to be saints.

India has its share of Christian groups that do not have a depiction of the Crucifix in their places of worship, much less any calendar art version of the Da Vinci masterpiece.

But there is an intellectual questioning of the French double standards in what constitutes questionable, objectionable, or illegal content in the various forms of the fine and performing arts.

In their actions in the past, especially in the matter of cartoon magazines, the French had, in effect, maintained that there is total freedom of expression‎ to mock Jesus Christ or Prophet Mohammed, in the vilest ways, as long as you don’t deny the Holocaust and are not anti-Semitic.

French courts upheld the law singling out Holocaust denial as a crime, ruling that the World War II genocide of Jews in particular was of a “different nature” than other crimes against humanity.

French academics, one of them convicted of Holocaust denial, had challenged the law, saying it unfairly punished only those disputing or denying the Jewish Holocaust, but not other crimes against humanity.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the Nazi Holocaust “has in itself a racist and anti-Semitic significance” and, additionally, was committed in part on French territory.

Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly newspaper, continued to revile Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad despite terror attacks and bombings which left a generation of its editorial staff dead.

The BBC's Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield then wrote that Charlie Hebdo was part of a venerable tradition in French journalism going back to the scandal sheets that denounced Marie-Antoinette in the run-up to the French Revolution.

“It involved radicalism with a provocative scurrility that often borders on the obscene. Its decision to mock the Prophet Muhammad is entirely consistent with its historic raison d'etre, Schofield said.

In other words, I would say, you can abuse God as Father and Allah, but not as YHWH. C'est la vie.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.