A performance featuring drag queens who appeared to parody the famous painting “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games has quickly attracted backlash from global leaders and Christians for allegedly ridiculing Christianity.
This event occurred during a float parade on the River Seine and showcased drag queens gathered around a table, with one individual, painted blue, positioned on top of it. Critics contend that this portrayal mirrored the Da Vinci masterpiece, which depicts a moment from the Gospel of John where Jesus reveals that one of his apostles would betray him.
Among the many faith leaders expressing anger at the performance is Daniel Darling, director of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Land Center for Cultural Engagement.
He mentioned that his family enjoys watching the Olympics, and he was deeply disappointed by the incident.
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A view of the Olympic rings in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)
“I was shocked by the appalling mockery of the Lord’s Supper during the opening ceremonies,” he stated in an email to Fox News Digital on Monday.
“This was, as organizers admitted, precisely what we thought: a blasphemous parody of the Christian faith, which is fundamental to Western Civilization. Christians have every right to be outraged and horrified. This demonstrates that the sexual revolution is emerging as an alternate religion, one that scorns what is true and beautiful, as well as God.”
He added, “What should Christians do? We should feel both anger and sadness, then be inspired to proclaim the truth and goodness of the Christian faith. The essence of the Lord’s Supper is Jesus’ self-sacrifice, laying down His life for sins and offering salvation and forgiveness for believers. His body and blood were broken for us. Our response should be to fervently, yet compassionately share the gospel with those seeking meaning and transcendence, who gravitate towards unfulfilling deities. Remarkably, Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection offer forgiveness even to those who mock Him.”
Christian co-founder of Morgan Pierce Media & Publishing, Carrie E. Pierce, also voiced her criticism regarding the performance.
“The Last Supper ‘performance’ at the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics was not art. It was a manifestation of satanic warfare – and mental illness – on full display,” she remarked.
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A view of the Eiffel Tower with the Olympic rings displayed along with the national flags of competing countries from the Place du Trocadero ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 21, 2024, in Paris, France. (Kevin Voigt/GettyImages)
“One has to wonder, why didn’t they choose to feature a drag queen Muhammad or a drag queen Buddha instead? Christians are often seen as ‘easy targets’ because we are expected to turn the other cheek and be ‘tolerant’. Until this perspective shifts, such debauchery will persist, to the detriment of the world,” she added. “God will not be mocked. For us, the crucial question is: Why is it so essential for grown men dressed as women to access our youth in such a hypersexualized manner? What is that REALLY about?”
Brian Grim, founding president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, also weighed in.
“The organizers of the Last Supper spectacle during the Opening Ceremony lag woefully behind in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which they purportedly aimed to showcase. Recent data indicates a significant increase in Fortune 500 companies incorporating religious considerations into their DEI strategies, aiding them in avoiding such offensive and COSTLY errors. The world’s largest companies are embracing religious inclusivity in the workplace at a speedier pace than ever, according to the 2024 Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index and Monitor published by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) in May,” he wrote to Fox News Digital.
“The REDI report identifies 429 (85.8%) Fortune 500 companies that now mention or include religion as part of their broader commitment to diversity, a number that has more than doubled since 2022 (202 companies, or 40.4%). According to the REDI Index, Accenture and American Airlines hold the title as the most faith-friendly Global Fortune 500 companies. Perhaps the Olympic organizers have valuable lessons to learn from companies successfully implementing DEI initiatives.”
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Delegations arrive at the Trocadero as viewers observe French musician Philippe Katerine performing on a large screen, in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)
In the aftermath of the spectacle, various prominent figures—including Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, fitness expert Jillian Michaels, Elon Musk, actress Candace Cameron Bure, and former transgender influencer Oli London—publicly criticized the performance.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, European Parliament member and French politician Marion Maréchal, as well as Hungary’s ambassador to the Vatican, Eduard Habsburg, are just a few of the U.S. lawmakers and foreign officials who condemned the performance.
U.S. Bishop Robert Barron’s remarks denouncing the performance as a “gross, flippant mockery of the Christian faith” became widely shared.
“I was shocked and disappointed,” he recounted during his initial reaction to the performance on “Fox News Live” Sunday.
“I enjoy the Olympics, and I tuned in with great interest. Seeing this mockery of ‘The Last Supper’—which is central to Christianity—was upsetting. It seems everyone is included except Christians and believers.”
While many assert the performance was a derision of the famed Da Vinci painting featuring Christ and his disciples, some argue it was meant to symbolize the feast of the Greek god Dionysus, asserting that the outrage is misinterpreted.
One X user commented, “It wasn’t ‘The Last Supper.’ The blue character rolling on the table was actually meant to be Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility and wine. Get real. Seriously.”
Journalist Katherine Brodsky also weighed in, stating, “Why is there such extreme animosity? It’s not The Last Supper; it’s the Ancient Greek myth of Dionysus.”
The official X account for the Olympics shared an image from the performance with the caption: “The representation of the Greek God Dionysus reminds us of the absurdity of violence among humans.”
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Bradley Schurman, author and CEO of Human Change, expressed the following in a statement to Fox News Digital:
“The stir surrounding the ‘Last Supper’ likely arose because Christians misconstrued what they were observing, which was actually the Feast of Dionysus, a Greek deity. Christianity has incorporated considerable symbolism, iconography, and religious observances from Greek and Roman traditions, making such parallels unsurprising.
“Now, why were they so offended?” he continued. “American Christians have had a historically complicated relationship with the LGBTQ community for decades. Observing drag queens portraying what they perceived as Jesus and his disciples could be triggering. However, that was not the intent of the event organizers.”
Despite the outcry, event organizers maintain that the performance wasn’t meant to offend anyone. Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps stated via Reuters that “there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” and the opening ceremony aimed to “celebrate community tolerance.”
“We believe this ambition was realized. If anyone has taken offense, we truly apologize,” she noted.
Fox News’ Cortney O’Brien, Brian Flood, Ryan Gaydos, and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
