Good evening District 27. Today I share with you a photo of me on July 14, 1999, in Paris, France taken on Bastille Day, a French national holiday. This photo is from my first trip to Europe. I spent four nights in Paris before heading to Geneva, Switzerland to begin my hike in the Swiss Alps. I recall seeing all the major attractions: walking down the Champs-Élysées to the Arch of Triumph, sitting in a cafe along the Seine River people watching and being entertained by local artists, watching the fireworks display off the Eiffel Tower amongst thousands of French people, standing in awe of the rose stained glass window at Notre Dame Cathedral, and having lunch on the steps of Sacra Coeur Basilica on my last beautiful day in Paris.
As many of you know, Paris is hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics. I was unable to watch the opening ceremony because I have been preparing for the fall campaign and launching my campaign website; however, it did not take long for me to find out about the fallout from the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony and how it had upset Christians and all people of good will. It has been over a week now since the opening ceremony and many people are still weighing in on the insensitivity towards Christians. Personally, I have not watched any of the games and have only received snippets of information of athletes who have won medals.
I have always been a fan of the Olympics. I remember watching the Olympics on TV during the summer of 1976 when Montreal was the host city and then in 1980 when Los Angeles hosted the Olympics but then the USA boycotted the Moscow games of 1984. These were my formative years and it always made me proud as an American to watch the games and I believed in the Olympic spirit that peace could be achieved in the world by uniting us through our common love for sports.
I remember in the summer of 1976 when Bruce Jenner won a gold medal for competing in the decathlon. He was on the cover of every Wheaties box in America at the time. Bruce was a role model for young athletes who upheld the Olympic motto to go “Faster, Higher, Stronger!” (1). Fast forward 41 years later, Bruce Jenner reported on ABC’s 20/20 special with Diane Sawyer that he had identified as a woman and that he had undergone “the final surgery” in his gender reassignment (2). In the past four decades, I have lived in a period of rapid confusion where few people stand up for the truth, which brings me to the point of this posting.
This past week at the Olympics we saw the “true colors” on full display literally and figuratively of what is taking place in our world. The Artistic Director of the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Thomas Jolly achieved his goal of adding shock value by showcasing to the world a crass parody of the Last Supper by a bunch of men dressed in drag “portraying the apostles and a self-proclaimed lesbian DJ as Jesus in what appeared to be part of a fashion show — apparently mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting” (3).
Without a doubt, the Paris Olympic Games have been sabotaged by an elite mob under the guise of inclusivity but overtly excludes Christians by mocking a central mystery of the Christian faith. The events of the opening ceremony are no different than what happened during the era of the French Revolution. The Age of Enlightenment ushered in the Post-Modern World Era of Relativism that we are living in today where everyone has their own truth. No more is there objective truth according to the elite mob and that anyone should have the right to freely express themselves as they see fit (e.g., Bruce Jenner) and better yet, you're going to accept it, otherwise you are going to be labeled a bigot and a host of other -isms. The elitists would rather rid the world of what is good, beautiful, and true, and allow you to be the arbiter of your own truth. In my opinion, this is complete madness.
Shortly after the opening ceremony, Bishop Robert E. Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota took to social media and said, “France, called the eldest daughter of the church, and Paris, the city of saints, “felt evidently … the right thing to do is to mock this very central moment in Christianity where Jesus in his Last Supper gives his body and blood in anticipation of the cross” (4).
The Vatican this weekend finally weighed in on the spectacle in Paris and joined the voices of Christians around the world by sharing with the French journalists a written statement “to deplore the offense done to many Christians and believers of other religions.” The Vatican concluded in its statement that “Freedom of expression…finds its limit in respect for others” (5). Sadly, the Vatican came up short and did not request a formal apology from the current International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach. Note: The current IOC President won a foil team gold medal during the same summer Olympic Games that Jenner won his gold medal. This is no coincidence and all the more reason why I have chosen to boycott watching these games.
Thankfully, there was a ray of hope in the Paris Summer Olympics. The lights went out across the "City of Light" shortly after the conclusion of the opening ceremonies and the only building that remained to be lit up throughout the night was the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, (a Roman Catholic Church and Minor Basilica in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The French Energy provider Enedis told the news outlet Le Parisien that “a network incident due to a technical anomaly has caused power cuts in…Paris, affecting 85,000 customers” (6).
Regardless of how the media will spin this story, in the end, God will not be mocked. Each of us will have to stand before our Creator and each of us will need to testify to the truth. Each of us will need to take inventory of our lives and account for when we stood up for the truth. If elected your state senator, I will always err on the side of truth and will not be bullied by the lobbyists and elitists who want nothing more than to silence our society for speaking truth. God bless.
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