Tate and Musk were outraged by the Olympics. But Christians must show a better way

How should we react to the alleged mockery of Christianity in the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony? First, we should acknowledge that not everyone was convinced the ceremony had been designed to parody Da Vinci’s famous painting, The Last Supper. 

Nevertheless, there were plenty of critics. French Bishops’ Conference lamented the “derision and mockery of Christianity,” with Gavin Ashenden explaining in this publication why the scene was so insulting to Catholics in particular. 

Some evangelicals were upset too. But it is striking that some of the quickest and fiercest criticism actually came from right-wing social media personalities who are not themselves Christians.

Elon Musk, who follows Richard Dawkins in identifying only as a “cultural Christian”, opined on his X platform that the ceremony “was extremely disrespectful to Christians” but that “Christianity has become toothless” in not standing up to such insults.

More strident still was Andrew Tate, the Muslim-convert and controversial influencer currently facing charges of rape and human trafficking in Romania. Blasting the ceremony as “a bunch of gay satanic garbage,” he organised a small protest outside the French embassy in Bucharest where placards read, “Christianity will not be mocked” and “Boycott the Olympics.” “Christianity has lost all teeth,” he thundered: “I am a Muslim. And I will not let Jesus be mocked.”

Egotists such as Musk and Tate have no idea what Jesus was doing

This level of outrage has been commonplace online this week. Anyone who loves the Lord Jesus will of course be grieved by public ridicule of him and there is certainly a place for calling out the hypocrisy of a culture that openly mocks our faith in the name of inclusion and diversity. But we must not allow ourselves to be pulled into the kind of counter-rage espoused by Tate. As evangelist Glen Scrivener wisely commented, “Outrage is not a fruit of the Spirit.” 

The darkest version of this outrage is violence. Andrew Tate said, “There is [a] reason Islam doesn’t get clowned like Christianity does at the historically largest sporting ceremony in history” – fear of the consequences. He previously said that a key factor in his conversion was that “People don’t stand up and openly disrespect Islam, because they’re afraid!” and wouldn’t make it out alive if they mocked the Prophet Muhammad. He’s right, of course: almost a decade ago Islamist gunmen in Paris murdered 12 journalists on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after it carried caricatures of Muhammad. 

A better way

Jesus taught his followers to do the exact opposite – to love their enemies. Burning with righteous outrage, when James and John wanted to “call down fire from heaven” on Samaritan villagers who rejected Jesus, Luke tells us “Jesus turned and rebuked them” (Luke 9:54). In one of those delightful ironies I so love in the Bible, Luke later recounts that when the Samaritans do eventually believe, it is none other than John himself who is sent by the apostles to welcome them into the church (Acts 8:14-17)!

And that gets to the heart of how we should respond here. Our goal is to bring people to Jesus, not flame them (either literally as John wanted, or figuratively online).

Hours after the last supper so famously depicted by Leonardo da Vinci, Jesus allowed himself to be handed over to the Romans, rebuking Peter for trying to violently defend him. Before they crucified him, they dressed him in a purple robe, placed a crown of thorns on his head, and fell on their knees mockingly hailing him as “King of the Jews” (Mark 15:16-19). When soldiers and religious leaders continued taunting him as he hung on the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:24).

Egotists such as Musk and Tate have no idea what Jesus was doing at this point. They want “strength” - not this. But out of love for the whole human race Jesus willingly took our sin and mockery on himself to open the way for forgiveness, joy, peace, and everlasting life. It confounded people - both then and now. 

Tate says he won’t let Jesus be mocked. But that misunderstands the point. Christ has already willingly subjected himself to mockery. He willingly gave up his whole life. That looks like weakness to the Tates of the world. They can’t get their head around a suffering messiah, or a servant king. 

The deepest sense in which "God cannot be mocked" is the literal one. You simply cannot plumb a deeper depth than God crucified. Everything since has been laughably tame and woefully out of date. pic.twitter.com/JygBeUSeFE

— Glen Scrivener (@glenscrivener) July 27, 2024

Let’s see the Olympics as an opportunity to help our friends understand our counter-cultural saviour. In the coming days you could have loads of Olympics conversations with friends, neighbours, hairdressers, taxi-drivers, colleagues, anyone. Talk about the sport, then ask them what they thought about the ceremony. If they are interested, a door may open for you to continue: “That’s what I love about Jesus, he willingly endured all that mockery for you and me…”

Who knows where the conversation might go?