To stage the Opening Ceremony of an Olympics on water instead of land, with crowds gathered along a riverbank instead of in a stadium, and with performers perched on buildings instead of stages… It was outrageously creative. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Ohh, to have been an antipodean fly on the wall in those team meetings!
Epic success. I’ve never been to Paris, but now I can’t wait to do so—and I think I’ll manage without Google Maps for much of it, thanks to this ceremony (which, for me, is saying something!).
However, knowing they had a captive global audience, with the peoples and cultures and religions of the world gathered in family groups around their screens—what is it that they decided to do? Raising issues around sexuality in that way? What came over them? Did they think that such a performance was going to help where these issues are the hardest across the world? Surely not. They’ve made it worse. What happened to the ‘outrageous creativity’? Why take such a serious matter, with the opportunity to engage it instructively on a global stage, and then do something in such an offensive, preachy and polarizing manner?
Epic fail. I can only assume that the Games Wide Open are, in fact, the Games Partially Closed for many; that liberté, egalité, diversité, unité, fraternité, solidarité and the like are true for some, but not for all; and that European colonialism, albeit a softer 2.0 version, is still imposing its will and its way on others.
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
Apart from the eight years in which we were based overseas, Barby has been working at the Refugee Resettlement Center in Auckland since 2002. This year she is a ‘release teacher’, spending one day each week in three different classrooms, with three different age groups. Impressive—and demanding. One day is spent with 11-13 year olds—from…
There is something pleasing about image and word working in concert together, isn’t there? I was reminded of this again with a visit from my friend—and close colleague in Langham Partnership for more than 15 years—Pieter Kwant. the son, with song Pieter and Elria, who had popped-in for three days the week before, have a…
It is clever, isn’t it? The enduring inability of foreigners to spell (and pronounce) the name of their country has led to a marketing campaign, with everything from t-shirts to coffee cups, reminding us to get our vowels right. And if that strategy proves to be unsuccessful, there is always the fallback Bart Simpson option:…
If ‘Incredible !ndia’ can headline a tourist campaign for India, what about Magnificent Mongol!a for that large land-locked country in Central Asia? Here, let me try and make a start—because there was plenty of magnificence on display when I visited last month… a walk My hotel was on a major intersection near the center of…
My records show that this is my 800th post, going all the way back to 2nd February 2006—913 weeks ago. Yes, I do think about stopping often enough and I certainly think about deleting dozens of posts, but I keep going because of three loves: (a) I love chatting away to myself, shaping-ideas and smithing-words;…
Her workplace and his birthplace are barely 60kms apart in South India—but the places they occupy in our home could not be more different. Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur takes her place across an entire shelf! … while V.S. Azariah of Dornakal looks decidedly lonely, in comparison, doesn’t he? Yes, just a solitary book—and it is…
A sad contrast to “Queen Elizabeth” parachuting into the stadium.
Yeah, Fred, I’d still put that London Opening Ceremony ahead of this one.
The humour and the fun in it caught us off-guard as viewers.
I might also add that I only saw ‘the Lord’s Supper’ controversy spreading across social media AFTER I wrote this little piece. It was not on my mind because on this occasion I was trying to reflect more as a global citizen than as a Christian…
Paul