The Conseil National des Évangéliques de France (CNEF) said it has accepted an apology from the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee for the Olympics after a drag queen parody of the Last Supper was shown at the opening ceremony last Friday.
The tableau featuring a dozen drag queens has drawn criticism from Christians around the world, for parodying Leonardo de Vince’s iconic painting, which depicted Jesus eating his final meal with the apostles, and instituting the practice of Communion as a way to remember him, before he was crucified.
In a press release, CNEF President Erwan Cloarec acknowledged the distress of “many” at what happened during the opening event.
“Many, in France and beyond, have expressed a feeling of deep hurt, particularly by what was perceived as a humiliating parody of the Last Supper or the promotion of divisive ideological propaganda,” Cloarec said.
“The CNEF has made itself the spokesperson for this feeling by expressing its incomprehension on social networks and publicly asking: ‘If the objective was fraternity and inclusion, why target and mock the faith of a few?’”
The evangelical body said it accepted an apology from the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee after ceremony director Thomas Jolly denied any “intention to denigrate,” according to Cloarec.
“We accept this apology, aspiring together for these games to be more of an opportunity for unity than for division,” said Cloarec.
Cloarec and the CNEF Director General will meet the head of the Central Office of Worship today, July 30, at the Ministry of the Interior in Paris.
“They will ask her to officially convey to the Minister of the Interior our commitment to a secularism that makes room for everyone and our request that the State guarantee that everyone, believers or not, will be respected in their essential convictions within a Republic that wants to unite. We ask for your prayers for this interview and its follow-up,” stated the CNEF press release.
Cloarec said that evangelicals should “not be surprised that the society around us is not Christian”, while believers' hope is directed to the kingdom of God.
“The apostle Peter exhorts us to live our Christian condition as people passing through the earth. And Jesus himself warns his disciples: ‘My Kingdom is not of this world.’ But it is precisely in this world, marked by paganism as it was 2,000 years ago, that we are called to be his witnesses, in words and in deeds.”
Cloarec called on French evangelicals to heed the example of the apostle Paul who, despite exasperation at finding many idols in the Green city of Athens, shared the gospel vocally every day with his contemporaries in the public square.
“Seeking to build bridges within their culture, he did not hesitate to speak of their statues or their poets. He went so far as to appropriate the quote from Epimenides: ‘of Zeus we are the race’ in order to speak of the God of Jesus Christ who gives to all movement, life and being. This is how we must find for today the means to make our faith dialogue with culture, on every occasion, favorable or not.”
The dream for evangelicals, including the entire Ensemble 2024 team, has been using the games as an opportunity for gospel witness, Cloarec reminded fellow believers.
“Let us see in the situation that arises a real opportunity to bear witness to our faith as the person of Christ has just been placed at the center of these games. Let us hear the cries of the heart and the need for reconciliation of our contemporaries, their quest for identity and belonging. They cry out in a pluralistic society; let us show them how to cry out louder to the one who invites them all to his table and offers true reconciliation, true identity and belonging.
“During these games and beyond, let us share with all peoples the Good News that we have received.”
