Some Coolheaded Thoughts about Worldly Ceremonies…

Apparently, a huge number of people are offended, insulted, completely bent out of shape, mortified, outraged even, by the weird nonsense which happened in “gay Paree” Olympia recently. Why? Secular theatres have always been chock full of baloney. It’s nothing new. When a self-confessed “queer”-on-a-mission is chosen as Artistic Designer for a big event on an internationally viewed stage with unlimited funds in crazy days like these, one can only expect that it will be used for “queer” propaganda — which is exactly what those festivities were — with all the usual nonsense about “diversity”, “inclusivism” and “building community cohesiveness”, etc. (which really means creating ‘queer solidarity’ so they can feel cool about their condition regardless of how much they may alienate others).

The problem is that an increasing number of loony-tune “Truthers”, “New Agers” and wacky folks calling themselves “Christians” are poring over these events to find hidden symbolism and evidence of satanic rituals and (anti)social media provides them with the perfect ultra-gullible audience for their spurious findings. And spurious they usually are. They claimed that the silver horse at that ceremony was the pale horse out of the Book of Revelation. Absolute baloney! A twisting of the Scriptures. They call things “satanic” when they don’t even have a clue what that word means. (Article coming up about all that — an updated extract from my book on the Book of Revelation). They see satanic symbolism where none exists, or they simply make it up; and where it really does exist they misapply it. You know what? I am more concerned about all these hucksters of the faith than about all the kitsch, tasteless ceremonies which they get so screwed-up about!

Honestly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about! Jesus very clearly said to His disciples “You will be hated by all because of My name” (Matthew 10:22), and “the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:18-19). Yeah, that’s right. Hated. Get used to it and man-up instead of behaving like a softling on steroids! What did you expect when you signed up for service in the army of God? A feather bed and a silk sheet? Get over your ‘self’ and start denying your ‘self’, as Christ plainly instructed (Luke 9:23)! Jesus also said to His disciples, “In the world you will have affliction” (John 16:33). Yeah, that’s right. Affliction! It’s normal. Hatred towards disciples of Christ and a load of affliction, hassle, tribulation for being a faithful servant of His — the more faithful, the more affliction. So soak it up with relish! That’s the norm, if you’ve signed up for service in God’s army. Disciples of Christ do not have to worry about that because Jesus also said that even though His disciples will have affliction in the world, they will be “emboldened with inner courage” because He has overcome the world (John 16:33) — though that overcoming has not yet been visibly ratified (apart from souls being able to be brought into His kingdom); but it will be visibly ratified when He returns cataclysmically at the end of this age.

When you witness the kind of crap which just took place in “gay Paree”, you should be bemused by the truly pathetic attempt to celebrate Dionysiac hedonism, and the equally ridiculous idea of substituting a bunch of personality-disordered perverts for the characters in a Da Vinci painting which claims to be a depiction of Jesus’ last meal but which in reality will have looked nothing like that painting (long baronial table, hippie hairstyles, European facial features, fancy robes, etc.). So that Da Vinci painting itself was already a parody! And as for the parody of that parody painting which was acted out in “gay Paree” last week… it was all bizarreness in extremis! All of it. Weird, kitsch, tasteless nonsense of the highest order. No real art in sight. Just a pile of embarrassing, cringeworthy, perv-driven Eurotrash! But nothing to get offended at, insulted by, or outraged about. For this is normal behaviour from a world which is “under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

Incidentally, all the aftermath denials that the queer tableau was only about Dionysius and not about the Da Vinci painting is a load of nonsense. The “Paris 24” producers very clearly made the following statement:

“For the ‘Festivities’ segment, Thomas Jolly (Artistic Designer) took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting to create the setting, Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief… [Jolly] is not the first artist to make a reference to what is a world-famous work of art. From Andy Warhol to ‘The Simpsons,’ many have done it before him.” (see this link: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/paris-olympics-producers-confirm-last-173957068.html )

So any denial that this was a parody of the Da Vinci painting is a hollow one. It involved BOTH the Dionysius stuff AND a parody of the Da Vinci painting. But really what else can you expect when self-confessed “queers” are given carte blanche to indulge their perverse fantasies to an international audience with unlimited funds? In these times, you’re inevitably going to get an irreverent, sacrilegious, debauched, orgiastic, bacchanalian perv-fest! No surprises there.

That opening ceremony cost €120 million to create and the whole Olympic jamboree costs around €10 BILLION to stage. That in itself is obscene. I can think of a billion better uses for that money than a bunch of nations pretending to love each other by competing with one another and then celebrating it with a pile of arcane, divisive, perverted nonsense!

So please do not get all bent out of shape by what you see going on all around us in the world. As I keep saying, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” If you are outraged by all this stuff, then when the crap really starts to hit the fan you’re going to blow a gasket! A messy business! Thank God that they aren’t hideously torturing you, or throwing you to the lions or impaling you on a pole and setting fire to you as a torch to light the way on the road (like Nero did to Christians back in the day) — well, not yet, though times similar to that are coming with equivalent persecutions appropriate to the techno-digital age.

This is why it is so important not to bring the faith into disrepute with cockamamie stories about alleged satanic activity, or misapplied symbols, or outlandish handling of texts in the Book of Revelation, and all the other histrionic tall-tales that are being told in so many social media circles today by assorted “Truthers”, “New Agers” and wacky folks calling themselves “Christians”. We have to hold the line steady. Do you know what that means? It means being mature and accountable to God for every word that you utter. It means not bearing false witness against anyone, no matter how evil they may be. It means relying on facts rather than hearsay. It means being someone who takes time to study, research and investigate beyond the warped information highway on Fakebook and YouTube. There is more than enough real data on show out there without adding to it with spurious tales for which there is no proof other than someone’s claims in cyberspace.

So, in answer to the question, “What’s all the fuss about in gay Paree?” I say this: It is just the usual kind of disturbed, disordered, morally-bereft, Christ-contemptful, Divine-law-denying, rebellious hotchpotch of truculence which can only be expected from a world filled with a deep hatred for truth. Such truth burns a hole in the soul and these activities of the world are like an asbestos-blanket attempt to extinguish that flame which can never be extinguished (which makes them even more asbestos-blanket-oriented).

As I often say, this is just the beginning. Things are going to disintegrate and degenerate exponentially over the coming year(s). This is why we need coolheadedness and a growing sense of maturity. because we who are disciples of Christ will be the ones to whom the confused will turn as the crisis of this “present evil age” deepens and deepen it will. So stoke up on “solid food” — deep study of the Scriptures with teachers who make that their diet (rather than scanning YouTube videos) — because “solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). That is where we need to be, rather than going ballistic, or feeling insulted, or getting offended over some arrogantly ignorant display from the bewildered souls of this (temporarily) fallen world…

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[The attached image is of one of the gargoyles on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, overlooking the Eiffel Tower]

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]