At least one sponsor has withdrawn from the 2024 Olympic games after the games’ opening ceremony featured a blasphemous display of the Last Supper.
C Spire, a telecommunications and technology company based in Mississippi, announced on Saturday that it was pulling advertising from the Olympics after the opening ceremony featured a scene of the Last Supper, but with drag queens playing the roles of Jesus and the apostles.
“We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics,” the tech company said in a post on social media.
We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics.
— C Spire (@CSpire) July 27, 2024
Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, a popular Catholic commentator, condemned the Olympics display as a “gross mockery” and urged Christians to “make our voices heard.”
“You know, I love the Olympics, so I turn on the opening ceremony of the Olympics. What do I see now … but this gross mockery of the Last Supper,” Barron said in a video posted to social media. “France felt, evidently, as it’s trying to put its best cultural foot forward, the right thing to do is to mock this very central moment in Christianity where Jesus at his last supper gives His body and blood in anticipation of the cross. And so it’s presented though as this sort of gross, flippant mockery.”
“I think, folks, what’s interesting here is this deeply secularist, postmodern society knows who its enemy is, they’re naming it, and we should believe them,” he continued. “They’re telling us who they are. We should believe them. But, furthermore, we Christians, we Catholics should not be sheepish. We should resist. We should make our voices heard.”
Friends, my thoughts on the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. #Olimpiadas2024 #OlympicGames pic.twitter.com/xU1ljFMZft
— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) July 27, 2024
Mississippi’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, applauded C Spire for backing out of the Olympics over the display.
“I am proud to see the private sector in Mississippi step up and put their foot down. God will not be mocked. C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line,” Reeves said.
I am proud to see the private sector in Mississippi step up and put their foot down. God will not be mocked. C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line. https://t.co/R38yJye97I
— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) July 27, 2024