Wisdom Cries Out; The Olympic Opening

What a privilege and opportunity for any nation to be able to host an Olympics. The opening ceremony is a unique opportunity to display the glories of the host country. But that would presuppose that the presenters actually believe in the validity of their own national story.

I’ve been told that an unprecedented one billion people around the world witnessed this year’s London opening ceremony. I also was eager to see how the narrative of the nation of Shakespeare, Donne, Churchill, the Puritans, Wilberforce and countless other of the remarkable sons of England who have so enriched this world would be presented.

The only problem would be one of what to include and what to leave out of the national narrative. Surely they would present the fact that it was Great Britain which was the first nation to outlaw slavery, spending blood and treasure to put an end to the hated African slave trade. There would be no doubt that the brave stand Britain took against the Nazi juggernaut would be acknowledged.

Would there be any presentation of Britain’s contribution to representative government? What of the success of her former colonies, Australia,India, the United States? In any field imaginable, science, Law, Education, literature, the positive contribution of the British people to the benefit of the modern world has been immense.

But when given the chance, to tell the British story to an audience of one billion, the Olympic opening was a sad disappointment.

The beginning was promising, rightly acknowledging Britain’s Christian roots, in the beautiful singing of hymns appropriate to the four fold Kingdom of Ireland,England, Scotland and Wales.

We went from there to a cleverly choreographed reconstruction of the Industrial revolution, with an implied labor Capitol struggle, and four ugly smokestacks belching noxious fumes. Women’s suffrage was then acknowledged, and about ten minutes was devoted to the Britain’s National Health Service.

We then moved into British literary characters from Peter Pan to Mary Poppins to characters from the Harry Potter series. The finale was a heavily choreographed tribute to pop music and the amoral youth culture that grew out of it.

What was presented to one billion people as a representative sample of the contributions and development of British culture, is an extremely limited, stunted and biased selective history. This is exactly what our modern godless, amoral educational and academic elite have done to us for the last 60 years in the west. And it is extremely demoralizing.

Who would defend the culture of Ziggy Stardust or of gay marriage? Imagine there is nothing to live for or die for...? What is there in that to be proud of? By deleting the vast, rich Christian influence and contribution of our western Judeo Christian civilizations, our young have been denied a rich ,God-given heritage.

Our children could benefit by hearing again the stories of John Bunyan, Winston Churchill, William Wilberforce. The world has been enriched by them. The Proverbs teach us that the memory of the Just is blessed…

As if the music of the 1960′s through the 1990′s was the acme of the culture! Really? Britain deserves a better telling than that!

Other than the initial beautiful Christian hymns,(Which I thank God were not omitted), every other trace of Britain’s blessed and world enriching Christian influence was deleted. The valiant, slave liberating, civilizing force for universal good that is far more representative of Britain as the tawdry celebration of vanity that was presented tonight.

According to this article, Britain’s Olympic Ceremony Grapples With Weighty Issues, prominent British conservatives expressed similar concerns,

Aidan Burley, a lawmaker from Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservative party, tweeted: “The most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen — more than Beijing, the capital of a communist state! Welfare tribute next?” He followed that with: “Thank God the athletes have arrived! Now we can move on from leftie multi-cultural crap.” Several people tweeted their support for his comments.

Alastair Campbell, former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s communications chief, retorted on Twitter: “Brilliant that we got a socialist to do the opening ceremony.”"

Perhaps Wisdom is also showing us by these distortions how far we have strayed from our God, and this could be another indicator of our need for repentance. It is not too late but time is running out...”Whosoever will call upon the Lord shall be saved”

“Where are the Christians? Hiding their faith because it is too offensive to the Muslims and the ungodly.”

Well, I’m not so sure bout that. The Union Jack is a combination of the Crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick. All of the Scandinavian countries have crosses on their flags, as do Switzerland, Greece, and (formerly Soviet) Georgia, among many others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_flags_depicting_a_cross

Bad, BAD.

They started out with Shakespeare, how nice. Then a hobbit like agrarian setting, and everything was idyllic (in actually, people led lives of grinding poverty).

Sudden the farms were destroyed by dark smokestacks, and self important men with cigars in their mouths, having pictures taken, so proud of the people toiling away - the commentators said they actually had the smell of sulphur blowing over the crowd.

They stopped for WWI (a moment of silence) and then concentrated on what the commentators said the producer thought the two great accomplishments of the British people - the NHS and children’s literature.

How could they do this absolute bosh tripe? THE NHS? I mean, they had lights lit up with “NHS” in the center. It was totally bizarre.

I think for our next olympics we should have “Social Security “ and “Food Stamps” in lights. Can’t think of much else special about us. Geez.

I feel sorry for the British. If all they can find to celebrate after a thousand years is the rotten NHS, Peter Pan, and a whole bunch of screaming British music and punk outfits, no wonder they spend all their time clubbing and drinking. I’d be depressed too.

I only saw parts of it and what I saw was horrible, especially when it’s compared to China’s opening four years ago.

Danny Boyle was a wrong choice to direct for obvious reasons—he treated it like a movie, so everything looked small. Everything should look BIG considering your stage is a football field.

And another annoying thing: TOO MANY KIDS! The kids in the hospital beds was weird and baffling. And their national anthem sounded horrible with kids singing it—it should have been grand with a choir and symphony.

Paul McCartney: He’s overexposed, appearing everywhere, it seems. His performance wasn’t special—wasn’t he just at the Queeen’s jubilee last month?

I only saw the part when they lit the cauldron. I thought it was nice how the group of young, upcoming athletes did the final lighting (the passing of the torch....). The cauldron itself was REALLY cool with all of the leaves igniting individually, but then rising up and coming together to form the large flame (more great imagery - and GREAT engineering).

The fireworks was also cool - coming in along the roads(?) to the stadium, and all of the stuff on the stadium. I liked the graphic of the runner going across the stands of the stadium. The Pink Floyd song was a bit odd - the music fit, but not so sure about the lyrics.

At about this time I was hoping to see the cauldron rise up out of the stadium floor and adorn a huge tall pillar rising up over the stadium. One - it would be really cool. Two - shut the annoying commentators up.

McCartney’s little bit of music right after the Pink Floyd song was nice. They should have left it at that - “Hey Jude” sounded stupid - I quit watching during that song.

I am glad someone picked up on this...I watched the opening ceremony, and must admit I did not pick up on the Christian-based beginning...but the influence of the moral force of Judeo-Christian values was pretty much ignored after that, and I certainly saw that and was dismayed.

England has sadly forgotten her history. America is hurtling down the same road.

Pray for a spiritual revival. God is greater than the evil one, He is mighty to save.

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