The Olympics had been a magnificent showcase for sport, competition, and human accomplishment at the highest levels of a wide variety of endeavors. Exciting to watch, and often hard to appreciate how people can do such things in gymnastics, or athletics, or whatever is your favorite to watch.
There is no hiding in sport. The test is in the application for all to witness, and the athlete either excels, or fails to make the podium. Truth is in the competing.
The rest of life is not quite so truthfully transparent; much is left untested, at least in the moment.
Paris is a magnificent venue with a rich history in culture, architecture, and even faith. The journey from faith to faithless was obvious to witness in the opening ceremony that raised humanity to godlike status and God to pretty much nothing worth giving a nod to.
Two articles I have recently read describe this far better than I can. One is by my niece’s husband, who lives and works as a pastor in London, Tim May.
Christian commentators have, with various degrees of rancour, condemned a strange scene where Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper was subverted by a pastiche of ostentatiously queer characters. At the centre of which was not Jesus Christ but a robust-looking figure resembling Lady Liberty.
Read the full article here:
https://www.seenandunseen.com/paris-2024-and-christianitys-opening-ceremon
The other article is a reflection on the flaming piano floating down the Seine to John Lennon’s beautifully melodic ‘Imagine’…. (with little substance)
Nowhere does secularism like France, with a religion-less public society so entrenched that a French Muslim sprinter, Sounkamba Sylla, had to swap her hijab for a cap at the opening ceremony to abide by its public religiosity laws. Telling a woman what she can and can’t wear is not a great look for a modern democracy. However, choosing Imagine, – a well-known atheistic plea for a world without religious devotion and the dogma, extremism, and warring that comes with it, perhaps tells us what France is going for. Beautiful, modern, peace. The world as one in Godless enlightenment. No hell to scare you. No heaven to inspire you.
Read the full article here:
https://www.seenandunseen.com/less-john-more-joan-how-paris-secular-hymn-fell-flat
Enlightenment and the arrogance of humanity that shuns the supernatural reduces culture to empty shells of wishful singing, fireworks, and dancing dress-ups in water fountains. Creating a spectacle is not real life. Drain the blood from humans and we are left with puppets, jerked around on the strings of whoever controls their thoughts, feelings, beliefs and anxieties. There is no independence or freedom.
I hope you find the articles interesting.
I have also completed an audiobook of ‘The Man With No Feet’.
Below are three free copies (value $25). Cut and paste link and enter promo code for free download. First come first served. Or head to Amazon and kindle, paperback, and audio are available.
Please enjoy one free audio review copy of The Man with No Feet: Mephibosheth – A Story of Hope and Courage, now available on Audible. Redeem the one-time use code below at https://www.audible.com/acx-promo
58BX6EFLF9CHN
Please enjoy one free audio review copy of The Man with No Feet: Mephibosheth – A Story of Hope and Courage, now available on Audible. Redeem the one-time use code below at https://www.audible.com/acx-promo
6ZL7B4ADQXGZA
Please enjoy one free audio review copy of The Man with No Feet: Mephibosheth – A Story of Hope and Courage, now available on Audible. Redeem the one-time use code below at https://www.audible.com/acx-promo
8W8BBBAD89B27
Googling God 
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