More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
Controversy at the Olympics: Faith, Blasphemy, and Cultural Engagement with Dr. Robert Jackson and Hannah Miller
Join us on More Than Medicine as we recount the experience of watching the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris. I, Dr. Robert Jackson, alongside my daughter Hannah Miller, share memories of the 1972 Olympics, only to steer into a discussion about the recent depiction of the Lord's Supper featuring transgender and homosexual participants. This provocative representation has ignited widespread outrage, and we dissect the cultural and religious implications of such performances, focusing on the broader conversations it has sparked online and in religious communities.
We dive deep into the complex topic of blasphemy and the Christian response to offensive displays, referencing the controversial rendition of Da Vinci's Last Supper at the opening ceremony. By exploring the historical context of the Olympics' association with paganism and the Pope's past decisions to cancel similar events, we reflect on the cultural shift from Christianity to a more compromising stance. Our conversation urges believers to find a balance between speaking the truth in love and avoiding destructive condemnation or compromise, emphasizing the need for a well-rounded approach to addressing sin and blasphemy.
Balancing truth and love becomes the focal point as we examine the tension between moral courage and cultural engagement. Reflecting on Jesus' teachings and the increasing visibility of the LGBTQ agenda in public spaces, we stress the importance of personal integrity and the responsibility of Christians to speak out against evil deeds. Current events serve as a springboard for deeper gospel conversations, and we wrap up with an insightful dialogue with our guest, Hannah Miller, underscoring the sovereignty of God and the ultimate accountability of those who mock Him. Tune in for a thought-provoking episode designed to challenge and enrich your faith journey.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, dr Robert Jackson, and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up, because the doctor is in.
Speaker 2:Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, dr Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Well, I'm delighted once again to have as my special guest my daughter, hannah Miller. Hannah, welcome to More Than Medicine.
Speaker 3:Dad to start things right off the bat. Do you like to watch the Olympics? Dad to start things right off the bat.
Speaker 2:do you like to watch the Olympics? Well, to be honest, I don't really like to watch all of the Olympics, I just like the track and field portion You're not there for the curling, no, and I don't really like to watch the little girls doing their little ballet on the mat, as I call it. But I tell you what, when I was in high school, I had mono and I missed six weeks of my senior year of high school due to having mono, and the 1972 Olympics just happened to be on TV.
Speaker 3:What amazing timing for you.
Speaker 2:What I had, mono. And I mean I would get out of bed and I would walk to the den and lay on the couch and I would watch two hours of the Olympics from 10 to 12 am, and then I'd fall back asleep, and then I'd watch it from two to four and fall back asleep, and then six to eight back to sleep, and then I'd watch it from 10 to 12 at night and I did that for two solid weeks. I watched every minute of the televised olympics in 1972. That's amazing, that is so amazing.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, of course, our listeners probably already picking up what we may be here to discuss today, because it was one of the most controversial things that happened this last week. So, uh, of course, because we love to stir the pot and I'm saying that facetiously because that's not what either one of us like to do but we did decide we were going to respond to this one, and so you know. So we're going to talk about the Olympic opening ceremony and if, just in case you know, pretty much everybody on the entire planet has heard about what happened, if they have access to a television or radio, has heard about what happened during the opening ceremony in Paris, which you know, you had this basically you had some transgenders, homosexuals and even, I think, a child that was involved in this picture depiction. They depicted the Lord's Supper and they utilized homosexuals, transgenders, and just it was very outrageous.
Speaker 3:It really really and I know you probably won't catch this reference, but it was very Hunger Game-esque, very dystopian almost Hunger Game-esque, very dystopian almost. And the internet blew up because there were folks who said this is absolutely not a depiction of the Last Supper, da Vinci's Last Supper, that painting that's so famous. It has to do with this god or that god or you know. Blah, blah, blah. And so there was this kind of debate that happened on the internet.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm not going to get into all the debates that happened, but the truth has risen to the top, as it normally does eventually and you know we've got, you had um the lady, the woman actually, who depicted the christ figure, the center figure in that depiction of the lord's Supper. Her Instagram she's got the picture of it and she calls herself Jesus.
Speaker 2:She admits right there on the Internet. She knew what it was. That's right. She admits that she was trying herself to be the Christ figure.
Speaker 3:And then there's a program, an actual program, from the Olympics this year, from the Paris Olympics, describing what was going to be happening, from the Olympics this year, from the Paris Olympics, describing what was going to be happening, and in that program they talked about the Last Supper depiction.
Speaker 2:That's right and they lied about it. They tried to stamp down the outcry Right. And they tried to say that this was not a depiction of the Last Supper.
Speaker 3:They're like we're sorry if you got your feelings hurt, We'll apologize for that, but that's not what this was supposed to be. But then the program actually comes out.
Speaker 2:The program specifically said that this was a depiction of the Last Supper, and there you had people that were sodomites and transgender, homosexual and pagan deities. That's right. Transgender, homosexual and pagan deities all in one spot in the middle of Da Vinci's Last Supper.
Speaker 3:And you know, the only thing I really said on the Internet this week about it was I shared a friend's post to Corey Truax, so give him credit for it, and I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but you know he basically was like Christians, a it's a real shame that they, you know they did this to Da Vinci's last supper and that they, they made a, made a mockery of Jesus Christ and his disciples. And then it said, and then he just said, uh, a bunch of other people. And and then he went on to say no, no, it's not the last supper, it's just these gods and goddesses of hedonism and you know, blah, blah, blah, and Satanism and paganism, all this thing. And then the last thing he said was oh, okay, great, now I feel so much better, and the point being that, whichever way you wanted to really make this, what the problem is is that when we walked in from the, from the lake that night and we walked into the house and somebody had the opening ceremony turned on, I immediately had to cover my children's eyes because of the debauchery that was on the television, and it just happened to be the moment they were doing some sort of like red carpet and there was some transgenders like it was just the wrong moment because I talked to somebody else, and they were like well, I watched the whole thing and it was really only like that part and it just happened to be what we walked into, uh, and there was, you know, and then there was the last supper thing and a couple of other moments, but and they were just, you know, as everybody rationalizes it and says it was just a moment well, historically, a lot of people don't realize this, but in 392 ad the pope that time, theodosius, I canceled the Olympics.
Speaker 2:Do you know why? He canceled it? Because it was promoting paganism, and the Olympics were canceled for decades, maybe centuries, because of that very reason. Now the church had a lot of authority back then. Church doesn't have that kind of authority now, but the Olympics were canceled for who knows how long by the Pope for one reason he thought it was promoting paganism. Now, is that happening once again?
Speaker 1:Of course it is.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Every aspect of our society nowadays is promoting paganism well, don't get ahead of us because we're going to talk about that sort of sort of a little bit.
Speaker 3:But really, what I want our conversation to be about today is, you know, okay. So so we laid out what happened and and we've laid out the truth of the matter, which was that, yeah, this was it was supposed to be. A depiction like don't gaslight me, don't tell me, I'm a pearl clutcher. You, you can call me a pearl clutcher if you want. You can tell me I'm being overly dramatic if you want. You can try to gaslight me if you want, which is what a lot of these folks were saying as they piously claimed that this is just a god and goddess of paganism that we're all supposed to feel so much better about. You can say all that, but the reality is that I'm just going to call sin sin. This was sinful.
Speaker 2:And it was blasphemous, and it was blasphemous.
Speaker 3:You know, not just sinful because of the things that they represent the LGBTQ agenda that it represents but because it also blasphemed Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And so let's dive into this, though, and the broader the conversation that I want to have about it would be how do we, as Christians, how should we respond to offensive exhibits like what happened at the opening ceremony?
Speaker 2:All right, well, let's talk about that. There's a verse of Scripture in Ephesians, part of which says that we should speak the truth in love.
Speaker 2:We should speak the truth in love, and that requires a balanced approach. Now, the only person that ever got that right and balanced things appropriately was the Lord Jesus Christ, and of course, we know what happened to Jesus. You know his own people rejected him, his own received him not and the religious leaders demanded his crucifixion. If we speak the truth without love, that comes across as condemnation. If we love people without speaking the truth to them, especially about the sin that might be in their life, then that really is a compromise.
Speaker 3:And that's the culture that we're in right now, because I think we come well, we're ditch diving, which I say this if you're listening to my show, you hear me use that term all the time. This concept of ditch diving is we dive from one extreme to the other as human beings.
Speaker 3:We have a really hard time finding the delicate balance that God calls us to in this particular situation, which is we go from a culture of condemnation where we've now ditch dived into a culture of compromise, and I think that a lot of folks kind of they recoiled so far away from the Christianity of the 80s and 90s, of the early 2000s that everybody felt was just so judgmental.
Speaker 2:you know so legalistic.
Speaker 3:I mean, I didn't grow up in that climate. I think that our church and our home environment really struck a very good balance and a strong chord with that, really struck a very good balance and a strong chord with that. But apparently that was a lot of people's experience because they ditch, dived from that over into the culture that we are now having to respond primarily to now, which is a culture of compromise, and a lot of that comes from, you know, piety as well and things like that. But anyway, and now I actually see us going the other way as millennials, I I already see folks going and I'm like please, please, do better at balancing this than we have before, but anyway, so let's talk about these a little bit. You know, you talk about truth without love being condemnation. Um, what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Well, the two options that are in front of us are number one to say nothing, and that means you never address the culture around us. There's no attempt to be salt and light, saying piously God doesn't need to be defended.
Speaker 3:And I saw that, I saw that on the Internet, people shared that. You know, know, and they said you need to stop your pearl clutching, god doesn't need to be defended, basically sit down and be quiet. Uh, and and I found I was, like you, just totally missing the opportunity to engage and push back against. Well, one blasphemy, but you know. But sin, just sin, sin, and immorality, you know, and that's compromising.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's loving people without speaking the truth, that's a compromise. But then the other extreme is to become irate and screaming epithets at the perpetrators, calling down fire and brimstone on their heads, as if that will somehow bless them and lead them to repentance. That's condemnation and that's the other extreme, which is completely unacceptable.
Speaker 3:Now in my circle of friends, I did not really see this. I saw a lot of people very broken and sad about it, but then I saw all these folks acting like there was, all these people on the internet, just outraged and you know, calling down brimstone and fire on these folks. When it was, I mean, the only thing I saw was this is terrible. It's such a shame. This was full of sin yeah, it was, it was and it's not, you know. But then people, those folks who really, in my opinion, did it correctly and did respond rightly, were condemned by those who wanted to compromise.
Speaker 3:And those folks looked at them and said you're being so condemning. Where's the love of Jesus in this?
Speaker 2:He ate with sinners, you know, and they literally were saying that kind of thing and he did. But Jesus also condemned.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he didn't let them hide their sin either.
Speaker 2:He didn't condone sin. That's right and truthfully. His harshest words of condemnation were for the religious leader hypocrites not for the sinners, who had no clue what was right versus wrong. But we'll get to that in a minute. You know, two of the most widely recognized Christian paintings worldwide are the Mona Lisa and the Last.
Speaker 2:Supper, in which the Christian God-man, jesus Christ is a central figure, and the Last Supper, in which the Christian God-man Jesus Christ is a central figure in the Last Supper, and he's surrounded by his 12 disciples. Most people worldwide recognize and respect the painting, and many people travel from all around the world to stand in front of the Last Supper in order to offer their reverence. That depiction of our Lord with pagan deities and sodomites is indeed blasphemous and offensive, and it's not just offensive to Christians, but also to the Muslim majority in North Africa and the Middle East, who consider sodomy to be disallowed in their religion and in their culture. Now, the next thing I want to say, though, is this Understand clearly, the New World religion is the LGBTQ religion, and it is foisted upon us at every opportunity, even at the Olympics, in the movies, in sitcoms, sports events, parades.
Speaker 3:Your local library, our local library, everywhere you turn. I have a friend who said our little country library. She texted me this last week and said they've totally renovated and they got rid of almost all of the classic literature. And she said, everywhere I looked in there, on every shelf, every shelf was LGBTQ and racist material.
Speaker 2:One of the two and you see, the advocates of the LGBTQ agenda. They're not content with their freedom to practice their perversion. They demand that you genuflect and accept their perversion as normal, normal behavior, when in fact God calls it an unnatural use of their bodies. In fact, the Bible says for this reason, god gave them over to degrading passions and a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. And that's the way God looks at sodomy and transgenderism and all of these perversions that are being foisted upon us.
Speaker 3:I think it was Matt Walsh. I know it was, I don't have to think because I've never forgotten it. When Oberfell was passed around that time I had recently started following Matt Walsh and one of the first things that I distinctly remember him writing on the Internet, on Facebook, and I've never forgotten it was he just said look, it's not enough, it's never going to be enough. And remember this is almost 10 years ago. This was. It was probably a little more than 10 years because that case was in front of the Supreme Court and all of that debate that led up to it. But he said look it's, it's never going to be enough for them to be able to do what they want to do in the privacy of their own homes. And it was a prophetic voice, because this is what he said. He said they will not stop until they demand that you worship at the altar of their sexual perversion.
Speaker 3:That's right and boy, because how much ground have we compromised on? That's right and boy, because how much ground have we compromised on how many times have we, as Christians? You know just well, it's just a corner of the library. Oh well, it's just that section of the library. Or well, it's just the adult literature in the library, and now it's the entire library.
Speaker 2:It's just prayer in schools. Yes, it's just the Ten Commandments. Yes, it's just the Bible in the schools.
Speaker 3:And because we started moving back and we started compromising it, and he was a prophetic voice in that moment. Because here we are and they're saying you must celebrate our perversion on worldwide television.
Speaker 2:Well, I told you, it's the new religion. Yes, it is the new religion and it's going to be everywhere you look from now on it is the new religion and it's going to be everywhere you look from now on.
Speaker 3:So what is our proper response to offensive things in our culture? Let's flesh that question out a little bit more, because you've said we need to strike to the best of our ability that balance of speaking truth in love when these things— and, like I said, I think the majority of the people that I have seen on the internet that responded to this, responded to it, that were upset by it, responded to it. Well, um, but let's, let's maybe flesh that out just a little bit more all right.
Speaker 2:Well, it, it's. It's not silence all the way on one extreme and it's not outrage.
Speaker 3:So we know what it's not there's something in between and it's not outrage on the other extreme.
Speaker 2:There's something in between, and that something in between is the balance speaking the truth in love. Now, the Bible tells us also that we should contend for the truth, contend for the faith, as is exactly the way the Bible says it, and that means against false teaching. The Bible says it and that means against false teaching. So, on one hand, we as Christian folks have a responsibility to fight for or contend for the faith, which means that we defend against false teaching. But the Bible also tells us that we have a responsibility to expose the evil deeds of darkness. That's in Ephesians, chapter 5 and verse 11. Now, think about that Expose the evil deeds of darkness. Now, what exactly does that mean, ms Hannah? Mean, ms Hannah? Well, first, I believe that believers should not participate or tolerate the evil deeds of darkness. Number one we should identify such deeds. Do we believe that what happened at the parade at the Olympics? Was that an evil deed of darkness? Well, it was. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 3:And the only way that you can know though, the only way you can know what's evil and what's not is, if you what you know, the Word of God you have to have that plumb line in your life and I don't know if I'm stealing any thunder from you, but we have to have that standard and we've talked about this.
Speaker 3:This is how folks recognize what counterfeit is. They don't look at all of the counterfeit options, they just know what's real and then they hold up the other what's possibly counterfeit next to what's real, and they say, oh, this doesn't match, or it does match, and so then they're able to. So when you're trying to, if you're out there and you're wanting to identify what are evil deeds, well, you don't got to go read about every religion and every culture that's been known to mankind. What you have to know is the word of God, because the word of God is what contains the truth.
Speaker 2:It's absolute truth, yes. And then the second thing we have a responsibility to do is to shine the light. Look, the Bible says that all who do evil hate the light and they won't come into the light because they fear that when they come into the light, their evil deeds will be exposed. And you see, that's why those who are God-haters will not come into the light and they hate you as a Christian when you speak the truth and when you shine the light of God's truth onto their evil deeds.
Speaker 3:And so and the really the reason I'm talking to the folks who a lot of this podcast, I feel like, is me wanting to speak to those who were upset by this and felt shamed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people tried to shame you in silence.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people tried to shame. They're saying you're just a pearl clutcher, you're just, you know, is the outrage of the month, and I get it. People get outraged about stuff on the internet all the time. I get it and I also agree that. You know Jesus did have his strongest words for those, the folks of the church. But just because I'm upset about what happened at the Olympics doesn't mean that I don't also hold people in the church their feet to the fire. Hey, just go listen to my last podcast from last weekend, because I do that a whole lot. And so don't let folks shame you into keeping your mouth shut, because if you're my friend on Facebook and I saw your post, I didn't see a single friend. Now, of course, I didn't read all. You know all thousand of them that posted something. But shine the light, even on the internet, and don't let some of these posts that are trying to shame you into keeping your mouth shut. They're gaslighting you, that's right.
Speaker 3:Don't let them do that to you. That's right.
Speaker 2:But here's the other thing it requires personal integrity and moral courage. Now why integrity? Because you see, if you're a hypocrite, you're not going to stand up and speak out against evil.
Speaker 3:Or, if you do, everybody's going to look at it and just roll their eyes. That's right, because they know the truth.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. They know you're a hypocrite and if you've been involved in moral corruption you're not going to stand up and speak out against corruption. So it requires personal integrity before you and I can speak out against anything that's evil and expose the evil deeds of darkness I think this illustrates for us the the the secondary issue when it comes to personal sin.
Speaker 3:obviously the primary issue is that it separates us from the Lord and you know we don't want to have anything that's a barrier in our relationship with Him. But secondary is the fact that when we have sin in our lives, it prevents us from being able to fully flesh out the outworking of the gospel in our life.
Speaker 3:We can't call out other people's sin. It's hard for us to evangelize, it's hard for us to evangelize, it's hard for us to disciple folks. All of those things are inhibited because of our personal sin and, like I said, the primary thing is that we should want to have a pure relationship with the Lord. That's the primary thing, but the secondary consequence is our inability to get on social media or have a conversation with somebody at the grocery store.
Speaker 2:Personal sin and personal shame because of personal sin are two of the greatest inhibitors of Christian ministry and it keeps us from exposing the evil deeds of darkness and it keeps us from having the moral courage to speak out against the evil deeds of darkness. And then the next thing is reproving and refuting. The Bible is full, especially in the New Testament, of challenges for Christian folks to reprove and rebuke and exhort. And that's one responsibility. And see, when something is morally offensive, like this display at the Olympics, it's our responsibility to speak out against it, to reprove and rebuke and to exhort Christian folks to walk in the light and to do what's good and right. And we can't just sit by silently and just say God doesn't need to be defended. That's not the New Testament way at all. We're to contend for the faith, you know that's right and we're to expose the evil deeds of darkness. And then what do we expose? Let me just ask you that, lastly, before we run out of time, what do we expose? Well, three things.
Speaker 2:We expose sinful actions, we expose immoral practices and we expose spiritual darkness. And that whole display involved certainly immorality, involved certainly immorality, and it flew, flowed, flowed, flowed out of, uh, spiritual darkness. There was no doubt that the root of that was spiritual darkness, and so we have a responsibility to expose things like that, bring them into the light, that's right. When you bring them into the light like cockroaches, they go running into the dark corners, they run under the furniture and all you got to do is shine the light on them. And that's our responsibility. Hey, we're children of the light and we walk in the light, and our responsibility is to speak the truth about Jesus, who is the light of the world, and when we speak the truth about him, who is the light of the world, the darkness flees. It doesn't take much light to make all the darkness flee.
Speaker 3:Well camp there while preacher Dad thanks for having this conversation with me, and you know I had just had a conversation with my mom, and then, you know, you and I had, and I was like, all right, we have to do a podcast, we have to respond, because a lot of folks have felt like we're getting browbeat on social media and out in culture, and so you know, I think the last thing that we really wanted to say, though, was talking about utilizing this as an opportunity for the gospel. Come on, because what an opportunity. I mean, like I said earlier, everybody on the entire planet who has a television or access to a radio or the internet knows what happened at the Olympics opening ceremony, and so we can use that as an entryway into gospel conversation with us.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right, that's right. And all you got to do is ask people hey, did you see what happened? What do you think about it? What do you?
Speaker 2:think about it and then you say well, let me tell you what I think and you tell them Psalms, chapter 2. Psalms, chapter 2 says and you tell them Psalms, chapter 2. Psalms, chapter 2 says why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. Dear listener, for me I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain.
Speaker 2:Dear listener, understand clearly that when the pagan blasphemers of this world think that they can mock and ridicule the God of heaven, the true king of this earth, that there is a God in heaven who laughs at their blaspheming, who scoffs at their mocking, because there is a day of accountability, there is a day of judgment when he, who is the true king, the king of all the ages, the king of glory, the ruler of the kings of all the earth, will hold all of them to account and will bring a day of judgment when they must one day look him in the face and give account for all of their blaspheming and all of their mocking. I want to thank Ms Hannah for being my guest today. Hannah, thank you for being on More Than Medicine with me. You're listening to Dr Robert Jackson. I'm your host on More Than Medicine. I'll be back again next week. Between now and then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
