Reminds me of 1896 . . . BC

The Old Testament is a founding document of Western Civilization. One doesn’t have to be a believer to recognize that the Israelites have the Old Testament as an account of their people way back in time. The descendants of Abraham and the Israelites are still with us today. The stories in the Torah provide a basic framework for how an ancient people were meant to live. The stories and rules and behaviors were collected and handed down as a guide for those that came after.

There are lessons and rules about individual responsibility, the value of life, the wisdom of women, the importance of freedom, the necessity of virtue, and the dignity of work. It is filled with moral tales, guidance, and the consequences of ungodly behavior. Our culture grew out of theirs. It’s Western Civ 101.

In light of recent events and trends it is of considerable interest when we come across this passage in Genesis 19 in the King James Version:

God tells Abraham’s great nephew Lot to flee the doomed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

²² Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

²³ The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.

²⁴ Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;

²⁵ And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

²⁶ But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord:

²⁸ And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹ And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the plain in which Lot dwelt.

Don’t join in the wickedness. Flee from evil. Follow the narrow path of righteousness

So God preserved Lot and his family, well, most of them, but once they cleared out of Sodom and Gomorrah God torched those cities and the areas around them. Whoa! Why were those cities destroyed? Read the sordid details in Chapter 19, but here’s a summary. People became so wicked and so depraved that they flouted their debauchery and “alternative lifestyles” (as we might call them today) to the point that God decided that the place had to be wrecked and burned to the ground. It was that bad. Lot, like Abraham, held the role of the one righteous man in this example, and he was allowed to escape. It was bad. Really bad. The moral presented in the Genesis account is that deliberate wickedness and intentional evil cannot be tolerated and must be punished. Don’t join in the wickedness. Flee from evil. Follow the narrow path of righteousness. If we remain in Sodom and Gomorrah too long, it won’t be pretty. Once you leave, don’t pine for it.

Fast forward, to use an anachronistic term, to the present day, in fact to just a couple of weeks ago. Following the example of the ancient Greeks, since 1896 we have had a quadrennial Olympic festival to celebrate athletic skills and promote international harmony. The primary site for the games moves from major city to major city. All cultures and creeds are welcome. Traditionally, each host city and country put forth the best they have to offer to showcase the brief moment in the glow of the Olympic Games.

This year the Olympic Games opening ceremony in the heart of France, in Paris, highlighted something else, something very different. The parade of athletes, usually around a track in a great stadium, was held this time in boats on the River Seine. In these boats, on the many bridges across the river, and on the streets along the river, a pageantry of spectacular scenes played out, designed to impress the world with presentations and messages. The scenes were clear enough, but the messages not so much. Just three of these caught most of the world’s attention, and they were deliberate.

There was the disturbing parody of The Last Supper by freakish figures in drag. The word that comes to mind is disgusting. Then there’s the term blasphemous.

There was the macabre portrayal of a headless Marie Antoinette screeching a song of some kind. Then some kind of fireworks filled the air with spurting blood, dripping down along the creamy limestone of the Conciergerie. It was appalling.

There was the scantily clad figure of a blue-bodied Dionysus, sickeningly excessive, lusty, and suggestively libertine. He’s the dissipated opposite of the disciplined athletes who trained for the Olympics, leering at the, oh, never mind. You get the picture, I’m sure.

So for the opening ceremonies we had a tour de force attack on the Ten Commandments, on the Christian faith specifically, and on some basic tenets of Western Civilization. It all sounds disturbingly normal these days, or at least what we’ve come to expect.

The people who created the three travesties were asked if they meant to offend anyone, and predictably they all said no. That’s a relief. At least it was all in good fun, even if some cranky people took offense.

To be fair, there was also Celine Dion singing in her unique Canadian French. She inspired many and disappointed none, but she sang an Edith Piaf song about love. That kind of performance and subject matter will win the prize most anywhere, but only on days ending in y. She definitely stole the show, providing a welcome stark contrast to the disturbing images of religious mockery, regicide, and debauchery that were the keynotes of the opening ceremonies.

Archaeological accounts place the date of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah at about 1896 BC. After what happened in Paris and after it was celebrated in much of the press, anyone visiting there soon should keep an eye to the sky for incoming fire and brimstone. It might be time to reaffirm the lesson.