Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Saturday blasted the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for mocking the Last Supper with a recreation that featured performers in drag.
“Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” Johnson wrote in a post on the social platform X.
“The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today. But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail,” Johnson wrote before quoting John 1:5 of the Bible: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The opening ceremonies in Paris included a group of performers, some of them in drag, in a scene that appeared to resemble the Leonardo da Vinci painting of the Last Supper.
The painting depicts the final meal of Jesus with his apostles, the night before the crucifixion.
On Sunday, the artistic director for the ceremonies said the scene was not meant to resemble The Last Supper, but a scene based on the Greek god Donysus.
“There is Dionysus who arrives on this table. He is there because he is the god of celebration in Greek mythology,” Thomas Jolly, the artistic director, told French news channel BFM TV on Sunday, per NBC’s “Today.”
“The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone.”
Many on social media on Friday and Saturday ripped the decision to have the performance, though there were also posts complimenting it.
Johnson was far from the only figure criticizing the ceremonies. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also weighed in, accusing the Olympic Committee of trying to censor the right by taking down posts critical of the performance that used video from the ceremonies.
Piers Morgan, the television personality, asked whether the Olympics would “have mocked any other religion like this” in a post on X.
Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs placekicker who triggered controversy earlier this year, also weighed in with criticism.
This story was updated on Monday July 29 at 8:38 a.m.