While many viewers were shocked and rightfully disturbed by the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics and its prominent featuring of rampant homosexuality, transgenderism, and the mocking of Christianity, for anyone with a deeper understanding of the French Revolution, these displays were far from surprising. 

The creators of the ceremony intended to present an ode to the French Revolution – and they did so marvelously, for the displays were just as perverse as the revolution itself. 

The basis of the French Revolution was to rid the country of any rules, whether imposed by kings or religion. The revolution can be summarized in one short sentence from French philosopher Denis Diderot: “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” The French sought a godless society, and destroyed any vestige of rulemaking authority that existed to restrict their “liberté.” The revolutionaries believed true freedom was a “revolt against all authorities, restrictions, and boundaries.”

The French Revolution celebrated the right to live a debaucherous life, free from any moral or legal restrictions – the culture was filled with prostitution, pornography, gambling, drunkenness, and homosexuality, among other morally depraved acts. One scene in the Olympic Opening Ceremony prominently featured a blue-painted, naked Dionysus, standing mere feet from a child. That the Greek god of wine and pleasure ruled over the display paints an accurate picture of French culture during the Revolution:

“Dionysus (or Bacchus, as he was known by the Romans) was associated with the libertine spirit, and festivals in his honor often included drunken debauchery, culminating in bisexual orgies of grotesque nature. This diabolical spirit is the same one which fueled the French Revolution, and which now animates the godless, secular liberal order and its incessant advancement of everything from homosexuality and the LGBT agenda to abortion. The guillotine was not dismantled, it was simply replicated and placed in little operating rooms around the world, commonly known as abortion facilities,” a columnist for the Washington Stand writes.

Standing in stark contrast to the French Revolution is the American Revolution, which was fought to ensure the freedom to pursue God and righteous living, and to enshrine life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as fundamental rights for all citizens. Americans ascribed to the idea of “positive liberty” which granted the freedom to pursue virtue. 

“This Christian understanding of liberty would have made (and indeed did make) such things as pornography illegal, knowing that pornography was not freedom but enslavement to vice. The French Revolution instead propounded the glory of ‘negative liberty,’ which is not the freedom to do good but rather the absence of restriction. It is, in fact, libertinism,” the columnist continues. “Christianity proclaims that man was made good, being made in the image and likeness of God, but that he is marred or wounded by the stain of original sin. Thanks to the ‘enlightenment,’ the French Revolution took a different view: man is good by his nature, which is not wounded, and thus all his desires are also good.” (emphasis added)

Os Guinness described a golden triangle of freedom in which freedom is upheld by a self-governing virtuous people group, who rely on a foundation of Christianity’s moral code to ensure freedom is not abused. These three elements are strongly interconnected and rely on one another to function properly: freedom, virtuous people, and faith.

“Both revolutions fought against kings, but the American revolutionaries did not reject authority; they rather appealed to the Highest of Authorities in the face of injustice and an abuse of authority on the part of the king and his governors. The French revolutionaries, meanwhile, rejected all authority, declaring themselves supreme in place of not only their king but even God Himself,” the columnist for Washington Stand writes.

The French Revolution attempted to build a society of freedom based on a depraved people group with no moral values, which ultimately led only to chaos and destruction. America’s true view of freedom in which that ideal is upheld by virtuous citizens is the only true path to “liberty and justice for all.”

In true revolutionary fashion, French writer Voltaire once said: “A hundred years from my death the Bible will be a museum piece” and “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.” Ironically, after his death, a group of Christians purchased his personal printing press and used it to print Bibles. They also purchased his home and stored Bibles inside it. The revolutionaries’ quest to be rid of God and Christian principles was ultimately fruitless, as God’s relevance and omnipotence are eternal.

An AP article about the opening ceremony asked “Freedom: Does anyone do it better than the French?” The answer is yes – America does.