Harrison Butker’s Comments on Olympics Opening Ceremony Goes Viral

Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker criticized a portion of the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony over social media on Friday that appeared to attempt to mimic Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

In between the participating countries being presented at the kick-off in Paris, several performances were presented that played off French cultural and history. One of the more controversial performances, however, was one where drag queens and other actors appeared to remake the scene of The Last Supper, which depicts the last meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before he was crucified.

Butker posted a video to his X, formerly Twitter, account of the moment in question Friday evening, along with a Bible verse from Galatians, which says, “God is not mocked.” At the time of publishing, the post had over 1 million views.

Butker also posted about the performance to his Instagram story, writing, “This is crazy.” The NFL kicker received immense backlash earlier this year after speaking at Benedictine College’s commencement on May 11, where he said that a woman’s most important role is as a “homemaker” and he referred to Pride Month as an example of “deadly sins.” Some critics accused the pro athlete at the time of being anti-LGBTQ and misogynistic.

Several conservative figures reacted to the supposed Last Supper recreation on social media as well. Former college athlete Riley Gaines, who has been outspoken against transgender women participating in sporting events, wrote on X in response to a video of the performance, “Men in wigs front & center at the Olympic Games. No one ever tell me this group is ‘oppressed’ or ‘marginalized’ again.”

Controversial account Libs of TikTok also responded on X, writing, “The Olympics has basically turned into one long drag show. The Olympics has gone completely woke.”

Telsa CEO and X owner, Elon Musk, posted, “This was extremely disrespectful to Christians.”

Bishop Robert Barron, an American Catholic prelate, released a video message to X, and called the performance a “gross mockery of The Last Supper.”

“France felt, evidently, as it’s trying to push its best cultural foot forward, the right thing to do is to mock this very central moment in Christianity,” Barron said.

“France, whose culture…is grounded very much in Christianity, felt the right thing to do is to mock the Christian faith,” he added. “You know a question I would pose–we all know the answer to it–would they ever had dared mock Islam in a similar way? Would they ever have dreamed of mocking in this gross, public way, a scene from the Quran?”

Newsweek sent an inquiry to the International Olympic Committee on Friday regarding the pushback.

European Parliament member Marion Marechal posted a statement to X addressing the backlash that the Last Supper reenact received.

“To all the Christians of the world who are watching the #Paris2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation,” Marechal, a French politician, posted, along with the hashtag “#notinmyname.”