Martin Henry, Contributor
Lord Buddha must have taken his usual half-smile to a full broad smile, if not a Jamaican-style belly laugh, when he saw how superbly the Chinese, who are largely his by religious culture, staged the 29th modern Olympiad and captured medals themselves.
Or was it Chairman Mao departing from that grave countenance of his official portraits to crack a smile of approval as he observed how well his adherents did? Technically, neither Buddha nor Mao is a real god. But they are close enough.
And the business of the gods and the Olympic Games has come up as Jamaican Christians expressed their certitude and their gratitude that God gave such phenomenal success to this wicked little nation at the Games.
Home of the gods
Actually, gods have been closely associated with the Olympic Games from their original inception in ancient Greece. Mount Olympus, the scene of the Olympic Games, was the home of some of the Greek gods. And the real Olympians were the 12 gods who lived there, headed by Zeus, the king of the Greek gods.
The ancient games took place as part of a religious festival. The Games were held in honour of Zeus and a sacrifice of 100 oxen was made to the god on the middle day of the festival. Athletes prayed to the gods for victory, and made gifts of animals, produce, or small cakes, in thanks for their successes.
As the Games flourished, Olympia became a central site for the worship of Zeus. The most spectacular sight at Olympia was the gold and ivory statue of Zeus enthroned inside his temple. This statue, over 42 feet high, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The ancient Greeks believed sports was a high tribute to the gods. For 1,000 years, the best athletes gathered at Olympia every four years under the flag of an Olympic truce to compete for the glory of the gods and the personal glory and wealth they would acquire on their return home. Before the Games, athletes pledged their piety as they paraded past a row of statues of gods and former champions that were paid for from the fines of disgraced cheaters. At the feet of the statue of Zeus they sacrificed oxen and boar and roasted hunks of the flesh in a sacred flame. Athletes would consult fortune-tellers and magicians for victory charms and potions ... as well as curses on their opponents to fail.
The 2004 Olympics went back home to Mount Olympia in much more than a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense as well. The Olympic Chorus sang during the opening ceremony,
"Immortal spirit of antiquity, Father of the true, beautiful and good, descend, appear, shed over us thy light."
Smiled down
The elaborate ceremony, an allegorical journey through the evolution of human consciousness, included a display of the Greek gods and heroes. Eros, the god of lustful love, smiled down on a pair of frolicking lovers in the parade. These were followed by a pregnant fertility goddess with a protruding belly that was lighted up. This emphasis on earth-centred pagan spirituality was taken to an even higher level during the closing ceremony with its pagan harvest celebration and fire dancers engaging in a trance-inducing ritual 'to ward off evil spirits'.
The competitors in 2004 took the field by the same ancient route followed by the Greek athletes through the ruins of the sacred precinct, the Altis; past the sanctuaries of the gods, and on to the field first carved out for track and field competitions in 776 B.C. One competitor, Russia's Irina Korzha-nenko, the first woman ever in the 3,000 years since the Games started, to compete and win in Olympia's stadium (women were not allowed, on pain of death, at the ancient games] declared, "I think the Greek gods helped me win the gold medal today." As many Jamaicans now believe that God Himself has delivered us a cargo of medals. And, logically, He could only have done so by making other competitors lose.
The Gleaner, last Friday [August 22], ran nearly a page on 'Churchmen view the games' containing some rather outlandish claims. "God gave our athletes superhuman strength, confidence and courage to showcase Jamaica in a positive light at the most opportune time, when the entire world is watching. This did not happen by chance. We asked God to show up, we just didn't know how He was going to do it."
And another declares, "Our significant success in the 2008 Olympics is a further testimony to the ... faithfulness of God, who knows that our Jamaican people needed a psychological lift which will, in turn, open spiritual channels of thanksgiving, praise, encouragement and recommitment of faith in God."
Week of gold
The following Sunday [August 24], The Jamaica Observer ran the story, 'Church credits Olympic successes to prayer'. A church leader was quoted as saying: "This week of gold at the Bird's Nest didn't come by chance. We prayed for Jamaica to be changed ... We didn't know how God would pull it off, but He managed to make the youngsters in Beijing bring the country together."
Parents have prayed that their competing children will crush the competition, not only from other countries not so favoured by God ,but fellow Jamaicans competing in the same event.
The gods have always played a prominent role in the Games. The Olympian gods themselves were the first competitors in the Games in Greek mythology. In the modern games, the Germans' delusion of Aryan supremacy, shattered by Jesse Owens' spectacular sprinting at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was profoundly a religious view. The god was the god of iron and of force and war. The Nazis used to have ceremonies which matched any high-church ritual.
It is highly unlikely that the Judaeo-Christian God would be uninterested in the Games. But His interest, if His prophetic mouthpieces in Scripture are to be believed, seems to be substantially different from giving, by divine interference, one set of competitors any special advantage over others. Even if He were partial to Christians, there are a host of 'Christian' countries, most of them considerably less violently wicked than Jamaica and many of them closer to the old Olympic ideal of peace and unity, but taking fewer medals home from Beijing.
Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to medhen@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.
