FRANCE: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone: How one woman destroyed France’s Olympic rhetoric
The athlete who smashed her own world record in 400m hurdles is a member of a church France would call a “cult” if it knew it. And she proclaims it loudly.
by Massimo Introvigne
Bitter Winter (12.08.2024) – So, the Paris Olympics came to an end. They had intense and beautiful moments of sport but were plagued by scandalous referee verdicts in various sports, controversies about the putrid waters of the Seine where athletes were compelled to swim, an Olympic village without air conditioning and with poor food, and discussions about when exactly women boxers should no longer be considered women and prevented from competing in female boxing. The French government also used the Olympics to promote its secular and anti-religious ideology of laïcité. It prevented French Muslim athletes from wearing hijabs, despite protests by international sport federations and Amnesty International.
The opening ceremony featured a LGBTQ parody of Jesus’s Last Supper, causing the protests of French Bishops and of the Vatican itself. French answers that the allusion was not to the Last Supper but to the Greek banquets of Dionysus excited some intellectuals all over the world, proud to be part of the happy few who know about Greek mythology as opposed to the ignorant masses who saw there a reference to Jesus. However, as even liberal French scholars acknowledged, some of the performers themselves confirmed they believed they were referring to the Last Supper, and the artistic representations of the Banquet of Dionysus that were mentioned were all influenced by Leonardo’s rendition of Jesus’ Supper. Most importantly from a sociological point of view, the intentions of the choreographer are less relevant than the perception of the majority of the more than one billion viewers who watched the event on television.
The French governmental anti-cult mission MIVILUDES did not miss the opportunity of ridiculing itself once again by protesting the fact that an association connected with the Church of Scientology, “Non à la drogue, oui à la vie” (No to Drugs, Yes to Life), conducted during the Olympics one of the largest anti-drug campaigns in history, distributing more than one million brochures. The MIVILUDES alerted against the risks of “mental destabilization,” threatened legal pursuits, and even tried to prevent pharmacies from putting the brochure at the disposal of their clients. The only reason for doing this, unless one supposes that MIVILUDES is colluded with drug traffickers (I don’t), was that the organization distributing the brochure is sponsored by Scientology. The brochure offers sound advise about drugs, does not promote Scientology’s religious ideas, and I would challenge the MIVILUDES to prove that even one single person joined Scientology because she received and read the brochure.
All these facts taken together signal that the Olympics should have been in the intention of the organizers a celebration of the French laïcité, proposing it as model for the world. However, one single woman torpedoed these plans.
In French sport there are regulations preventing athletes from wearing religious symbols and making any reference to religion. However, there is something France could not control in the Olympics: interviews. It was already bad enough that Novak Djokovic, after his historic win in tennis, made references to God and his Christian faith. Worse, however, was to come.
One of the most outstanding performances in Paris Olympics was offered by American athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who inter alia won gold and smashed her own world record in the 400m hurdles. No French rules could prevent Sydney to tell media and post on social media that winning gold was her way of “glorifying God” and showing “submission and obedience to God” by proclaiming that “Jesus is the Lord.” She also thanked her church for guidance and support.
French media tried to hide which church exactly Sydney is a member of. Although she attended a Roman Catholic school, where she is fondly remembered, she is currently a member of Grace Community Church (GCC), a Californian megachurch. I disagree with many teachings of GCC, and GCC disagrees with me, too. Based on a strict Calvinist theology, GCC teaches that Roman Catholicism, which happens to be my religion, is “a wholly different religion than the true Christian faith, for it is antithetical to the simple gospel of grace.” Worse, by having recently introduced a blessing for same-sex couples, according to GCC the Catholic Church may have joined the ranks of those churches lenient on homosexuality that it calls “churches of Satan,” a label GCC liberally applies to several mainline Christian denominations.
While I do not share GCC theology, I defend its religious liberty as I do for any other church or religion. The only reason GCC is not called a “cult” or a group engaged in “cultic deviances” by the MIVILUDES is that the latter probably does not know it. I can prove that this would be the case. The MIVILUDES regards “conversion therapies” aimed at “healing” homosexuals and illegal in France as “cultic deviances.” The GCC supports “conversion therapies” and call laws against them an attempt to “criminalize Christianity” and “normalize perversion.” For the record, I do not support “conversion therapies” either (although they should not be confused with the mere pastoral counseling offered by Christian ministers to those who voluntarily seek their help as they are uncertain about their sexual orientation).
If one considers that GCC also preaches unconditional obedience to its leader, John MacArthur, submission of wives to husbands, and non-respect of state provisions about not gathering during pandemics such as COVID-19, it is not an exaggeration to conclude that by current French definitions Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is a “cultist.” She proclaimed her religious faith publicly and loudly. And there was nothing the French could do about it. As for me, I would rather run the risk as a Roman Catholic to be called a member of the “Church of Satan” and have lunch with Sydney than with the chief of the MIVILUDES. She also looks like a more pleasant person.
McLaughlin-Levrone sharing her faith through a Christian podcast. Screenshot.
The entrance to Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. Credits.