Opening Celebrations and the Myth of Progress

I have to admit that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony was impressive. The fireworks, the movements, the images, the symbolism all came together to dazzle the mind and make a Super Bowl half-time show look like like low budget concert.

Only a state run government could put on such a show. Maybe this is why it also bothered me.

If the Olympics ever return to the United States, there will be no way to upstage what we witnessed on Friday night. We would never be able to come up with enough sponsors to fund such an operation. So I mentioned to my son that he would never see anything quite like that again.

One could be tempted to believe, especially with all of the symbolism of harmony and unity, that we are finally experiencing progress in the world. Beijing was motivated to erase certain events from the past and seek redemption by looking forward into the future. And these two images seem to compete with each other through every dazzling act. If it was not hundreds of people in straight lines it was a choreographed image of a happy circle.

Although very impressed, I am reminded that true progress in this world is actually a myth. Sounds depressing and it makes me out to be a pessimist, but I nevertheless believe it is unfortunately true.

Ehhemmm...let me once again quote N.T. Wright. "The relentless progressivist politicians feel obliged to offer us projects that have to be dressed up with the relentlessly postmodernist techniques of spin and hype; in the absence of real hope, and all that is left is feelings. Persuasion will not work because we're never going to believe it. What we appear to need, and therefore what people give us, is entertainment. "

"This Utopian dream is in fact a parody of the Christian vision; that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world will come together to produce a vision of history moving forward toward its goal, a goal that will emerge from within rather than being a new gift from elsewhere. All we really need is education and hard work."

The real problem with the myth of progress is that it cannot deal with evil. As the Olympics carry on (and I watch), we are also aware of the new crisis in Georgia and the old crisis in Dar fur.

Let me also say this...I completely understand that the Olympics are about an idea. No one actually believes that when the closing ceremony arrive, all things will be peaceful.

But as a Christian I must examine the world as a world that ultimately will find it's renewal through the actions of God. What the creator God has done in Jesus Christ and through his resurrection is what HE intends to do for the entire cosmos.