Regular readers of The Green Man will know that The Green Man is fundamentally disinterested in the Olympic Games. This is because it is essentially all hype these days. Having said that, the open ceremony was interesting to watch specifically because of its classical theme. Greece is afterall the birth place of democracy, of philosophy, of great academic endeavour.

Ancient Greece was one of the great civilisations of man and the Olympic Opening Ceremony celebrated this. Christianity Today, however, did not share The Green Man's admiration of this tribute to a culturally rich and artistically vibrant society. Why, well it was a pagan culture and they are upset that Christian athletes were present when

Greek god Eros descends over scantily clad lovers sensually clutching and releasing each other as they frolic in the water. Finally the procession of Greek history begins, with float after float parading the progress of Greek sport, science, mathematics, warfare, theatre, and—culminating in the persona of the goddess Athena and a replica of the Parthenon—religion. Over all this, Eros hovers, as though the god of love is guiding the course of human history.

Hmmmm love guiding the course of human history. Fiction of course, the bulk of human history has been driven by war and conquest, a significant component in the name of Jesus Christ, but love is a wonderful ideal as a motivating force for human endeavour. How sad that Christianity Today feels so threatened by the passion of two lovers. If it was sex they were concerned about then The Green Man would of thought that the 70,000 condoms put to effective use in the Olympic Village would have been of greater concern than the image of a pagan god floating over the open ceremony.

And a nice enough god he is too. The Green Man, being an ancient pagan spirit himself, knows Eros personally. Never take him as your darts partner at the pub though; he is terrible at darts, can't focus, always distracted by couples in the booths.

The ancient Olympic Games were pagan and they were violent but that was a different place and time. A place and time that gave birth to civilisation as we know it. If you are a Christian then this is part of your cultural heritage, Christianity developed in this corner of the space and time. Everyone today benefits from the science, literature and art that arose during this pagan era.

Just lighten up people. The Green Man is extremely concerned that we are entering a new dark ages where conservative puritan values and fear are becoming the compass by which we strike our course. The Olympic Games, whilst boring and market driven are essentially harmless. Christianity Today would do well to turn its attention to the numerous and significant moral dilemmas that exist for us to confront at the moment, in Iraq, Sudan, Israel, Chechnya to name but four.