SKILLET's JOHN COOPER Blasts Paris Olympics For 'Last Supper' Act In Opening Ceremony: 'God Will Not Be Mocked'

John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, has blasted the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony for including a crew of drag queens and dancers performing an apparent "parody of 'The Last Supper'".

Among the drag queens included in the performance was "RuPaul's Drag Race" star Nicky Doll, who strutted the Passerelle Debilly bridge alongside "Drag Race France" favorites Paloma and Piche, plus dozens of other models and performers in a rendition of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", which the Olympics called "interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings." The drag queens appeared on screen positioned similarly to how Jesus and his Twelve Apostles are depicted in da Vinci's mural painting.

Cooper, who has said in the past that his Christian faith directs him to speak out on cultural issues, took to his Instagram to share a two-and-a-half-minute video in which he ripped the Olympic Games for "mocking" Christianity and accused the "global elites" of being "perverts" who are "coming after your kids."

Cooper said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Hey, guys. What's up? I'm about to go on stage right here, but my phone's blowing up from all these people sending me videos of the opening ceremony for the Olympics of insane, crazy stuff because we don't live in a normal world any longer, okay?

"For all the people that are always saying it's so polarized, we gotta get along, everybody stop yelling at each other, we just gotta agree we all want the same things. Do we, though? Do we?

"Let me explain this to you," he continued. "This is what tolerance looks like in the new world. According to all of these global elites that want to change all of Western civilization and remake the world in their image, this is the way tolerance works for them. You sit down to watch the Olympics with your kids. They're going to start the show with drag queens who come out and mock Christianity. They're going to mock the number one largest faith in the world. They're gonna mock it on TV in front of the whole world.

"The way that tolerance works is this: if you're sitting with your kids and you go, 'What the heck's going on? I don't want my kids watching drag queens. That's not my values.' If that's what you say, well, then you're a bad person. You need to change. You're old school. You're the person that is causing all the hate in the world and they gotta shut you up. At the same time, the way tolerance works in the new world is that it's okay for the drag queens to mock Christianity. Christianity is okay to mock. All right? So they can do whatever they want to, but you can't.

"You see, this isn't normal," Cooper added. "This is not normal. It's not the world that I wanna live in. I don't think it's the world that most people in the Western civilization wanna live in.

"They are, in fact, coming after your kids, because the global elites are perverts. They are coming after your kids. The question is, what are you gonna do about it? Are we gonna stop watching? Are you gonna stop watching? Say, 'No, we're not doing that.'

"What in the world does sexuality have to do with the Olympic Games?" John said. "Can we just leave your sexuality out of the opening for the Olympics? Something we all try to do together around the world, and they make it a celebration of sexuality. That should tell you something.

"So I reject the new world. I reject their false tolerance. It's not real tolerance anyway. I reject it and I say this: God will not be mocked. Go for it. Go for it. God will not be mocked. You will reap what you sow.

"I don't know about you, but I am not bowing down to this new regime."

Cooper is not the only conservative personality who was critical of the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who was recently called out by his transgender daughter for his "cruel" words, deemed "The Last Supper" performance as "extremely disrespectful to Christians."

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who was widely panned for his May commencement speech where he lambasted gay rights and told a class of college graduates that one of the "most important" titles a woman can hold is homemaker, shared a screenshot of the performance on his Instagram Stories and wrote: "This is crazy." Butker then cited Galatians 6:7, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked."

The Catholic church in France also criticized the segment, saying in a statement: "This ceremony has unfortunately included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we very deeply deplore."

Cooper told Baptist Press about how his faith directs him to speak out on cultural issues: "If Jesus is the truth, then that means He has something to say about culture, politics, abortion and sexuality. The Bible has something to say about these things."

John has written in depth about his views in the two books he has released so far, "Awake & Alive to Truth", which came out in December 2020, and "Wimpy, Weak, And Woke", which became available in late 2023.

In various interviews over the years, John has said that he "always had faith in God" and that his mother was a "Jesus fanatic." He also claimed that he was willing to put his career on the line to take a stand for Christ.

In April 2021, Cooper told the "Undaunted.Life: A Man's Podcast" that it was perfectly fine for Christians to play rock music. "I would say that music is created not by the Devil; [it is] created by the Lord," he said. "All things were created by God. So instead of thinking that the Devil owns a genre of music, I would say capture that music and bring it back into subjection under the Lordship of Christ."

SKILLET's latest album, "Dominion", was released in January 2022 via Atlantic.