Faster....Higher....Stronger...."Together?"

                The 1964 United States Olympic team entered the stadium in Tokyo....almost marching....as was the norm....and was followed immediately by the contingent from the Soviet Union. That opening ceremony can easily be Googled. The 1972 summer Olympics began on August 26....twenty-four days before I would ETS from the army. I spent my last six months in the service at Fort Bragg....as an afternoon CQ....keeping a log of men coming in and out of the long three story brick barracks....this because there was no six-month job for a morse code analyst in the United States. These tragic Olympics ended on September 11....and I watched almost every minute of it....much of it heart-wrenching minutes.....from my desk as a CQ.
                These were essentially the Mark Spitz Olympics as far as the competition was concerned....with his seven world record gold medals in seven swimming races....but the Olympiad was and is more than that right up to today....as eleven Israeli athletes were murdered by terrorists. This atrocity happened near the end of the sixteen day Olympics. Mark Spitz is Jewish and was sent back to America for his protection as the horror unfolded.
                So sitting by that television for so many hours....that iconic theme music....has remained in my mind even after all these years. I know that there hasn't been a year go by where a few times in that year I would have that theme waft through my mind. It was a Frenchman's composition titled....Bugler's Dream....if you are interested in Googling it. Was it played this year in NBC's Olympic programming? I wouldn't know because the only broadcast that I saw came at a....believe it or not...baby shower....(I guess they invite the husbands nowadays)....where the giant screen was on the wall ten feet in front of where I was sitting....as I was answering baby quiz questions.
                I have to correct that for I did tune in for about a half hour of the opening ceremony....which may have turned me off for the rest of the games? So what I did see of the competition was in news videos. The threats of terrorism and the hatred of Israel and Jews is still here today....but otherwise the world has changed. From mocking the Last Supper to Tom Cruise leaping off the closing ceremony stadium roof....(I saw that video a few minutes ago)....we are fully ensconced in an entertainment culture. NBC described the ceremony as...."glorious"....but the AP is closer to the truth with...."cinematic." The Bible would label it....idolatrous.
               One scene from the Olympiad sticks in my mind....in fact it came as I was sitting at that baby shower....it was women's sprints....and the camera was pointed to a theatrical stage opening where one by one the female sprinters were introduced....(there was no sound on this TV)....and they dramatically walked through the opening.....posed for a moment or two....and then went straight to their lane assignment. I found it odd. What would Bruce Jenner have thought?
                The Olympic motto had always been....(in Latin)...."Faster....Higher.....Stronger"....but in this Olympiad they added...."Together." One-hundred years ago....at the 1924 Paris Olympics....Eric Liddell made news by refusing to run on the Lord's Day. Yesterday....August 11....the Lord's Day....with the world and Israel at the precipice....millions of Christians in America would surely have been tuned in to the celebration. Not only has the world changed....but so has the church. Gone from our mind is 2 Corinthians 6:17...."Therefore 'Come out from among them, and be ye separate....says the Lord'."