c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) As a television spectacle, the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing were an astonishing and sobering display.

The astonishing side was one lavish techno-touch after another: a giant LED screen, dancers creating a live drawing, a vast image-displaying membrane encircling the stadium. Plus people flying, synchronized drumming, synchronized martial arts, synchronized singing, synchronized dancing. Plus lighted costumes, cleverly timed fireworks, China’s history unfolding on a massive digital scroll.

All perfectly fashioned and executed for global television _ as if the director had asked his most creative colleagues, “What’s the most amazing thing you can imagine? Now, let’s make it happen.”

It was a sobering contrast to the attitude I hear more and more in America: What’s the least we can do and stay afloat for another year? Can we re-brand mediocrity and make some sales?

I know that any Olympic ceremony is propaganda for the host country, intended to awe other nations and to sell a way of life. The reality behind the spectacle can be quite different, such as Hitler’s genocide (Berlin 1936), war-related boycotts (Moscow 1980), excessive commercialism (Atlanta 1996), desperate borrowing (Salt Lake City 2002), and pollution and repression (Beijing 2008).

It’s like watching a mega-advertisement. The question isn’t “Does the ad tell a true story?” But rather, “What story-line are they trying to sell? How do they portray the human condition?”

I was struck by the Chinese spectacle’s focus on children. Not scantily clad teenage girls or sullen Abercrombie boys, but young children, pre-sexual, entrusted with carrying China’s culture and future.

I contrasted that with American product ads perpetuating gender wars (“Defeat the boys” was one ad line) and showing happiness found in food and displays of wealth. Most ads didn’t even show children, as if machines and screens bore our future.

I was struck by displays of history, as if being Chinese today means knowing about ancient dynasties, about Confucianism and Buddhism, and about certain ideals like harmony that retain their value even when violated.

I contrasted that with Americans’ disregard of history, ethics and self-sacrifice, as if spying on citizens, torturing prisoners, chasing immigrants, shoveling wealth to the wealthy, and rigging elections require us to behave like Mao and to ignore the ideals and personal sturdiness that made us a great nation.

As I watched the ceremonies, I became weary of pasted-on smiles and error-free performance, and wondered what would happen to the poor soul who frowned in exertion or missed a step. While seeking to awe, a totalitarian regime can leave little room for authenticity.

It was a relief, then, when the world’s athletes entered the stadium and proceeded immediately to be human: mugging for cameras, waving in excitement, abandoning formation, and surmounting tacky costumes.

I was struck by the closing image of Chinese basketball star Yao Ming carrying his nation’s flag and then lifting up a 10-year-old boy who had survived the recent earthquake and gone back to rescue two classmates because, he said, “I am a hall monitor, I am a leader, it is my responsibility.”

Was the moment scripted? Probably. But that script was far nobler than the adjacent McDonald’s script showing a smug team winning a soccer trophy and smirking at the losers, and the losers hoisting their own trophy _ Happy Meals _ so they could smirk in return.

Why not invite the other team to share the meal? Turn a win-lose contest into “one world, one dream”?

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

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