Thursday, May 4

Da Vinci denials

Does anyone find it particularly vexing that the Church is boycotting (some groups anyway), publicizing denials (everyone from the Pope down), and readying their arguments (most regional places of worship) for a fictional movie based on a fictional book? Or is it all fictional? I mean, why spend so much time, energy and money fighting against something that's untrue, to the point of turning the whole thing into a three-ring circus?
Now, me? I loved The Da Vinci Code. I totally bought in to it as a plausible take on religious history. I can think of nothing better than finding out that the premise (based on some historical fact) would be true. (For those of you who don't know: Jesus and Mary got married and started a family whose bloodline still continues today; the Church hid it to downplay Mary's involvement in Jesus's life and decisions; the foundation of religion is based on women and their wombs; and the Church frantically hid it because of its fear of a strong, female presence.) The parallels that author Dan Brown draws between history, legend, evidence and common knowledge are freakishly accurate. Certainly, we know that the Church is famously afraid of admitting women into it's higher offices. We know that demeaning and subjecating women was a fun pastime for men back in the day of the Bible. We absolutely know that the Church is a world-wide, rich and powerful entity that could have such a conspiracy under its robes, and the means to keep it hidden for thousands of years.
Even if such a conspiracy -- disappointingly -- were not true, the Church seems determined to smash even the slightest question as to the basis behind its beliefs. It's spending a lot of time trying to convince its followers that asking such questions is blasphemy, and that being a good parishioner means accepting everything that they're told, and not questioning it. That, to me, seems a lot like a dictatorship, or a fascist sect.

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