Catch-up entry

[matrixrefugee]

It's been insanely busy here: with everyone having cook-outs/barbeques, work has been utter chaos; I think I did something to my shoulder, because right at the end of my shift Friday, I got this stabbing pain under my right shoulderblade. It seems okay now, but I'm leery of it. Plus, I seem to have a bit of ringing in the ears from having small children scream in them (I still don't know how we got past the Pliocene Era without going the way of the dinosaurs; a small child yelling at the top of his lungs would have attracted the attention of every velociraptor and sabre-toothed tiger for a five mile radius).

Thursday was my parents' wedding anniversary; after Mass at St. Francis (It was the feast of the Ascension) the three of us had dinner at the Cracker Barrel here in town. My folks had pork chops and mashed potatoes, I had shrimp and... fried breaded okra, which was somewhat adventurous on my part, since sometime ago we once cooked steamed okra, which was something of a mistake: eating steamed okra is like eating slimy steamed celery. Fried okra is much more tasty -- and less slimy.

And this just in for the "God, Shoot Me Now" file, re: the Damn Book and all it's hype --

There is a "Da Vinci Code" movie tie-in computer game, as I found out from flipping through "Electronic Gamer" recently. I have no idea how much of Dan Brown's anti-Catholic polemics made it into the game (I've heard the more honest critics say the movie is extremely unexciting and boring), but considering who buys computer games, usually -- the teens through early twenties bracket -- I'm worried that some young folks might have their faith shaken to the foundations. Mind you, I realize that adolescence is a time to start striking out on your own and questioning things, even things like the faith you were brought up in; I've skirted toward different faiths in the past, including Messianic Judaism, Mormonism, Rosicrucianism (I was sick of Catholicism being the media's pet whipping boy so I went for the most obscure thing I could come across that made sense to me at the time; who mocks Rosicrucians or writes novels about "OMG TEH BEEG EVOL ROSICRUSHUN CONSIPIRACY!!!!11111" ?), and even Paganism of the worshipping the male aspect variety (what do you call that actually?) as opposed to the Goddess-worship variety, since I just get plain anNOYed with the "embrace your inner Goddess" nonsense. It's a sacchrine version of the "Wymyn RULE; men DROOL" variety of feminism, which I just can't *stand*. I just don't want young folks to be misled into thinking Dan Brown's gross mis-information is actual, historical fact and actual theology, and so have their faith eroded. But... I suppose as they say, faith that's never been tested is no faith at all.

The pastor at St. Francis is optimistic about the whole matter, I have to agree with him, but I'm still trying to be realistic about it: he's hoping that people who read the Damn Book will get curious about what early Christianity was *REALLY* like and go searching for the answers and that they might just have their faith strengthened. Trouble is, I think I might know human nature at its most crass a better than he does: I realize that most people who read the Damn Book are just going to be wowed by the concepts and not give it any more thought. They consume it and move on to the next sensational tidbit that everyone's talking about. If they do think to examine anything beyond the Damn Book, they're likely to reach for Lincoln and Baigent's "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" or Margret Starbird's "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar", Dan Brown's primary sources for his ludicrous stuff. They're not likely to read the early Church fathers and see what those fellows like Gregory the Great and Ambrose and Athanasius really said... but there again, what do I know.

Comments

[jezebelesque.livejournal.com]

So many people I know who have read That Book, say "WOW, it says that Jesus was married! So the Bible is wrong! He WAS married!" And I just say "Um, hello? It's FICTION"

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Sadly, people are dumb enough to believe Dan Brown's book. Or rather, they are incurious enough to take what he says at face-value rather than actually looking into early Church history.

I still have yet to read a single page of Dan Brown's book. When I went to the library to get a copy, they were all either lost or checked out.

[bel-fiore.livejournal.com]

Isn't a video game taking things a bit far with this book? Most video games made after movies aren't very good anyhow.

[he-dreams-awake.livejournal.com]

faith that's never been tested is no faith at all.


I saw on something recently, someone said "If this movie, as bad as it is, makes you re-think your faith, then maybe faith isn't what you had, at all".



I don't know why I bother commenting anymore, though: you've gotten pretty good at pretending we don't exist.

[faire-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Paganism of the worshipping the male aspect variety (what do you call that actually?) as opposed to the Goddess-worship variety, since I just get plain anNOYed with the "embrace your inner Goddess" nonsense. It's a sacchrine version of the "Wymyn RULE; men DROOL" variety of feminism, which I just can't *stand*."


::Sigh:: We Call It Paganism. Dianic Wicca {That Which Focuses Only On Goddess Worship} Is One Single Branch Of Wicca. And Wicca Is One Single Branch Of Paganism. The GREATEST Majority Of Pagans Believe In A Male AND A Female Aspect Of Divinity Which Are Fully Equal And Perfectly Balanced And Complimentary To One Another. The Perfect Balance. {Just Like In Nature. You Need Both Male And Female For The Whole Thing To Work.} Sorry If This Comment Offends, But Just Like You Get Upset At People Not Having The Correct Information About YOUR Religion, I Don't Like Seeing MY Religion Generalised Incorrectly Either. ::Hugs:: So I Just Had To Get This Off My Chest. I Hope You Understand.

[(Anonymous)]

One of my flatmates last year was reading the book and it ended up being the topic of rather amused conversation. The general concensus seemed to be that it was probably bull but that it was an interesting idea. Their was also a bit of debate as to how you'd know who the last scion was if they actually existed that mostly seemed to center on the turning water into wine thing. No one really took it seriously.
~Weaver

[troisroyaumes]

Ironically enough, there has in fact been a lot of writing about a Rosicrucian conspiracy (the Rosicrucians were suspected to be successors to the Templars so the people who like to theorize about the Big Templar Conspiracy--rather like Dan Brown--tend to bring up Rosicrucians often as well).

The thing I disliked most about the book was that it completely missed the entire point of the Gospel. Either Dan Brown never touched a Bible in his life or he must be incredibly dense and incapable of reading comprehension. Ugh.