Da Vinci Code

Well, I joined the couple of other people on the face of the earth and now have seen the movie of madness and anti-Christian efforts, so I'm told. Actually, it wasn't as nearly as bad as described, nor as good as the sales indicate. It followed the book sufficiently to give readers a view of the places and events described. It had pleasingly good actors in Tom and Audry, although they didn't have great chemistry. It was too fast at the beginning, did too much talking and not enough showing, and left out a bunch of detail. It was better than Cider House Rules movie compared to book version and much worse than any Lord of the Rings or Bourne series movies. It isn't going to be a great success, because other than seeing the interesting places, most likely nothing will motive the movie goer to watch it again. Better to re-read the book.

Most important, it didn't live up to all of the anti-Christain hype attributed to it. Actually, one of the major plot points in the movie depicted Tom as being quite devote when it mattered, when he was facing death. It did depict Audry as being in the lineage of Christ, but so unoffenceably it hardly was noticed. It fluffed away the Opus Dei connection to the point of the audience barely noticed the Catholic connection.

People hated The Passion of Christ movie and wanted this one to be worse for comparison. In truth, it appears to make the established church seem a bit foolish for all of their complaining about very little. The worst scenes were not of the alternate Christ revelation, which was the complaint focus, but of the flagulation by the Opus Dei monk. If any backlash could possibly occur about Opus Dei, it would be if in reality they actually do flagulation, it would seem to me to be a really good reason to oppose them as they engage in a very non-Christian activity, kind of on the line of killing females as witches. Jesus was tortured and killed as a substitute for Christians, which means this is taken care of. The very act of flagulation is an act of no faith in Jesus, not as an act of faith, as it seems to say Jesus's death wasn't good enough.

Anyway, I'm glad I went, just to prove to myself I can see such a debacle and not be shattered in my faith. I would say the movie, Office Space, was a worse slam on those would want to live a chaste life, although much more subtle.

To Catholic or not to Catholic

Some of my more serious blogs have been in reference to The Da Vinci Code and the Catholic backlash and the backlash to the Catholic backlash. I admit I'm not particularly crazy about the Catholics, from their history of "death to the infidels," everyone not Catholic, to their insistance that their clergy remain virgins (at least from the point of ordainment) and the consequences of a whole bunch of them flunking virginity with children and being coddled and covered up for it.

I think thoughts like: If Peter was the first Pope, I wonder what his wife was. And if those in power wanted his wife written out of the script, why did they leave in the mom-in-law line?

He who bashes Catholics can't complain about others who bash Catholics. However, I was surprised when I found this in the Wikipedia. Half of Christians (established religion Christians anyway) are Catholic, which didn't suprise me. The surprise was the discussion as to if Catholics even are Christians. I linked and printed it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic

The Roman Catholic Church, or Catholic Church, is the largest Christian Church in the world. According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church,[1] the Church's worldwide recorded membership at the end of 2003 was 1,085,557,000, over half of the estimate at that time of the total number of Christians. It is led by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, currently His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

It has defined itself as "the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter" — i.e. the Pope — "and the bishops in communion with him."[2] It teaches that it is the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ for the salvation of all people.

There are some non-Catholics, however, who take issue with defining the Catholic Church as "Christian" because of its inclusion of various practices that seem, to some Protestants, at odds with their understanding of Biblical teaching. These include the veneration of specific saints, including Mary, and the teaching of such ideas as purgatory and the salvation that comes through faith and works (as opposed to merely faith). The Catholic Church's understanding of the Bible as the written part of a larger "tradition" (here, "tradition" in the technical sense, of the "deposit of faith handed down from Christ," not in the usual use of the term as mere "custom" or "practice") is also at odds with Protestant theology which emphasizes the Bible alone as a standard for belief. Those Christians who characterize Catholicism as "non-Christian" charge that the teachings of the Church are cult-like and rooted in pagan traditions -- some go so far as to identify Catholicism with the "Great Whore of Babylon" of the Book of Revelation.

Wow. I would have thought an opening "encyclopedia" discussion would be a little more neutral, not 60% bashing. This to me is below the belt Catholic bashing, calling them heathen in a theoritical unbiased description, which encyclopedias used to be famous for. Or maybe they weren't. More like I was even more naive before than I am now. So, I decided to look for something positive to say about Catholics and did, again in Wikipedia:

Among the positive things mentioned that I also didn't know was a movement by the Catholics to fix themselves, called the Counter-Reformation.

The Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation was a movement within the Roman Catholic Church to reform itself in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Reformation was comprehensive and comprised five major elements:

Doctrine
Ecclesiastical or Structural Reconfiguration
Religious Orders
Spiritual Movements
Political Dimensions

Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life to returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focus on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.

Don't know if this is correct, really happened or what. But, it did give me some promise. Anyone with a personal relationship with Christ is a Christian, to my simple mind anyway, including Catholics.

Final Four (May Madness?)

As with March Madness, my picks for American Idol are long gone now. But, unlike the basketball ending, no singer is looking like Florida. More so each week, they seem to be emulating a contest to see who can improve the least. Paris, who wasn't the worst singer, but who probably was the least marketable at her current age, leaves Katherine alone with the three guys. Hopefully, she will prevail, not that I buy any CDs at my old age. However, I can't see any of the guys being the next Carrie Underwood. More like the next Ruben Studdard.

Although I'm certain this isn't important, this is the worst of the American Idol seasons, and may be the turning point for downhill. With reality show saturation, this would not break my heart. I've been through comedy (Sid, Phil, and Lucy - boy, am I old), variety (Ed, Steve, Carol), Western (Roy, Ben, Bret, Chester, Ward, Clint - lots of westerns), the father-figure led family (Ozzie, Beaver, Shelly), detective (Kojak, Bret again, squinty eye), Soap (D, D2, Knots, Billy Crystal), the sit-com family (Dr. H, Michael J, the bar in Boston), the do-nothing family-free sit-com (Kramer, Joey), and now the reality era (Colleen, Ramber, Hung), combating crime scenes "dem bones" and "is there a doctor in the house" for the top spot. Wonder what is coming next?

Bush vs. Vietnam

I know for the military and veterans (active ones anyway) Bush was a breath of fresh air after Clinton, but I'm not able to equate what is happening in Iraq as being the right thing. Having been in Vietnam, the parallel is too close. We can't turn other cultures into ourselves with might.

If I were an Iraqi, and had only rocks to throw, I would throw them until the last American left. Imagine Iraq conquering us and demanding we embrace their culture. It isn't as much right vs. wrong, as many proclaim, it is us against them. And, as with Vietnam, us don't always win with might.

But, also as with Vietnam, or Japan, or Germany, or England 200 years ago, what is war today can be something else later. As what happened in Vietnam, for us to succeed in Iraq, I think we need to leave town first.