Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Heather: On the Da Vinci Code...
I've read the plot summary and a review or two, but no, I haven't read the book. I'm afraid someone will see it in my hands and breathe fire. I wonder, though, if it has one of those disclaimers. You know, the one that says the people and events are entirely fictitious and any resemblance to actual people or events is coincidental. I'll bet a fair share of folks could use a reminder of the definition of fiction. Like those who are taking it as catechesis.
If someone were to write The Booth Code, about how Mrs. Abraham Lincoln actually hired John Wilkes Booth to assassinate ol' Abe because he was philandering, I don't think ABC would have had a documentary on it. (Note: I don't think Abe was. It's a hypothetical example.)
If some hack were to write The Aldren Code, about how our government faked the moon landing and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren weren't even real people but androids of some kind, it would automatically be dismissed as fringe fanatic fiction.
The fact that this book is getting so much attention is a symptom of two things: one, the abysmal ignorance of the seatwarmers in the pews and two, that anti-Catholicism is alive and well in America.
Okay, I probably shouldn't call my fellow pew occupants "seatwarmers." It's an apt description for a fair share, though; those who are too apathetic to sing "Gather Us In" or endorse liturgical movement or who wonder why we're kneeling all of a sudden again.
And given the publicity regarding the Scandal in the past few years, you'd think every priest is a child molester. I don't mean to downplay the trauma the victims have gone through at all, but how often would you like to be reminded of such a thing on the evening news?
I've read the plot summary and a review or two, but no, I haven't read the book. I'm afraid someone will see it in my hands and breathe fire. I wonder, though, if it has one of those disclaimers. You know, the one that says the people and events are entirely fictitious and any resemblance to actual people or events is coincidental. I'll bet a fair share of folks could use a reminder of the definition of fiction. Like those who are taking it as catechesis.
If someone were to write The Booth Code, about how Mrs. Abraham Lincoln actually hired John Wilkes Booth to assassinate ol' Abe because he was philandering, I don't think ABC would have had a documentary on it. (Note: I don't think Abe was. It's a hypothetical example.)
If some hack were to write The Aldren Code, about how our government faked the moon landing and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren weren't even real people but androids of some kind, it would automatically be dismissed as fringe fanatic fiction.
The fact that this book is getting so much attention is a symptom of two things: one, the abysmal ignorance of the seatwarmers in the pews and two, that anti-Catholicism is alive and well in America.
Okay, I probably shouldn't call my fellow pew occupants "seatwarmers." It's an apt description for a fair share, though; those who are too apathetic to sing "Gather Us In" or endorse liturgical movement or who wonder why we're kneeling all of a sudden again.
And given the publicity regarding the Scandal in the past few years, you'd think every priest is a child molester. I don't mean to downplay the trauma the victims have gone through at all, but how often would you like to be reminded of such a thing on the evening news?
