EFF-EYE-CEE-TEE-EYE-OH-ENN. Period.

Come on, folks. Or, if you prefer a fancier name, Historical Revisionism.

Because I try to be at least wrist-flick-at-a-fly fair about things, I must confess I read The DaVinci Code. Because the film is going to be released next week, I had to know what all the hullaballoo was all about. And, no, I'm not wasting money to see Tom Hanks play a role he isn't really appropriate for. I mean, who is going to believe Forrest Gump as a Harvard professor of symbology? And Opie as director? Please. Much as I do like both of them, they are overrated.

Anyway, how do I feel about it?

It's a nice piece of FICTION.

What was it we used to put in our notes to friends in school in the eighties to denote something known to not matter? Oh, yes. B. F. D.

Anyone with a smattering knowledge of Christianity, let alone Catholicism, knows that this is a load of codswallop. Yes, Opus Dei does exist. If it were so secret, you wouldn't know about it. And, as a proud ROMAN CATHOLIC, passably versed in Church history, I can say with a fair amount of comfort that there aren't renegade Orders running around and killing people.

The Priory of Sion--or whatever 'secret society' he claims exists--well, if their whole mission was to debunk it's "mortal enemy," I think it would have been a long time ago. Well, you know, the Reformation would have been a prime point in time to let it all out and wreck it all while Catholicism was almost on its knees and the fledgling Protestant churches were unstable.

And, when one digs around, it's no secret that Brown borrowed heavily from other conspiracy theorists (one presented as being heavily used is Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent). He has presented nothing new. There's nothing in the Louvre. Really.

All it's going to do is this:

1. Feed the fires of those who don't like Catholicism (or Christianity in any form), or your daily conspiracy theorists, and/or
2. Further decay the wavering faith of what are referred to Sunday- or Cafeteria-Catholics (or the Protestant equivalent), and/or
3. Stoke the fire of those who believe in His Truth, no matter the Christian splinter to which they belong.

Now, if this book and movie were about the Belly-Lint Adoration Society, Lutherans, Scientology, Hammertoes Anonymous, Mormonism, Islam, Druidism, extreme right cults, extreme left cults, devil worship, World of Warcraft devotees, Wicca, Buddhism, etc., there would be an uproar that would shake the core of the earth. But because it bashes the Catholics specifically, as well as feeding the extreme feminist core, it seems to be OK within society.

Why is that?

And why is it that you're bad if you're Catholic?

~~

I got a chain email earlier this week, and I was slightly amused.

The Da Vinci Code Lie Exposed

The movie "The Da Vinci Code" staring Tom Hanks, directed by Ron Howard will soon be released in the first part of this year. This movie will have the potential to deceive billions of the world's population. The story line attacks the very heart of the Gospel and attempts to destroy the very nature and character of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. (Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed? Psalm 2:1, 2)

[Removed paragraphs of vitriol]

Oswald Chambers states in his timeless writing My Upmost For His Highest ..."Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women but to be proclaimers of the Gospel of God. The one all-important thing is that the Gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality" Yet we have to ask ourselves today when this abiding reality comes under direct attack who will defend it? The answer can only be that those of us who have been transformed by it's truth for eternity will and must defend it here and now.

Pray that Christian lay people, prayer leaders, writers, pastors, and all those in Christian media outlets will get the message out and expose this deception of hell and reveal the lie this movie will present before it ever hits the theaters.

...Email this on to everyone you know (don't delete, give it feet) and lets expose this lie for what it is because the hour is late and ... much later than we think.

Also for more research on the web a good start would be at a website called "The Da Vinci Code Hoax" as well as other sites exposing this fraud.

This, after I had already read the book. Well, I'm sure I'm not going to Hell just for reading the book. It's a fact that the book has the standard clause, "This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously..." blabbity blah blah blah. Interesting to note that the "fictional" Swiss bank manager is named Andre Vernet, and yet Brown lists an "Andre Vernet" in his acknowledgements at the front of the book. Hmmm.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that the Church and Opus Dei were exonerated by book's end, manipulated by a rich and greedy member of the British Aristocracy. Interesting.

~~

It's an established fact that the post-Crucifixion translations of the Old Testament corresponds with the nearly 2000 year old Dead Sea Scrolls-remarkably so, and then some. Esther seems to have gone on vacation in the Scrolls, but maybe she'll pop up one day. They do dispel the mystery, or lack thereof, there.

Constantine had nothing to do with the compilation of the Bible we read today. Nada, zip, zilch. Here is a nice essay on where he fits in the story. St. Jerome (c.342-420) translated the Old Testament and New Testament into Latin, which the Dead Sea Scrolls prove that he (and subsequent scribes) did a competent job. Please note that CONSTANTINE was DEAD by the time Jerome was born. Again, I repeat, it's a fallacy that Constantine had anything to do with the selections of the various texts. Constantine died in 337. Jerome was born about 342, and the selection of New Testament books was finally settled at the Council of Carthage, 397. These are historical facts. You figure it out.

I tripped across this site looking things up tonight; that'll be a pleasure read for me later.

But as I cruise the 'Net, I notice three groups: people believing that Brown has presented a huge revelation; those who can credibly discredit the assertions in this book; and those who just look at the whole screaming melee and think, "what is the big deal?"

~~

One curious thing that has not been addressed anywhere: the Roman Catholic Church is also called the Holy Mother Church, and referred to with feminine pronouns and possessives. Those men who have the priestly vocation are said to espouse the Church.

Sacred feminine, indeed.

~~

*sigh*

I hate pop culture.