MY point of view

before you read what i have to say, please remember that i am not ridiculing you and what you believe in, in whatever manner. i just want to share my 2 cents on all these Da Vinci code and church matters. i just finished reading the book "The Da Vinci Code" about 3 weeks ago. long after i heard of the comments on how "good" it was and/or how "evil" it was... i read the book simply because i wanted to understand the movie when i watch it. (if you've ever watched a heavy movie with me, you'll know how often i ask "ano daw?". may pagkabingi rin ako e. :P). anyway, my point is that i didn't read the book because i'm having problems with my faith and i want answers. last friday, an officemate emailed this article with the note "This is a good reading to help us understand and prepare us on how we should take the Da Vinci Code book and movie.". of course, the "should" word offended some of the email recipients. look, i can be open-minded and i was when i read the article. and i believe in God despite the many questions i have in mind. i am also aware of the politics surrounding our religion. but some of the points presented in this article doesn't make sense, offending to women like me and (pardon my choice of words) just downright ridiculous.

"...this book that claims to exalt women has only three female characters, one of whom is an empty-headed shill for the multiple haughty male characters who have to teach her everything she knows, another of whom is described as an overweight cultic prostitute and the third is a liberal nun who is brutally murdered in a church. Like the purveyors of the culture of death, Brown pays lip service to women’s wellbeing while writing them into his script as dodos, prostitutes and fodder for male violence." "...Brown uses an actual satanic ritual to promote his idea that his pagan religion is holy and something that the wicked Catholic Church has unjustly persecuted for centuries... Brown is a master of this demonic twisting...The ritual in question is called hiéros gamos (which he translates as “sacred marriage”) ...Now think of the terrible perversion that is going on here. What Dan Brown calls an ancient pagan “sacred marriage” ceremony, is nothing other than a perverse mockery of holy matrimony depicted in living color in the pages of his book. I can’t describe it or read the passage without offending my own deepest values, but I can say that if this act was “sacred” it was only so to the devil..." "...for a book which purports to exalt “the divine feminine,” the three female characters in this book are all empty handmaidens for Brown’s main agenda which is to exalt paganism and destroy our faith. There is only one main female character...This stands in marked contrast to the many well-developed male characters (whether good or evil) which Sophie has to compete against for attention in the book. Saunière, her grandfather and the curator of the Louvre, Langdon the symbologist, Teabing the guru and Rémy his butler, Fache the Captain, Collet the Lieutenant, Silas the evil albino, Bishop Aringarosa the Opus Dei prelate, even Vernet the Swiss Bank president and several other male figures get all Brown’s best literary efforts! Poor little Sophie is clearly a second class citizen in Brown’s make-believe world. Sophie makes her debut in the book with a grand entry into the crime scene at the Louvre. She is young and attractive, looking like a million bucks strolling down the long corridors and exercising her supposedly-superior intelligence to engineer a brilliant escape from the cops. After that, however, Sophie becomes a puppet. She loses any independent thinking function and spends the final 350 pages or so expressing profound thoughts like, “Really? I didn’t know that!” and “Gee, I guess I had it all wrong.” This is part of Brown’s de-construction of her brain and re-programming with all the demonically-correct thoughts and concepts to make her into the perfect little pagan girl that he wants her to be..."

it seems to me that it is this article who keeps calling women "airheads". but then again, it's just me. i know that a lot of people can be easily swayed by words (or money.. but that's another story..). and there could be people out there who revoked or questioned their faith after reading the book, despite knowing that the book is fictitious. the people who condemn the book and upcoming movie believe that mankind must be "saved" from a wrong belief. that's why they must not read the book or see the movie because they could be "lost". then again, there are also people who thinks that this book/movie will be the way to cleanse the Christian community of those who are not worthy (hmmm.. maybe that's too strong a word...) or those "people whose faith is shallow" (see Faye's Blog). personally, i agree; this makes more sense. as a Christian, let me just share MY thoughts on this matter of the "book corrupting the minds of Christians" and "putting the faith in a very wrong light"... you see, even before i read the book, i already thought of these:

• i know that the Bible is a product of man, as are other religion's book of faith. i understand that it has been "modified" as it was translated to multiple languages. it has also been "filtered" so that those who read it will not be confused. but it is a work that is subject to interpretation and its "true meaning" will be different and personal for each person who reads it.
• i believe that Jesus Christ is divine and He is the Son of God. but i also know that He was once human. He was a Great Man. if He did marry someone or had a family, i really won't mind. that won't make Him less divine and that won't change my faith in Him.
• if Jesus had children, and they had children and so... that doesn't mean that they are, by default, also holy like Jesus.
• God gave humans the gift of free will. it is man's choice to have faith or not. so you cannot force people to have faith. faith will come to them once their hearts and souls are touched.
• religion only helps you to stand on your feet. but your personal relationship with the Lord and God is what will nurture your faith and beliefs.

so, i guess what i'm saying is that the Church should not fuss so much or go out of their way to keep telling Christians to NOT "listen" to the Da Vinci Code. i think they can "save" more faiths by preaching the Good News of the Lord and His greatness. i mean, if i want to hear/know how corrupt our government is, or who to vote in the upcoming elections, i wouldn't go to church and hear it from the priest's homily... i'd read the news.