Sometimes when groups or people get all bent out of shape over a book I just need to shake my head. Take all the hoopla over the whole Harry Potter series. People have the right to their opinions, and the right to express their opinions… however sometimes I just want to tell them “It’s just a book, a work of fiction”.
But what if the people who are concerned raise a good point? Take for instance Genoa Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone who is a former Vatican office holder on Doctrine and Orthodoxy. Bertone is urging people not to buy or read The Da Vinci Code. Now, on the surface this just looks like another “church trying to censor people” story right? Well, I think there is more to it. The good folks over at The Globe and Mail offer us this:
Allegations in the novel that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and has descendants have outraged many Christians and have been dismissed by historians and theologians.
Asked about commentary that the book’s success is “only further proof of the fact that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice,” the cardinal exclaimed. “It’s the truth.”
“There’s a great anti-Catholic prejudice,” Cardinal Bertone said. “I ask myself if a similar book was written, full of lies about Buddha, Mohammed, or, even, for example, if a novel came out which manipulated all the history of the Holocaust or of the Shoah, what would have happened?”
Bertone raises a very strong point in my opinion. I’ve asked this question before: Why in an age of understanding is it still totally acceptable… and even encouraged… to produce anti-Catholic material?
If The Da Vinci Code was about how the Holocaust was a lie… people would be calling for blood! And so they should. If the book was about Mohammed being a big con-man… then there would be mass boycotting of the book. It the book attacked the basis, ideals or fundamental claims of ANY major people group in the world everyone would be up in arms. And so we should.
However… attack Catholics… make fun of Catholics… mock Catholic history… and that’s in style.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for a boycott on The Da Vinci Code. Not at all. To me it’s just a silly work of fiction. But I just have to wonder how we would all be reacting to the book if it went after anyone else.
What are your thoughts?
