6/23/2006

Relief

Just a few minutes after I blogged the "blgh" blog yesterday, I had some of the best wisdom, prayers, and support. You know what I think? Sorrow is not heathy until it's able to be shouldered wtih someone else.

A friend read my blog, knew the day before I was having a tough time (I'd called her), realized it hadn't gotten better, and was here in minutes, just to sit with me, tell me it's okay, pray with me, and let tears fall for a minute. It felt good. I didn't feel bottled up anymore the rest of the day.

I hate when you can't share...discretion, privacy, private information. There is something refreshing when you can share news. I wonder if holding the gospel in should not cause similar angst in us?

Whoa...deep thought.

My husband came home early yesterday. We fixed lots of good food, weeded some in the garden together, and enjoyed a monsoon-like rain. So great to have him home through bad weather!

We are almost finished reading Da Vinci Code. It's a suspenseful thing. Although it's "fiction", I understand the outrage about it. Though it claims to be fiction, it's facts lists the book begins with are not supported historically in real life. Dates are off, making any claims to the secret societies mentioned and any claims to "real true" very far fetched. Honestly, had I not read another book and known the truth about those dates, it would have put a lot of scepticism in my mind about the church, history, and Chrisitianity. It's very scary what a well calculated story can do.

The Priory of Sion, which the book was based on, did not, in fact, come into being until much, much later than the author suggests. This alone shifts the credibility of it's "findings".

I hope we as a church handle the book responsibility. The wonderment of a "sacred feminine", a "female goddess" who Christ meant to lead the church forward has got to strike a chord with the feminist movement. I doubt they will let go of the notion quickly.

Have you read it?

2 comments:

Kamsin said...

Hi, I haven't read the book and don't intend to. (Doesn't stop me from having an opinion about it though!) It seems to me that the list of "facts" is actually the first page of the fiction. It's a literary device and those things need to be fact in the internal working of the fictional world Dan Brown has created, otherwise the fiction doesn't work. What scares me is people's inability to separate the real from the fictional. It seems that people are so distrusting of Chrsitianity that they are willing to accept that some of the fiction might actually be true. Dan Brown isn't claiming any of this stuff is fact (the book is in the fiction section, after all) but he is being very clever and making a lot of money of people's distrust and confusion about the church.

Joan said...

Thoughtful response. You are absolutely right.

If even Christians read the book, they need to read a commentary first on what the facts actually are. My husband and I both agree, and I think it's helpful to read a book like that with another person out loud, as we did, to discuss theological mis-steps.

Even I would have been confused historically not knowing what was fact and what was fiction. There are a LOT of liberties taken with history to weave a tale.

People say, "It is FICTION", what is the problem? Well, look at mythology and the far reaching implications of THOSE tales. I always hated being forced to read them in high school and college.