Good post. I will answer a few of your points and questions.
The Da Vinci Code occurs here on earth based on supposed truths. But it blurs what it right and wrong, and who your heroes are supposed to be.
It does essentially what Michael Crichton does in State of Fear. Crichton uses as a background well known environmental organizations to build a fictitious attack by the environmentalists to show how fragile our environment is and to gain power. But, Like DaVinci Code, is fiction. Brown claims to be a Christian, so I'm not sure why he would want to blur right and wrong. While he portrays Jesus different than Church history does, he never shows Him in a negative light. He didn't invent those alternate theories. They've been around for about 1900 years. Opus Dei, Knights Templar, Priory of Sion, etc all were real. From that point he merely puts it all together into a fictional story.
I felt that I was given a great injustice by being brought up with the notion that John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and other Hollywood types were my heroes or Hollywood written stories of such people as Sargent York or Lawrence of Arabia or others.
In retrospect, I wish my heroes would have been Jesus, the apostle Peter and many Saints and Angels.
I think you can have both. John Wayne was of course a great American, and certainly someone to look up to, because the values he reflected on the big screen were for the most part, the same values he held personally.
They would have been great role models.
Don't deny that at all. Having been raised Catholic, I was taught only what the Church wanted me to learn, which of course excluded much of the Church's history. It was not all the making of role models. The Church's leaders frequently succumbed to the lust for power. And as we all know, power can be abused and misused. The Church should not be afraid of all of its history, not just that part that supports today's Canon Law.
That is what Hollywood portrays the Da Vinci Code as: it is soooooo important to show that Jesus had sex with people.
I didn't get that at all from the book. Yes sex was a part of the ceremonies portrayed, but I think Brown was trying to say that the Church's treatment of sex and women over the last 2000 years were not consistent with history. And that part is probably true, if not embellished for his book.
Nor does the Da Vinci Code offer the premise that Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and brought hope and mercy to this world, as well as many other miracles.
As I said before, Brown does portray Jesus as a great man, just not as devine. He simply takes the alternate theory (again, that he did not create) and does create a mystery story out of it.
Show some sort of positive thing to be gained by the Da Vinci Code, then I will consider it not a total waste of time.
It's called entertainment. If I come on a good writer who can put together a good mystery story, then that is what I am looking for. I didn't read Brown's books for any kind of moral reinforcement. You get that from books such as you mention below, but I doubt you get much of that from SG-1 which you say you like.
His punch line was that he cut a lizard in half in a split second, and showed the bandits what might happen to them.
And you're absolutely sure that's true?
But I value the opinion of another Kansas native - Charles J. Chaput. In 2004, he shut out the newmedia (CNN, NY TIMES, MSNBC), and walked away smelling like roses, and badly burned the media. His opinion is important to me, and his is that the Da Vinci Code book is boring...
And you don't for a second think that Chaput, a Catholic priest has no agenda? Think for yourself. If the only bad reviews are coming from people who do not want the book to succeed, you could be wrong. Of course Chaput is going to say it's boring.
As for what the book brings to a reader, go to Dan Brown's web site and read the numerous reviews of it. I get out of it exactly what you get out of science fiction...entertainment.
topher posted:
His punch line was that he cut a lizard in half in a split second, and showed the bandits what might happen to them.
MACVSOG68 responded with:
And you're absolutely sure that's true?
If I told you that one man (who was a conscious objector) and was almost allowed to leave the US Army for those beliefs, captured 300 Germans basically singlehandedly, and almost WAS FORCED to kill a number of German machine gunners, you might consider that a lie.
The facts about Gabriel Possenti are not as significant as are those about a corporal from Tennessee whose name was Alvin York.
His squad was caught in an ambush, and all the leaders but him were either dead or wounded.
His next actions were that he wanted DESPARATELY to save lives. He was a God fearing man, though he was once a hell raiser.
So he used his faith in God and his talents as a backwoodsman, and successfully led what was left of his squad back to Allied lines, along with 300 prisoners.
On his dying bed, Alvin York still regretted that he killed one of the Germans -- the German would not surrender.
The Gabriel Possenti story is just an Alvin York story on a much smaller scale.
Twelve of Garibaldi's band were roaming the mountains in Italy, and started to raid and plunder a village. They all had pistols.
Gabriel, a young monk sent the village because of poor health, asked his superior if he could try to help the people.
The superior gave his permission but did not know what Gabriel could do.
Each of the plunderers had a pistol. Gabriel was an excellent marksman and horseman growing up -- very similar to the story of Alvin York.
He came upon one of the band of men, and took his pistol -- the man was busy carrying off a young girl, so it was easy to snatch his pistol. Then he snatched another one from another man.
This warranted the attention of the leader of the band of twelve men, as well as all of them.
He leader asked the young monk what he intended to do with the two pistols -- thinking he did not know how to use them.
It was at this opportune moment, a lizard was crossing the road. The lizard hesitated, and Gabriel let loose one shot which cut the lizard in two.
It must have been some shot, as Gabriel took the other pistol and pointed to the men, and asked if any of them would care to see if he could the same with them as he did with the lizard.
He had no takers, and Gabriel ordered the men to drop their weapons, put out the fires they started and leave.
Now this is from Ann Ball's Modern Saints.
Now you believe the true story of Alvin York, where a conscious objector won the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest honor, and compare it to a smaller tale of Gabriel Possenti.
One difference between the two stories is that Gabriel did not have to kill anyone, but I am sure he was willing to do anything to protect people.
As for Alvin York, he may have saved more lives than just those who survived in his squad. He also saved the lives of 300 German prisoners. Now each of those prisoners, if not captured by Alvin York, might have killed or maimed a person. So maybe the total lives saved was more than 300 lives.
And the story of Alvin York was probably something that might have convince Germany to surrender, as this was not many months before the end of the war, and I am sure this story circulated on both sides of the Front - the German and the Allied side.
But for me, the greatest satisfaction of both stories is that they are stories of men of great faith in God who also had extraordinary abilities.
Ultimately the UNSEEN may been a factor in both stories -- unseen angels and the hand of God guiding the right person at the right time.
These two stories are more an example of what Jesus said: "With God, nothing is impossible."
So I won't force you to believe the story of Gabriel, but I believe it to be true, just as I believe the story of Alvin York to be true.
Both are stories of what a man can do if he has God's help.
You don't have to walk on water to impress me...
topher wrote:
His punch line was that he cut a lizard in half in a split second, and showed the bandits what might happen to them.
MACVSOG68 responded:
And you're absolutely sure that's true?
A good web link is (middle of the page):
http://uccatholic.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_uccatholic_archive.html
from the section: Patron Saint of handguns
The St. Gabriel Possenti Society exists to promote the public recognition of St. Gabriel Possenti, including his Vatican designation as Patron Saint of Handgunners.
St. Gabriel Possenti is a Passionist saint (Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin). Apparently, in 1860, a band of soldiers from the army of Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.
Possenti, with his seminary rector's permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.
Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier's revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti's direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.
At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as "the Savior of Isola".