What she's been doing Part 1: Da Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci

Apologies first. Sorry I just dropped off there. I've been a bit busy with all this "back in the Army" stuff. But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about what I've been reading while waiting in the endless lines. Wait, that's not right. I've actually been knitting in the ques also. In fact, I usually bring both the book and the knitting so I can be prepared. Long, take-a-number lines are for sock knitting. The wait-step-forward-wait-read lines are for the book.

I'm a total Type A personality. Down time annoys me.

So, I'm finally getting around to reading The Da Vinci Code. I'm only, what, two years behind the times on this.
I haven't gotten very far yet, I've had more knitting lines than reading lines. But I have read enough to wonder why anyone ever thought this stuff could possible be "real." I actually said to ZooDad at one point, "Holy Moley...who in the world would be so hare-brained to think this is plausible."
If you haven't read it, the first few chapters are pretty. far. Fetched. You can't even view it as an attack on the Catholic Church because it is so "Out There Flapping."

Then I caught an interview with the slick, camera friendly, Opus Dei spokesperson that admitted that some members actually did do the whole self flagellation thing as a method of purification.

um......huh? Wha? Whoa.

Hmmmmmm...... I thought that part had to surely be made up.
And they also trotted out a non-albino Simon. ("Yeah, some of us beat ourselves but the albino guy part is totally wrong. Our Silas is black.)

Now, I'm a fairly tolerant person. I really don't care about who and how you worship or who you sleep with or what you do. I don't mind what individuals do in the privacy of their own homes, I just don't see the need for the rest of the population to be forced to accept un-natural things as normal. Or to bend over backwards to accommodate your chosen needs.
Tolerance doesn't mean that I accept and respect your beliefs. It just means that I don't stop you from doing them if they don't involve me watching or joining in.

But I draw the line at any religion or sect that preaches the literal beating the hell out of a person. I'm sorry, but I don't care what you call your God...if you require a person or a child to be physically harmed in order to remove sin or guilt...you are way off base in my book.

Now, I'm not talking about the individual following the "spare the rod, spoil the child" verse. I myself will swat a child to reinforce a idea, like Do not run out into that parking lot again young man. But there is a difference between the parent deciding to spank and a religious leader saying that you have to wail on your kids (or yourself) in order to make sure your children (or self) is pure of sin and can enter Heaven. (Nirvana, spiritual oneness)
That's just wrong. It's an abuse of power.

The self punishment is especially wacko to me.
So some Opus Dei whack themselves with a rope cat-o-nines and wear that ring thing with hooks on it. Some Muslims in Iraq have that parade where they whip themselves to bloody as they march along the street. (Kind of makes you understand why Hussein banned that particular holy march.)
I can't even respond properly to the thought. It's just wrong on a gazillion levels.
It's not something I can put my mind around.

But it does make me read with a little less skepticism.
I'm not going to see the movie though. I'm in this anti-hollywood frame of mind right now.
It goes back to that "do what you want to do but don't be mad when I don't accept what you have to say" thing from above. Plus Tom Hank's hair in the previews is skeeving me out.