07 May 2006
Cardinal urges legal action against Da Vinci Code

Well, I suppose I should be grateful that they're strapping on lawyers instead of bomb vests, but somehow I think they're missing the whole point:

"This is one of the fundamental human rights: that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected," he [Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year] said.

Really? Well, Cardinal, where's the Church's "respect" for other religions? You seem to have made quite a business out of moving into a country, telling folks how benighted they are, how guilty they are, how wrong their religious beliefs are and how their gods are really demons. Doesn't everybody have this basic human right you speak of? Or do human rights only apply to "civilized" (read: monotheist) folks?

Where was your respect for the founder of my religion, when you changed name of the fourth day of the week from Wodensdag to Mittwoch in Germany so his name would not be uttered? Where was your respect for Freyja, Goddess of Love and Beauty, when you called her a slut and her followers witches? You nearly eradicated all references to her, and burned those "witches" at the stake by the thousands.

Of course, this sort of thing is inherent in any evangelical religion. The Great Commission commands Christians to disrespect other religions. When you are convinced that there is an absolute Truth, you are morally compelled to spread that truth. In the first century it was "One Truth, One Way, One God", by the sixth it became "There is no God but God and Muhammad is His Prophet". In the twentieth it became "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer", with truly disastrous consequences.

To paraphrase a particularly nasty follower of that last quip, "When I hear the Church speak of human rights, I reach for my gun!"...

Reuters - In the latest Vatican broadside against "The Da Vinci Code," a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

23:00 /Asatru | 3 comments | permanent link