R&R - Rants and Rants -- Edition 1

Welcome to the first session of R&R that I will attempt to incorporate in future posts ... this one will consist of my interpretation of the Catholic Church via The Da Vinci Code and Gay Pride. I'm not gay myself, but I have some friends who are, and I don't like the discrimination that modern day society is putting them through.

First off. Da Vinci. The Da Vinci Code, to be exact. Obviously, the movie is fiction. But most of the stuff is true / highly believable, despite what any of my Catholic friends say (Quote -- "It's pure blasphemy!"). Obviously the only reason they would be sticking up so strongly for their religion instead of letting the movie pass off as fiction is because some of the facts within the movie could possibly threaten to destroy the foundation of their churches and (*gasp*) even their entire religion? The world may never know, for Catholicism will continue on and Da Vinci box office tickets will continue to be sold.

I, personally, do believe that most of the movie is highly factual / loosely factual, based on the point of the story. Obviously Langdon and Neveu are not real life characters. Neither is Fache or the rest of the Interpol. But most of the story (Holy Grail being Mary Magdalene's womb ... Opus Dei ... the Priory of Sion ... et cetera) seems to make high sense. Hell, wouldn't you get pissed if your saviour (Jesus Christ) was beginning to have a different view, claiming that your immortal being of high holiness was being lowered to a mortal status, and even possibly carrying a bloodline? Yikes.

It's just a point of view. Stop trying to tell everyone the movie is fiction. People have brains so they can make up their minds for themselves. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but I've had enough religious bullsh*t to last me eternity. I honestly have nothing against any religion ... no matter Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, even Paganism (witchcraft) ... I believe all are perfectly acceptable views. So stop trying to push your views (hence "convert") everyone else to your religion. If they happen to find ... let's say for the sake of argument, Buddhism a better religion than Christianity? That's perfectly fine. Stop criticizing them over it.

Amen.

And on to the so-called 'gay pride'. I happen to know a guy who is my mother's friend (or, for lack of a better term, 'co-worker') who is, lo-and-behold, gay. Is that a crime? No. And it pisses me off everytime somebody uses the term offensively. It doesn't offend me directly (seeing as how I am not gay) but offends me to the point that I think of him and it makes me want to strangle the person who said it. Wouldn't it make you want to hit the person if they were calling one of your friends retarded (in an offensive manner) and your friend was actually in Special Education? Boy, wouldn't you want to intervene.

But, most of the time, people stand idly by. They do nothing. All it takes for evil to occur is for good people to do absolutely nothing. (Thank you, Mrs. Rowley.)

And he's a good guy. So what he believes in Paganism? He sure as hell knows what incense to burn, what Bast statues to place where and why, and different 'potions' (though, I'm not going there) to brew to ward off certain illnesses / bad happenings. That makes him interesting. That's what makes all of us-- ... well, unique. Hell, I'm not a scientist and can't figure out whether you just develop a taste for the same sex or whether it's a chemical imbalance from birth. But is it wrong? No.

Some religions seem to think so, though. And I believe that, as well, is utter bullsh*t. People can do as they choose as long as they don't harm me, my friends, or my family. They should be able to pursue their own happiness, right? And if they can't, what has America --- and even the world --- come to?

--"Reaper"