Why we read what we read

by Melanie on 27/01/08 at 2:46 pm

This book had some interesting insights. I don’t read romance novels, with the exception of one written by a friend, a Ph.D psychologist here in Reno. It was steamy, to say the least. Lots of “aching loins,” “arching members,” etc. However, she did nail a certain feeling: lust toward a romantic interest.

I liked, but didn’t love, Dan Brown’s books. I think I know why the Da Vinci Code was so popular: it’s premise, that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had a child, blew the lid off some of Christianity’s most obvious “secrets” and glaring omissions.

Chapter 4:
22) The Savior said, All nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots.

Chapter 5:
5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.

Chapter 9: But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well.

9) That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said.

Mary Magdalene wrote a gospel, but like other Gnostic gospels, it was rejected by a leadership of men sometime around the third century. And Mary, by simple juxtaposition of text, became a prostitute, when in fact, she was, at the very least, Jesus’ closest disciple, if not clearly his wife or lover. The far-reaching effects of this bigotry toward women, and in particular Mary of Magdala, has perhaps, through the domination of Christianity, done as much to harm women through the ages anything. It is possibly the most glaring distortion of Jesus’ teachings to declare that the Bible is the “word of God”, but that only, by a decree coming of a commission of men, the words of certain men would be contained in the holy text. In a related matter, many people hold it as a sacred tenet of their faith that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was a virgin. This is ludicrous. She was married! Why oh why can’t someone divine be of natural birth? Why aren’t all people considered divine?

But all of this is so obvious, but so under-the-table; just below the realm of consciousness for most believers; it’s like our eyebrows, they are so close to us at all times, but we can’t see them.

So anyway, I think that is why Dan Brown’s book took off, and his others didn’t (until Code became popular). He touched on something that many may have suspected, or heard about in vague whisperings, but never dared to mention to elders, or even friends, and suddenly, it’s spoken. And once it is said and in the open, people have permission to bring up the topic. They no longer have too go around dutifully saying that the emperor has no clothes. I would bet, but of course I do not know, that this book was mostly popular within Christian countries. I can’t imagine other religious faiths giving much of a damn, except those that are bent on denouncing Christianty and Christians.

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Nevada Writer