CounterPunch - May 16, 200 http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman05162006.html
Skewering the Patriarchs of the Church Why the Fundamentalists are Freaking Out Over Da Vinci Code By HARVEY WASSERMAN Was Jesus married to Mary Magdalene? Did they have a daughter? Questions about Christ's love life will dominate debate over the release of the DAVINCI CODE this weekend. The answers do matter. But what really counts is the story's pagan/feminist core, and its role in the Culture War. The spin has begun. As freaked-out fundamentalists focus on Jesus's sexuality, and on petty documentary talking points, they'll try to obscure DAVINCI'S lethal assault on the Church's reactionary male theocracy. What's at stake is not the fine points of documentation and detail. Rather it's the contention that male-dominated Christian/Catholic fundamentalism as a repressive dictatorship that has thrown sexuality and sexuality out of balance. Fiction it may be. But with 45 million copies in print, Dan Brown's DAVINCI is a force of nature. How Ron Howard's upcoming feature film deals with its core content will have significant impact. Opening amidst the catastrophic failure of the macho neo-con Bush putsch and its moral, spiritual and fiscal bankruptcy, it's no wonder the Church hierarchy is mobilizing Rove-style against DAVINCI'S profoundly subversive truths. The dramatic vehicle on which DAVINCI rides is a gimmicky Paris-London-Scotland murder mystery filled with riddles and gadgets. It is saturated with Church intrigue and the usual greed. The documentation around which it's constructed is as inventive as it is irrelevant. For the book's spiritual core---and popular appeal---rests on its invocation and adoration of feminist spirituality and pagan naturalism. With wild invention and literary flair worthy of its namesake, DAVINCI flaunts the heretical, anti-clerical homosexuality of western civilization's leading intellectual superstar. Leonardo's Mona Lisa plays as a coy, cutting smirk, exalting female power and the demand for gender balance. In its most crucial exposition, DAVINCI cuts to the heart of today's culture war, in which the "tradition of perpetuating goddess worship is based on a belief that powerful men in the early Christian church 'conned' the world by propagating lies that devalued the female and tipped the scales in favor of the masculine." The Priory of Sion is DAVINCI's heroic secret society. It worships Mary Magdalene as "the Goddess, the Holy Grail, the Rose, and the Divine Mother." It is dedicated to sexual liberation and a vital balance of the global spirit. It "believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever." In the words of DAVINCI's protagonist, a Harvard professor, the Grail "is literally the ancient symbol for womanhood, and the HOLY Grail represents the sacred feminine and the goddess, which of course has now been lost, virtually eliminated by the Church." These are the ultimate fighting words to a rigid, eco-hating fundamentalist movement that preaches sexual repression and violent male domination, whose prelates "claim to speak the truth about Christ and yet lie to cover up the sexual abuse of children by their own priests." "The power of the female and her ability to produce life was once very sacred," says DAVINCI, "but it posed a threat to the rise of the predominantly male church, and so the sacred feminine was demonized and called unclean. It was MAN, not God, who created the concept of 'original sin,' whereby Eve tasted of the apple and caused the downfall of the human race. Woman, once the sacred giver of life, was now the enemy." For today's right wing, She still is. As it mobilizes to fight this story, that will be the core complaint, no matter how carefully concealed. "This concept of woman as life-bringer was the foundation of ancient religion," adds another DAVINCI scholar. "Childbirth was mystical and powerful. Sadly, Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female's creative power by ignoring the biological truth and making MAN the Creator. Genesis tells us that Eve was created from Adam's rib. Woman became an offshoot of man. And a sinful one at that. Genesis was the beginning of the end for the goddess." Darwin may have marked the beginning of the end for Genesis. But pagan naturalism has never ceased its struggle against the Church of totalitarian testosterone. When the film comes out, the talk/gossip circuit will focus on Jesus's sex life. Best would be for Mel Brooks to counter with a sequel showing mother Mary, the sainted virgin (aren't they all?), nagging poor Jesus (oy! a carpenter!) to get hitched, already. And, of course, he will. For "Jesus was a Jew," says DAVINCI, "and the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned." If so, then what have all these Catholic priests and popes been doing---or NOT doing---for centuries, suffering in what DAVINCI calls the "unnatural state of bachelorhood"? DAVINCI says Mary Magdalene was pregnant at the Crucifixion, and that she mothered "the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ." But "a child of Jesus would undermine the critical notion of Christ's divinity, and therefore the Christian Church, which declared itself the sole vessel through which humanity could access the divine." So the hate-nature anti-feminists have waged a never-ending Crusade to cover it all up. Thus the Grail story "is everywhere but it is hidden," something an effective rendering of DAVINCI in a block-buster film could end. Count on the bloviators to blab endlessly about this detail and that document while avoiding like a plague DAVINCI's searing feminist critique. The fundamentalist right has already gone to war over THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, which dared portray Jesus as being profoundly human (not to mention speaking with a Brooklyn accent). With DAVINCI, the stakes are far higher. Jesus's sex life is one thing, and the documentation surrounding the plotline yet another. But it is the pagan gender war that poses the ultimate threat to the hard-right theocracy of today's neo-con nightmare. Small wonder the fundamentalist fanatics are arming for battle. If DAVINCI the movie gets beyond the petty gossip and Rovian spin, and into the heart of Magdalene's Grail and her liberationist followers, watch for the blood of the patriarchy to warmly flow. [Harvey Wasserman is co-author, with Bob Fitrakis, of How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008, and author of Harvey Wasserman's History of the U.S.] *** Happy Mother's Day Why God made Moms -- Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions!! Why did God make mothers? 1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is. 2. Mostly to clean the house. 3. To help us out of there when we were getting born. How did God make mothers? 1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us. 2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring 3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts. What ingredients are mothers made of? 1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean. 2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think. Why did God give you Your mother & not some other mom? 1. We're related 2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me. What kind of little girl was your mom? 1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff. 2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy. 3. They say she used to be nice. What did mom need to know about dad before she married him? 1. His last name. 2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer? 3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores? Why did your mom marry your dad? 1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot. 2. She got too old to do anything else with him. 3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on. Who's the boss at your house? 1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball. 2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed. 3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad. What's the difference between moms & dads? 1. Moms work at work and work at home & dads just go to work at work. 2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them. 3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's. 4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine. What does your mom do in her spare time? 1. Mothers don't do spare time. 2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long. What would it take to make your mom perfect? 1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery. 2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue. If you could change one thing about your Mom, what would it be? 1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that. 2. I'd make my Mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me. 3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head. *** Michele Welsing Communications Director Southern California Library [EMAIL PROTECTED] 323-759-6063, ext. 15 (ph) www.socallib.org Working for a world where all people have the ability, resources, and freedom to make their own histories CULTURE CLASH TONIGHT May 18 Don't miss an evening of theater and music tonight, Thursday, at the beautiful L.A. River Center, featuring Culture Clash reading from two world premieres--Zorro in Hell and Water and Power. Zorro in Hell is CC's insistently original take on time-honored legend, a downward spiral along the Camino Real where fact and fiction collide; Water and Power is the group's first dramatic work about corruption, elected officials, and the brutality of the LAPD in current-day Los Angeles. Ollin will also perform, bringing a highly charged Chicano groove that takes music fans on a trip through the melting pot of their East L.A. neighborhood. Activist/author/historian Rudy Acuña will be the guest speaker. Tickets are $50 and all proceeds benefit the Southern California Library. For more information or to order tickets, call the Library at 323-759-6063 or go to www.socallib.org. Honoring FRANK WILKINSON A key figure in L.A. history, Frank Wilkinson died earlier this year at age 91 after half a century as a national civil liberties leader and housing activist. EXHIBIT OPENING The event kicks off a traveling exhibit on housing featuring historical materials from the Library's collections, including materials drawn from Frank's papers; photography; artwork; and multimedia. The L.A. River Center, located at 570 West Avenue 26 in Los Angeles, is a hidden jewel minutes away from downtown Los Angeles. Behind its thick, ivy covered walls are beautiful fountains, flowers, patios, and lawns. For more information, go to the L.A. River Center website: http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=32 Map and directions are available on our website. For more information, contact: Southern California Library Phone: 323-759-6063 Fax: 323-759-2252 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Everything you need is one click away. 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