OJ's Corner - CHRIST CARE

Definitely the Church has come of age. Consider the evolution of its perceptions of people profaning Jesus Christ in recent times. It has become tolerant.

Director Ron Howard's film of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code had caused intellectual titillations in the Western world where non-conformist ideas are received with aplomb.

A people who are affluent want to justify deviant ways. With intellectual inputs and signs and codes embedded, the work of art becomes dear to them. They want to have a God who is one with their own thoughts and actions and they flourish in this practice. Godliness is attributed to everything they do, be it evil or plain immoral peregrinations.

I, for one, was delighted to listen to the Church's reaction about screening of Da Vinci Code. The Church leaders said the film's story is unacceptable to the Christian community of India. If the Government wants to go ahead, let there be cuts and disclaimers. The disclaimer should be sustained and lingering saying that this movie is fiction and has no bearing with the historical truth or corresponding truth.

The film should be given an "A" certificate so that the mature audience can differentiate between fact and fiction.

No one can justify a murder being committed by making a sign of the cross before and after the act, which definitely hurts religious sentiments.

The film contains disturbing images, violence, some nudity, thematic material, brief drug references and sexual content.

A murder in Louvre and clues in Da Vinci's paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years. The mystery was that Christ had married Mary Magdalene and had children and the sect has survived all through the millenia.

The Last Supper contains astonishing coded secrets, according to the author and the director of the film.

The Government cannot suppress freedom of expression, for if it is gagged, the attempt would be counter-productive. Those who want to profane Divinity would have their polemics pontificated.

Nikos Kazantzakis wrote "The Last Temptations of Christ" in 1951, whose subsequent film version had created a flutter. The Church was not this much tolerant then. It was opposed tooth and nail and banned in several countries.

The film had depicted a Christ tortured by metaphysical and existential concerns seeking answers to human questions. He was torn between his sense of duty and cause on one side and his own human needs to enjoy life, to love and to be loved, to have family, on the other side. He is a tragic figure who at the end sacrifices his own human hopes for a wider cause.

All these years, timeless Christ, in pristine purity, remained unaffected for the faithful.

Sallies of imagination and fiction would not sully the image of the Godhead. Let freedom of expression be not fettered.