More MM in the news

May 26th, 2006 by Lesa Bellevie in Da Vinci Code, Mary Magdalene, Media sightings

From DelawareOnline:

‘Code’ has women tapping into faith
By Gary Soulsman
The News Journal
05/19/2006

In response to the DVC movie, a local parish in Delaware has taken the opportunity as a so-called “teachable moment” rather than boycotting the film. Journalist Soulsman takes the opportunity to lightly address some questions of alienation that women feel toward Christianity and points toward Mary Magdalene–both in her Gospel role and her legendary roles–as an inspiration for empowerment.

“The Da Vinci Code” deepened Melissa Cox’s appreciation of Mary Magdalene as an apostle of Jesus.

Now that the best-selling novel is a film, the 23-year-old Newark woman plans to see it tonight with friends, hoping the film continues to fuel her passion for one of Christianity’s most debated figures.

“I see Mary Magdalene as a woman living in a patriarchal world, and standing up in the face of all those who hated her because she was a woman with her passion to live a spiritual life,” Cox said. “I am really happy that she’s being rediscovered for the amazingly powerful person she was.”

There are a couple of quotes from my interview with Mr. Soulsman in the article, and a good little sidebar about Mary Magdalene that he put together, citing me as a resource. I always appreciate good links. :-)

2 Comments

  • Now that the daVinci dust is settling a bit (at least, it is here in Europe), I think we see a division into three distinct camps emerging:

    1. Those who throw up their arms in horror and say, “No way am I going to even allow this into my mind because it gnaws at the foundations of my Catholic brainwashing”.

    2. The “Don’t see what the fuss is about. It’s a lousy film anyway” school.

    3. The few who come out of the movie theatre thinking, “I want to know more ……”

    (1) and (2) will carry on regardless.

    The (3)’s will eventually find this blog and learn stuff.

    My simplistic 2ยข worth ! ! ! ;-)

    Chris

    Reply

  • Lesa,
    Thanks for the connection to Gary’s article. I thought it was good, but, as you did, wished it could have developed the theme of the disenfranchised a bit deeper. Dropped him a note on my thoughts and recieved a nice reply back.

    I really enjoyed the quote he gave from Ms. Rogers:

    “She[Mary Magdalene] is a very, very important woman,” Rogers said. “This gives a
    lie to Dan Brown’s idea that the Gospels demean women and present them as
    second-class citizens”

    Well Ms. Rogers,l that is the whole point. Neither the gospels nor very early
    tradition demean women or make them second-class citizens: It was the
    Church itself that did that especially in the theology of Augustine in
    which women were basically tagged as being the responsible party for
    original sin.
    It is difficult to reconcile the “early tradition” of scripture with JPII’s stonewalling the discussion on ordaining women.
    Good Ole Boy clubs die so hard.
    rich j

    Reply