The first time I got ashes as an adult, it blew me away. Getting such a stark, physical reminder that you’re going to die changes your whole perspective on life.

That would be the Da Vinci Code that ends with Hanks’ character kneeling reverently before (well, above, actually) Mary’s tomb?

If I recall, Hanks’ character actually tries to “save” the Church. Did I read the book wrong?

Maybe they should not just assume that Angels and Demons is Anti-Catholic just because Davinci Code seemed to be.

There are more of them than the rabid zealots but they need to force themselves to the front of the line and denounce the zealots in their own religion.

As for the zealots, I treat them like the crazies they are because they are beyond reason.

SpiderJ et al, I think if the Catholic hierarchy regained the power it once had, we’d see the worst abuses start again within a few generations. And while that seems unlikely, they’ll certainly do anything they can to convince people their hierarchy represents God on Earth (which belief seems like the major source of their old authority). Their secular critics, with the obvious exception of the 8 remaining Communist Party members, emphatically do not want that kind of power. We tend towards suspicion of anyone who concentrates power in one person or post — see the far left on Obama.

But that’s the standard Church approach. Always has been, always will be. Rather than try to convince someone they are right by putting forth a superior argument, instead try to silence the other side.

Remind you of anyone?

Plus it has the added advantage of being the only war I know of started by literally throwing someone out a window!

Really, the only difference between this sort of reaction and the Ayatollah’s to The Satanic Verses is the extremity of penalty. And a few hundred years ago, the Catholic Church would have issued an edict of death against Dan Brown.

He did take offense when Oliver pointed out that the ashes on the forehead dealio was weird, which is totally is. Talking snakes and virgin births are bullshit but not weird. And child rape and covering up serial and extensive child rape is not so much weird and bullshit as it is horribly evil. The Inquisition was pretty shitty too, though with time it gave us the iconic Python sketch. That’s funny.

Say what you will about Dennis’s political views, guy doesn’t flip out every time somebody bags on religion.