Look closely at films that joke about religion

Surprising nobody, the Catholic League, an organization devoted to protesting anything anti-Catholic, has chosen to rain fire and brimstone on the movie Dogma...

Made by director Kevin Smith-a Catholic-the film is an irreverent religious fable about two renegade angels who try to get back into Heaven via a loophole. The plot is a complete farce, but it is confrontational toward some of the practices of the Catholic Church. It is viewed as a tremendous threat by the Catholic League.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, has issued booklets, made statements and held protests to combat the opening of Dogma-calling the film an unprecedented attack on the religion. A skin-deep look at the film would justify the Catholic League's concerns. Smith makes fun of multiple practices of his faith, most notably in a joke about the liberalization of the Catholic Church that took place following Vatican II. A Cardinal in the film announces the "Catholicism Wow!" project, a movement to get the Catholic Church back into the mainstream. One of the tactics of "Catholicism Wow!" is to replace the "depressing" crucifix with a winking "Buddy Jesus."

But, that is the problem with the war that Donohue is waging-the critiques are skin-deep. If the film truly is "not funny" and "an assault on the Catholic Church" as Donohue sees it, then why all the fuss? What is there to be afraid of if the film is boring, uninspiring and irrelevant? It is rather insulting to Catholic America to tell them that seeing certain works of art or certain motion pictures will cause them to lose faith. Does Donohue have any faith in his fellow Catholics?

The Catholics I know are not a mindless group of people who are swayed by any little wind that blows. The Catholics I know are stoic. The Catholic Church has faced and survived against a lot of adversity, and a "mindless" little film like this is not a threat to the largest Christian denomination.

Donohue should worry less about what people are saying about the Catholic Church, especially if the negativity is directed at a movie such as Dogma. Don't dignify it with a response. Press more important social matters to the faith, like opposition to the death penalty and opposition to abortion. Fighting for a cause accomplishes more than wasting time defending your tried and true faith against self-proclaimed irrelevance.

And, if Donohue were able to set his pre-conceived prejudices against the film aside (most of his blasphemies about the film were published long before the film's release date) and look closer, he would see that Smith's film is not about slamming the church but about keeping the faith. Smith, who once defined hell as "the absence of God," believes that we need to have senses of humor and humility. For all the "blasphemy," the film's message resonates more than any gross out humor or religious snicker. It put a spark in me and made me realize how important my faith is to me; that's more than I can say for The Ten Commandments.

Martin Barna is a Trinity sophomore, associate editorial page editor of The Chronicle and associate editor of TowerView.