DE-CODING RELIGION

“The Da Vinci Code” is back in the news because its author, Dan Brown, has come out with another bestseller, “The Lost Symbol”. This time he attempts to de-code the secrets of the Freemasons. His earlier work was a cunning mix of fact and fiction, in his botched attempt to de-mythologize Christianity.

A Code can have two purposes. One is to encrypt the actual text, so as to make it unintelligible or inaccessible to the commoner. The other is to classify data/ text in an intelligible or systematic manner, to make it user friendly. So a Code actually has diametrically opposing intents! With what intent does religion use a Code - to encrypt or enlighten?

An article “Dress Code in Churches” carried by SAR News and published in various journals occasioned this piece. Its author, Predhuman Joseph Dhar, is a good friend. He is a Kashmiri Pundit who became a Catholic due to the ministry of Rev Jim Borst MHM. Dhar has several degrees and an amazing knowledge of Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. But, like Dan Brown, he has mixed up fact and fiction in the article under reference.

He advocates a “dress code” for women in church. (Why are women always targeted?) To bolster his contention he uses Canon Law. He quotes canon 855 to say, “Women whose heads are not covered and who are improperly dressed are to be excluded from the Sacrament”. He then quotes Canon 1262(2) to read, “If they (women) should dare to enter the church immodestly dressed, let them be judiciously put out and prevented from assisting of any function whatsoever”. These “quotes” got my hackles up; they didn’t ring true, so I checked out “The Code of Canon Law” promulgated in 1983. As I had suspected, Dhar, like Brown, had been misquoting. Canon 855 refers to the giving of Christian names, and Canon 1262 refers to church donations. It does not even have a sub-clause 2. So why do people deliberately misquote? It suits Dan Brown because his books become bestsellers, while truth is usually quite boring! Why did my good friend Dhar do it? Perhaps to palm off his personal opinion (in this case a male chauvinistic one), by “legitimising” it with liberal dollops of “official sounding” quotes.

Let us move beyond Brown and Dhar to another renowned author, Steven D Levitt. His bestseller “Freakonomics” is subtitled “A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”. Interesting. His book infact is more about ethics than economics; and how information/ knowledge is subject to various interpretations/ manipulations. He says that, “as the world has grown more specialised, countless experts have made themselves indispensable. Doctors, lawyers … financial planners… they all enjoy a gigantic informational advantage” (pg 7, emphasis mine).

What is this gigantic informational advantage? In simple terms it means, “I know everything about this. You know nothing in this field, hence you are totally dependant on me, and must live in awe of my prowess”. The dependant usually pays a heavy price to the “expert” because of this informational disadvantage.

An empathetic expert can help the disadvantaged, but an unethical or prejudiced one can exploit them. The expert seeks to retain its superiority, which would be diluted if it imparted knowledge or information. This is its coign of vantage. That is what happened at Kargil, where the Pakistani intruders controlled the vantage points above, and slaughtered the Indian soldiers going up the slopes, like swatting flies on a wall.

Information that is exclusive or inaccessible is indeed a coign of vantage. Had Levitt been an Indian he would have added four more “experts” to his list of those with gigantic informational advantage. They are the Bureaucracy, the Higher Judiciary, the Defence Establishment and the Catholic Hierarchy. Disparate elements with a common cause – keep them ignorant and powerless.

The Right to Information Act (RTI) has gone a long way in empowering the commoner, the aam admi. The price for obtaining priceless information is just Rs 10/-. The cookie has begun to crumble. The red tape is being cut. Bureaucratic babudom is now answerable to the aam admi. The Judiciary has succumbed to sustained social and media pressure, and Supreme Court/ High Court Judges have agreed to declare their assets. The Defence Establishment still uses the cloak of secrecy, under the guise of national security. What of the Catholic Hierarchy?

It is the quintessential coign of vantage. No information is forthcoming. Letters and complaints, especially on financial and sexual irregularities, are met with a wall of stoic silence. Why is the hierarchy afraid to come out of the water? Is it ashamed of its own nakedness? If there is nothing to hide, then there should be nothing to fear.

The coign of vantage is not limited to money or sex. Its most dangerous avatar is in its area of core competence – faith and morals. Its teaching ends with catechism classes for First Communion and Confirmation, when impressionable and imitative youngsters blindly swallow what they are taught. There is no attempt at ongoing adult catechesis. How many lay Indian Catholics have been taught about the Second Vatican Council, the Code of Canon Law, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or papal encyclicals, including the latest one, “Caritas in Veritate”?

The hierarchy has failed miserably in its primary teaching office, of sharing the faith. It is comfortably ensconced with novenas, pilgrimages and pious devotions, which are non-controversial, undemanding and accentuate the coign of vantage.

As parents, my wife and myself are very open with our young adult children. We don’t fight shy of discussing sensitive or controversial issues. Why? Because we are secure in ourselves. Those who are insecure are afraid. That is the tragedy of the Indian hierarchy; it is terribly insecure. Hence it bolsters itself with pious devotions on the one hand, and burgeoning institutions on the other. Remove these bulwarks, and the hierarchy will collapse like a house of cards.

For centuries Catholics were told not to read the Bible. It was fraught with danger for the uninitiated! The advent of the printing press, the Reformation in Europe, the French Revolution, industrialisation and resultant economic independence, the exposure to other religions, natural and behavioural sciences, and now the IT revolution; have threatened the hierarchical citadel of knowledge and power. They feel even more insecure. A courageous and humble man like Pope John XXIII, however, perceived it as an opportunity rather than a threat. With the convening of the Second Vatican Council he ushered in a new Pentecost.

Unfortunately, most of the Indian hierarchy seem to lack the vision and humility of good Pope John XXIII. Like ostriches, they have preferred to bury their heads in the sands of time. They have clammed up in pre-Vatican II fortified positions. They may be secure inside their citadels/ ghettos, but they are terribly out of sync with the outside world. A lost opportunity.

We need a new Pentecost in the Catholic Church in India, to de-code religion, to rediscover Jesus, to demystify the truth in love and service; and to build a vibrant, responsible, adult church with Caritas in Veritate.