Dogma
"It's not what you have faith in, it's just that you have faith," says Serendipity, a character in the movie Dogma. The film is about two angels, Loki and Bartleby, who have been kicked out of heaven and sentenced to live for the rest of eternity in Wisconsin. Somehow, through the Catholic religion they have found a loophole that will bring them back to heaven, thus destroying all of existence. The movie begins with a sense of humor saying, "even God can take a joke, just look at the platypus" (Dogma). Basically the film takes a cheap shot at the dogma of the Catholic religion by exaggerating different ideas into a comedy. It takes different aspects of the Catholics and pokes fun at it.The movie begins with Bartleby, played by Ben Affleck, receiving a news clipping in the mail from an anonymous sender. The article is from New Jersey and tells about Cardinal Glick, played by George Carlin, and his new program "Catholicism WOW!" in which he is trying to pep up the Catholic religion and get more people to come to Mass (Dogma). Other programs similar to Glick's actually do exist. In 1978 a program called RENEW was started to help grab the interest of people with active participation (Dolan 431). Glick plans on
Nowell, Matt. The Catholic Faith. 24 Mar 2001: http://www.thecatholicfaith.com. On the way to Jersey, the angels run into the group sent to stop them. They all start to fight until Bob beats them up. Bob, Rufus, Jay and Bethany find a spot in the woods to set up a fire and go to bed. This is where Bethany learns from Rufus that she is the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grand niece of Jesus Christ. He tells her that she is the last scion. In the Bible Jesus Christ goes from the age of 12 to 30, that's 18 missing years. Rufus says that during those eighteen years, Mary was getting busy, and having babies (Dogma). There is no real reason known for the missing years, but Catholics don't believe that Mary had other children. Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born and stayed a virgin until her dying day according to the Catholics (Barry 95). They think there is no possibility of a scion existing. Jesus was an only child (Albright 211). Although, theories have arose that Joseph was married before M! doing this two different ways; one is by making Jesus Christ on the cross look happier. He believes that he looks to depressing, and by giving Jesus Christ a new look (smiling, winking, and thumbs up) and a new name (Buddy Christ) people will come to their senses, and start coming to the Catholic Church. The other is by blessing the archway to his church, which will serve as a passageway to a clean soul, free of sins. All your sins are forgiven once! e no exceptions. They don't consider that fact that the apostles who wrote the bible may have been wrong or left something out. ( Nowell) Albright, Dr. William F., et. Al. The World's Great Religions. New York:
Some common words found in the essay are:
Catholics God, Catholic Church, Jesus Christ, Unfortunately Glick, Bartleby Loki, Dogma Jesus', Loki Bartleby, Nowell Bethany, Salma Hayek, Kevin Smith, catholic religion, voice god, great great, jesus christ, great great great, bartleby loki, kevin smith, angels loki bartleby, god tells, skee ball, ben affleck, movie begins, voice god tells,
Approximate Word count = 2084
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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