Crock of Dawn

I am sure my news isn’t hot:  the press already had a field day reporting that the movie ratings body of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the Catholic Initiative for Enlightened Movie Appreciation or CINEMA, just endorsed the wholesome family values of this excellent flick entitled (drumroll please): “Breaking Dawn”.

No matter that the movie is all about vampires and werewolves, mythical beings that, if they had existed, would have automatically been assigned starring roles at the right hand of Satan in the universal scheme of things.  Our bishops (or whoever their hapless reviewers are) have pontificated that this movie, in fact, emphasizes “the value of marriage, the need to protect life in the womb, and the importance of family.”

While old news, the contradictions are so juicy, and its timing so wonderfully calibrated to appear just at the moment the nation is debating the reproductive health bill, that I just couldn’t resist tackling this delicious pickle.

So, we all know vampires suck blood.  Kill other people. Make other vampires.  Who have to go on killing other people to drink blood.  We also know that murder, or the taking of life, is a super mortal sin that’s against the ten commandments.  But apparently, all these gory vampiric nuances weren’t enough to turn off the religious reviewers, because the movie was given a thumbs up.  Details, details.

Sure these vampires and werewolves were trying to protect a child. But they were prepared to kill other vampires to do so. Not just kill, but rip them apart and savage them, with the ultimate goal being to tear off their heads.  So the end justifies the means?  According to the CBCP:  acceptable!

Let me correct that.  In fact, it’s better than acceptable!  Breaking Dawn garnered a score of 3.5, or somewhere between acceptable (which is a 3) and wholesome (a 4).  So the movie has not yet reached wholesome status, but it’s way better than acceptable.

CINEMA also says that the movie emphasizes “the importance of family and how one’s love for them would compel us to sacrifice, fight and risk everything for their sake”.  You bet they tried to sacrifice everything.  Including Bella’s humanity, so she could stay alive and be with her one true love.

Whatever happened to resisting the temptations of the devil and his promises of living an eternal life (albeit as one of the damned)?  Isn’t that one of the tenets of the faith, that one must resist the enticements and blandishments thrown the faithful’s way by Satan, if one is to get to the Pearly Gates? I’m pretty sure Keanu had it down pat when he rejected the alliance offered by father Satan in the Devil’s Advocate.  Bella forgot that little detail, I guess.  As did CINEMA.

Oh right, the entire point is, defending the anti-abortion stance.  So regardless of where or how that whelp was conceived, it has to be allowed to see the light of day.  So, never mind the blood sucking and the killing.  What’s important is, they saved the baby and its bright future.  (A future which, we need to add, involves becoming the infantile bride of a werewolf.  Albeit with killer abs and a sexy smile, but a werewolf nonetheless).

Were the movie released in some other era than this, perhaps our bishops wouldn’t be as indulgent.  But the voting on the Reproducitve Health bill is nigh, and the Church must marshall whatever support it can get (including from the fans of Team Jacob and Team Edward) and whatever arguments it can grasp.   Latest case in point: Bishop’s Broderick Pabillo’s pronouncement that the hundreds of deaths caused by Typhoon Pablo is a sign of the wrath of God, his warning that the bill must not be passed.

Bishop Broderick is not on my bromance list.