No offense to the catholics out there, but I'm glad I'm not one...

[calicoe]

The other night Phil and I were at the grocery store and we picked up a copy of the book The Da Vinci Code. Well Phil called first dibs on reading the book and has spent most of the day doing so, but told me to look up the website www.odan.org because he wanted to know if it was real. So I entered the web address into the computer and sure enough it is a real site ODAN stands for Opus Dei Awareness Network. Opus Dei for those of you who don't know is basicly a sect of the catholic church. I've been reading stuff on it all day and its basicly a cult. I mean it is really, really wierd! First they recruit people by looking for likely canidates at universities. They pretend to be your friend until you are officially recruited then you never speak to that person again. Once in the Opus Dei you surrender all of your money to it. Any money you make you hand over to the organization. Then there are the wierd rituals. Every day for two hours you must wear a cilice. Which is basicly like a metal belt with spikes on it that get strapped tightly around the upper thigh (spikes facing the skin) and then one a week you must use a discipline (a whip with several off shoots, drawing some blood while doing this is encouraged.) This is just scratching the surface of this very bizarre group. The crazy thing is that this group is everywhere. Not only that, but was at one time deemed an extremely good idea from one of the former popes. Needless to say I have spent most of my day reading up on this group from the before mentioned site. I couldn't understand why people would join this, but the thing is they know nothing of what will happen to them once they join, by the time they realize what is going on its too late and the brain washing is already affecting their choices. Its scary what our society is willing to accept!

"No ideal becomes a reality without sacrifice. Deny yourself. It is so beautiful to be a victim!" (The Way, 175) -The Founder of Opus Dei

(Crazy am I wrong??)