Ersatz Christianity everywhere

Mel Gibson's movie, The Da Vinci Code and Elaine Pagels' books, among many other influences, have increased sales of religious-oriented books in general. If you're in San Francisco, you can attend a seminar with religious publishing expert Phyllis Tickle at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church on Saturday, Mar. 13. Tickle will put several contemporary trends in context:
- Issues about gay bishops & homosexuality
- Fundamentalist vs. Post-Modern conflicts
- The extraordinary popularity of The Da Vinci Code
- Opus Dei and ultra-Conservative movements
- Mel Gibson, anti-Semitism, and the new movie, The Passion of the Christ
- The rise of new spiritual communities and the decline of traditional denominations
- The fastest growing religions today: Mormons and Muslims

Here's SFGate columnist Mark Morford on The Da Vinci Code, which he calls an "incendiary little page-turner packed like a hot sausage with combustible and wonderfully damning religious fact and insinuation and researched tidbit that all serve to make the church and its more uptight sects cringe and recoil and deny deny deny. So you know it must be true."