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What an ugly title! My apologies.

I’ll stick with this title, because I want to write a very quick comment. A comment to put my sensitivities to the test. Am I too sensitive? Or will I be shown as correct?

There’s a play opening in Albury in the next couple of weeks, Fractions. I’ve just read the promo card – about the size of a post-card, so the words are relatively few. It says to me, ‘A chance to bash Christianity.’

Here’s why:

• Historical terminology
  ‘The West is on the cusp of entering the dark ages‘
  Dark ages – a pejorative no longer viewed as an accurate historical term – means the time when Christianity was spreading across Europe
• The opposition
  ‘In Alexandria, religious fanatics pose a much larger, immediate threat‘
  Oh. You mean Christians? Why not call them religious terrorists?
  
• The struggle
  Hypatia wants ‘to save her Library and the world from a monumental calamity of ignorance‘
  Which, when translated, means Christians are against reason and knowledge. The old furphy of faith and reason being enemies.
  
• The lead character
  ‘Hypatia, a brilliant mathematician and philosopher who was the first woman to be considered the greatest mind of her age.‘
  Of course Christianity is always anti-woman. Isn’t that the cliché view? (Strangely enough, the classical world – in which Hypatia was a solo great woman – had no such accusation levelled at it.)

These points are all, as I read the promotion, the subtext of the play. Nothing says Christianity is dumb, because everything says this. At least that’s my take.