There are bigger causes to care about

To the editor:

I doubt that the awful reviews for Ron Howard's film version of "The Da Vinci Code" (19 percent on the Web page "Rotten Tomatoes" as of May 19) will keep the predicted 50 percent of Americans from spending 10 bucks to see it. The book's sheer popularity and its nature as a potboiler, as escapist entertainment, as fiction pure and simple, as silly (even preposterous) fun coupled with all the summer movie hoopla and Tom Hanks' box-office appeal invites such attention. On the other hand, all the time, energy and money right-wing Christians have spent on anti-Da Vinci Code preachments demonstrates clearly their intellectual and cultural bankruptcy. To waste dour-faced seriousness and energy, time and money on such things while war, poverty, pollution, global warming and overpopulation continue to threaten life itself shows religion in its decline. Enjoy the book, see the movie (it is your time and money) but please find some other cause to care about.

ROB DILLON, Cape Girardeau