‘Sorceress’ and Church

I must take exception to Kevin Thomas’ gratuitous slandering of Christianity and the medieval church in his review of the film “Sorceress” (Aug. 26).

The (for me) offending paragraph begins, “The unity with which Elda views God and Nature lays bare the contradictions and hypocrisies that riddle Christianity.”

Instead of detailing these pantheistic deficiencies (Elda’s virtues), however, Thomas follows with this unrelated sentence: “To what degree, for example, should Etienne (the priest in the film) be an activist on behalf of the local peasantry?”

Is Thomas really using liberation theology as an example of the pantheistic unity between God and Nature? Perhaps not, but the juxtaposing of two such dissimilar themes in so small a paragraph makes little sense, and to label them part of “the hypocrisies and contradictions that riddle Christianity” without any further elaboration does nothing to enhance Thomas’ reputation as an otherwise objective and intelligent critic.

Thomas may have his differences with Christianity, but a movie review is not the place for such differences to be aired; if Thomas is serious about his criticism, let him write an essay for the Op-Ed pages, where they may make more sense.

SEAN WARREN

Palmdale