'Da Vinci' undermines faith, survey claims

MSNBC ^ | May 16, 2006

[NYer]

“The Da Vinci Code” has undermined faith in the Roman Catholic Church and badly damaged its credibility, a survey of British readers revealed Tuesday as tensions over — and hype for — the forthcoming film reached a fever pitch.

As its stars off headed to walk the red carpet at Cannes, where the film was set to debut Wednesday before a worldwide release Friday, at least two countries limited the film's release.

The British survey, released by a group of prominent Catholics, revealed that readers of Dan Brown's blockbuster novel are twice as likely to believe Jesus Christ fathered children and four times as likely to think the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei is a murderous sect.

“An alarming number of people take its spurious claims very seriously indeed,” said Austin Ivereigh, press secretary to Britain’s top Catholic prelate Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. “Our poll shows that for many, many people “The Da Vinci Code” is not just entertainment.”

He heads a prominent collection of English Roman Catholic monks, theologians, nuns and members of Opus Dei, who commissioned the survey from pollster Opinion Research Business (ORB) and have sought to promote Catholic beliefs amid the film’s release.

ORB interviewed more than 1,000 adults last weekend, finding that 60 percent believed Jesus had children by Mary Magdalene — a possibility raised by the book — compared with just 30 percent of those who had not read the book.

The group, which stopped short of following the Vatican line of calling on Catholics to boycott the film, accused Brown of dishonest marketing based on peddling fiction as fact.

Ivereigh complained that Brown and film studio Sony Pictures “have encouraged people to take it seriously while hiding behind the claim that it is fiction.

[freeangel]

All of "those years" when the Catholic Church was not into bible classes has bitten it on the butt. Of course, they were afraid that people would misinterpret the Bibles' truths.

[murphE]

'Da Vinci' undermines faith, survey claims

YAWN. Not mine. Why don't we take our own survey of the people on the Catholic ping lists? I'm sure the results would be different than this survey...

[Nihil Obstat]

"Do you mean Brown is lying when he calls his book, "fiction?""

Did you miss this post:

---

Dan Brown (the book's author) said it's fiction
WERTHEIMER: You're trying not to get too fictional with the facts here?

Mr. BROWN: Absolutely. The only thing fictional in "The Da Vinci Code" is the characters and the action that takes place. All of the locations, the paintings, the ancient history, the secret documents, the rituals, all of this is factual.

---

He is lying when he says it is factual.

And, if he really wanted to write fiction (and not libel), why not use a fictional organization? Why did he use Opus Dei?

[eleni121]

This "novel" and film is doing to the Roman Church what Kazantzakis's trashy "The Last Temptation" and the eponymous Scorsese film - did to the Orthodox Christian faith.

Damage.

[GeekDejure]

Anybody else listen to The Jesus Christ Show last Sunday?

It was amazing the way Jesus blew the DaVinci Code to smithereens !!!

http://www.kfi640.com/pages/streaming.html at 8 to 11 AMCT

[SoothingDave]

YAWN. Not mine. Why don't we take our own survey of the people on the Catholic ping lists? I'm sure the results would be different than this survey...

The British press is notoriously biased against the Catholic Church (something about some unpleasantness a few hundred years ago). I take anything they say about the Church with a grain of salt.

And as another noted, the British people themselves are largely unchurched and secular.

SD

[Larry Lucido]

My thoughts exactly.

I read that sorry excuse for a book and want my 5 or 6 hours back. But my faith is still intact.

[Larry Lucido]

Yep!

[NYer]

This "novel" and film is doing to the Roman Church what Kazantzakis's trashy "The Last Temptation" and the eponymous Scorsese film - did to the Orthodox Christian faith.

There was another 'novel' written at the turn of the 20th century.

The Protocols of the (Learned) Elders of Zion, also The Protocols of the Sages of Zion or The Protocols of Zion (Russian: "Ïðîòîêîëû Ñèîíñêèõ ìóäðåöîâ" or "Ñèîíñêèå Ïðîòîêîëû"), is a text purporting to describe a plan to achieve global domination by Jews. Numerous independent investigations have repeatedly proven it to be a hoax; most notably, a series of articles printed in The Times of London in 1921 revealed that much of the material was largely plagiarized political satire coming from sources that did not have an anti-Semitic theme. Additionally, since its appearance in the early 20th century, early disseminators have offered vague and often contradictory testimony regarding their copy of the rumored original manuscript.^[1] Nevertheless, some people continue to view the Protocols as evidence of a conspiracy, especially in parts of the world where anti-Semitism is widespread. It is frequently quoted and reprinted by anti-Semites, and is sometimes used as evidence of a Jewish conspiracy, especially in the Middle East. ^[2]

FULL TEXT

And like The DaVinci Code, it was only a novel .

[Armando Guerra]

ORB interviewed more than 1,000 adults last weekend, finding that 60 percent believed Jesus had children by Mary Magdalene — a possibility raised by the book — compared with just 30 percent of those who had not read the book.

I tend to think the problem is with the conclusions drawn from the survey. To say that the book undermines faith presupposes that the readers of the book had faith to begin with. I would expect that the book has a greater appeal to those who already question Christianity. As such, the sampling for the survey is already weighted to those weak in faith.

[Tanniker Smith]

Anyone whose faith is undermined by a movie, a work of fiction, is someone whose faith was very weak in the first place.

[Rudder]

I guess he used Opus Dei because the organization is widely perceived as being highly secretive, but it does look like he may be open for a libel action.

I guess Brown's attempt at "verisimilitude" is simply too real.

[Jaded]

Hold the phone on that one. About 10 years ago I was attending a Wednesday bible study sponsored by Houston's First Baptist. The minister who was leading the study at the time said that a survey of seminarians showed that 40 percent thought that Jesus was probably fathered by a Roman soldier. It wasn't a Catholic seminary where the survey was done.

[Constantine XIII]

"...and badly damaged its credibility"

*spazzes out in paroxysm of incredulity*

How igert are these people?

[Constantine XIII]

Don't forget the dreaded, all-knowing "experts" who say a lot. :)

[Constantine XIII]

It should be said that British city-folk are some of the most unchurched heatherns in the western hemisphere.

I doubt it would have the same effect here. :P

[Mark Koch]

"Don't forget the dreaded, all-knowing "experts" who say a lot. :)"


Right on. (High five.) ROFL.

[Constantine XIII]

he he he

[billbears]

“The Da Vinci Code” has undermined faith in the Roman Catholic Church and badly damaged its credibility

What about what the effect is on the Christian faith? It hasn't undermined my faith in Christianity at all. Rather I believe it's made it stronger. If this is the best shot the devil's got, he's come up quite lacking...

[Jaded]

A few weeks ago, as I understand it, one of our deacons who was giving a class on baptism, "went off on a tangent" about the Da Vinci code. I heard this from someone in the class who then went on to describe the deacon as "out of touch with reality" because of his admonition not to see this movie.

I could but stare.

I also know many Protestant who believe that this book finally tells the truth about the Catholic Church.