'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.

[Nihil Obstat]

The buzz on the streets here in Hollywood is that the film is embarrassingly bad.

Haven't heard any reviews yet, but I hope you are right. Barbara Nicolosi was on EWTN last weekend ("The World Over - Live") and did a great job. I think she is the one that come up with the "other-cott". She is the only one I have heard that has actually seen the movie, and she is trust-worthy. Another thing - looking at the theater movie times, the movie looks like it will be about 2 hours 45 minutes long. People will get bored. Not too many will see it again and again like they do with other movies.

[Revolting cat!]

The buzz on the streets here in Hollywood is that the film is embarrassingly bad.

This would go some way toward explaining Opie's, if that's his real name, spastic reaction this week to criticisms. If he were sure he had a hit on his hands, he would have said nothing or dismissed the dissing, me thinks. On the other hand, 44 million lemmings (have you noticed how this figure grows daily? It was 40 last week, 47 today) paid real money for this tripe, only because their neighbours did, and are likely to shell out $9.50 each to see the Hollywood porno version on big screen.

[NYer]

I keep hearing of Jesus being 'like me'. Well, he isn't...

You're right. He isn't like you or me. He said: "I am the way, the truth and the life" .... "Follow me".

I can't relate to him or most of, oh heck, all of the disciples... I'm not talking about 'sex'. I'm talking about him being a real human with real passions and emotions.

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

It's difficult to forgive those who have hurt us but if the Son of God can forgive his persecutors, so can we.

while Mary M., Salome, Ishtar, Esther were all the characters I felt I 'knew'.

"And a sword shall pierce your heart"

Mary placed her faith in God.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

And lil ole me just sits outside looking in the window, but not finding what I need there.

You should spend some time with the great women saints who have come to know our Lord and wish to share Him with you.

Begin with St. Faustina. Beginning in 1931, Jesus appeared in visions to Sr. Faustina and gave her instructions to teach the world about His mercy.

In the first vision she saw Jesus dressed in a white robe. Two rays of light emanated from the area of his heart, one red and the other white. Jesus was raising his right hand as if he were doing a blessing or greeting, and his left hand touched his chest near the place that the rays emanated from.

Jesus explained, in a later vision, that "The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depth of my tender mercy when my agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross." (Diary, 742)

Jesus said, "Paint an image, according to the pattern you see with the signature: Jesus, I Trust in You. . . . I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish . . . ."

[najida]

In obviously didn't have a clue what I was saying and those pictures are NOT appropriate for this forum or this discussion without warnings!

As usually,
the arrogance puts cotton in your ears.

[najida]

Lastly,
I really,
really,
really wish the DVC was true,
because I'd be back in the church in a heartbeat.

Otherwise,
it's still just more of the good ole boys, the saintly bland mothers and the whores.

Big whoop.

[uptoolate]

Hmmmm. Funny that the leaders of Islam are not threatening to blow something up or behead someone. According to the (sarc)great Iranian Islamic president, isn't Jesus (peace be upon Him)(/sarc) one of the blessed prophets. Where is the outrage from the Muslim community?

[Carolina]

Anyone who is stupid enough to swallow this tripe and actually let it affect their "faith" wasn't much of a Christian in the first place.......and they sure as ALL hell don't know their own religion (there are fifty ways from Sunday to destroy that stupid book's contentions and claims of 'authenticity').

So don't you think, out of charity, that those of us whose faith is strong and solid should speak out and should seize the day (or Dei) and proclaim the truth? Should we not, with love for the floundering souls say, "This is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And that Jesus in that book and movie is a PALE version."

Because in the end when we stand before the Almighty and He asks us it wouldn't do to say, "Well, I'm not by brother's keeper."

It would do us well to remember the parable of the Good Shepherd. If God is Love-who-gave-His-Son-to-redeem-the-world, then He would not suffer one soul to be lost.

[RightOnline]

Short answer...........yes.

[Conservative til I die]

How is it you atheists always know everything about religion?

Don't atheists know everything about everything? I think it's one of their inherent design flaws, isn't it?

[Conservative til I die]

If a novel can undermine your faith, you ain't too faithful.

Yes, but don't those weak in faith deserve a chance at salvation (notice I said 'chance' and not salvation outright).

I, and I am sure many other very good, believing Christians were at one time or another wishy-washy in our faith. I'd rather they be brought to the faith rather than left to wallow in their ignorance. It's all that cosmic heaven-hell eternity stuff.

[Conservative til I die]

Like it or not, this is a movie that raises important questions.

But I thought it was just fiction? A fun mystery yarn, nothing more. Isn't that the party line? But if you could tell me what these important questions are, that'd be cool too.

If you see just one movie this year, it must be "The Da Vinci Code"!

Hi Ron Howard.

[Conservative til I die]

When Christians freak out at the "power" of movies it seems to me that

Just because it's one of those silly moving pictures doesn't mean that it doesn't have power to persuade. Would it be different if this was an academic treatise?

[Conservative til I die]

I'd say covering up for priests who rape little boys has undermined faith in the Catholic Church too.

Nice thread hijack attempt.

[Conservative til I die]

For me, it made it possible for me to believe and actually see Jesus as....likeable.

I'm glad you have a greater liking of Jesus. Seriously. But I am a bit perturbed by this statement. I mean, how could you *not* find Jesus likeable already, whether you're a believer or not? If healing the sick, raising the dead, making the blind see and the crippled walk, the Sermon on the Mount, and turning water into wine doesn't do it for you, I don't see how his being married does.

[Conservative til I die]

"I'd say covering up for priests who rape little boys has undermined faith in the Catholic Church too."

This is true. That means, since Ted Kennedy is a bloated ass, democracy is bad.

Stop being logical.

[heights]

Fads come and go. Faith remains.

[Conservative til I die]

If a product of Hollywood can shake a person's faith, then perhaps some serious soul-searching is in order.

Yes, true. However, soul searching is not always a bad thing. As I said before, many people, myself included, have fallen away from (or never been a part of) the faith for a variety of reasons. I think there's too much of a dismissive attitude toward people like this on FR. As if doubt or incorrect thinking means 'to heck with 'em, they're on their own'.

Remember, we're talking about cosmic eternal salvation/damnation stuff here. To be charitable, we need to educate our fallen brothers to get them back on the right path, not leave them to wallow in ignorance thinking that the da Vinci Code is true, letting them stagger their way to Hell.

[Conservative til I die]

For me, it made it possible for me to believe and actually see Jesus as....likeable. Dying on the Cross did nothing to make you like Him? SD

Hell, just turning water into wine should make him cool, even if one doesn't believe He's the Messiah!

[Conservative til I die]

I don't know what to think about this. But it seems to me that if one's faith is so weak as to be shaken by a novel/movie, then it probably wasn't really faith at all.

I consider myself a believeing Catholic. I'm college educated, generally smart, brought up in the faith, good parents, etc... But when I was young, dumb, and impressionable, I fell away from the faith too. Mostly due to apathy, a more hedonistic lifestyle, and the influence of my equally idiotic peers. You can't write people off and forget about them because their faith isn't perfect.

If some heretic was polluting the faith and influencing Christians, do you think St. Paul would have let it slide?

[Conservative til I die]

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.

Going by the proliferation of bizarre and not so bizzare interpretations of the Bible that have come about since the Reformation, seems she was right.

# of Churches prior to the Reformation: 2. # of Churches today: thousands.

The argument's a strawman anyway.