Posted on 05/16/2006 10:01:02 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
That's the point I would make to these people who say, "If your faith is strong, this can't affect it. So, go and have a good time!" Michael Moore cannot sway me with his leftist spew, but I'm not going to subject myself to it.
Good point. Others may disagree.
Yeh, we're all running to our pastors with "Is it true?" I want it from the "big boys". I'm writing the Vatican!!
Exactly. My wife is a Christian and I'm a non-believer and I don't see a book and movie undermining her faith. Unless your faith is very tenuous this will not have any effect on it.
Sounds like a bunch of ignorant Catholics if they don't know any more than that about their religion.
AMEN!
Faith must be based on education. So it's easy to see how the claim may be valid.
There is a whole lot of people with weak faith out there. The KKK made themselves into a powerful movement by spreading propaganda to weak-minded people. We don't live in a vacuum
Anger? Enabler-in-Chief Cardinal Bernard Law was given a cushy post at the Vatican, and then participated in the ceremony to install the new Pope. And they wonder why people find conspiracy theories about the RCC believable!
Wouldn't want you to miss this one. :)
What I want to know is, what is Hillary's take on this movie?
the survey wasn't from catholics - the survey was from the general population of Britain. Great Britain is about 9% catholic.
This is one of the most insidious attacks on the Catholic Church for it replaces the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist with the 'body and blood' of an offspring.
Thank you so much for that post!! Do you have a link?
This appears to be dovetailing on the recent explosive discovery of the Gospels of Judas.
I have not decided whether to go to the movie. I have read most of the book.
How many freepers will be willing to see the movie firsthand?
Thanks Mike! :)
Brown looks diseased and Hanks looks unhealthy. I wonder if doing Satan's work has anything to do with it...
I stand corrected. They should have asked the 9% Catholics and left the uninformed out of the survey.
Yeah this Da Vinci book proves that it's all a conspiracy.
They never really landed on the moon (it's really made of cheese). It was actually a cow that jumped over the moon, not the astronauts.
The earth is really flat as a pancake.
Actually, they look like Lenny and Squiggy..
Jesus had to eat food and breathe to survive. What is so surprising to think that he wouldn't take a wife?
Does anyone remember God's first commandment to His Chosen People?
Be Plentiful and Multiply!
The Da Vinci Code is starting to make a lot of sense.
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