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 ...
I am the Lord your God; you shall not have strange Gods before me.
Yes, but, the thing is,
the Holy Spirit affects
us all directly,
our hearts and our minds . . .
Movies are just colored lights
that flash in our eyes.
When Christians freak out
at the "power" of movies
it seems to me that
they reveal weak faith
in the earthly power of
the Holy Spirit.
This is an attack which says that the well-springs of Christianity are polluted, and every good and holy Christian through the ages has been "sick" from the polluted water; an attack where the bull's-eye is the Catholic Church, but the target at large is ALL OF CHRISTIANITY.
If the New Testament said that Jesus was a dad, a grandpa, and a left-handed lute-playing Lithuanian, that would be fine and dandy. But to set up fantasies, forgeries, and conspiracy theories as the new sources of "gospel truth"' is a frontal assaults on EVERYTHING we know about God.
I'd say covering up for priests who rape little boys has undermined faith in the Catholic Church too.
I'm with you.......
For me, it made it possible for me to believe and actually see Jesus as....likeable.
Otherwise, there is almost nothing I can relate to....Mary M. gave me a window.
You're off your gob.
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"
7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"
11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
When you let God's angels attend you, you have no need for earthly things. When you live by the Word, you have no need for the food of the world. When you trust God and do not test Him, you will be protected. When you worship God and serve Him only, you have no need for girls, gold or glory.
I dont think the church has anything to apologize for..does it?
"Brown looks diseased and Hanks looks unhealthy. I wonder if doing Satan's work has anything to do with it..."
It could simply be British cuisine: black pudding, Marmite, and peas.
I am of the Preterist persuasion in the eschatological debate when it comes to the end times but this latest orgasmic response to The DiVinci Code movie has me rethinking my position. How such a sizable portion of the population could be so giddy at the anticipation of a fictional movie mocking Christ, is sad and disheartening. What I get from the MSM is “See finally God is dead, stop believing in this fairytale folks and worship yourselves and us.” To mock St. Paul “Eat, drink and have gay sex because tomorrow we die”. It’s really not just a movie, it’s a liberal\communist movement trying to destroy and obfuscate the truth so they can complete the takeover and make their own morality. A morality which they set and determine what is right and wrong. A future which ends in gas chambers and mass murder.
This is true. That means, since Ted Kennedy is a bloated ass, democracy is bad.
Okay Brown and Hanks are lying...it's not fiction. I stand corrected.
I am not an atheist---so you stand corrected---I just play one on FR.
Yes, important questions ... like what kind of distorted, sick, ignorant, stupid excuse for a culture we must live in, that a book which is clearly based on a documented fraud perpetrated in 1956 [1] and which makes assertions which can easily be proven false [2] would sell 40 million copies and be made into a self-proclaimed "blockbuster" movie.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from the truth and wander into myths. -- 2 Timothy 4:3-4
[1] See Plantard, Pierre; and "Priory of Sion"
[2] Like "the Roman Catholic Church burned 50 million women as witches" and "Jesus wasn't viewed as divine until Constantine and the Council of Nicaea made it up in AD 325" for starters.
You see clearly.
on the nosey
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