How is Opus Dei whining about the Da Vinci Code any different from liberals whining about the Passion of the Christ? IMO, both groups look pretty silly... Let's just postulate that I'm planning on making a movie about you - in it you will be portrayed as a self destructive lesbian, and your mother will be shown as a crack whore. I will introduce the film my stating that everything that is about to be shown is true...
...but claim it's just fiction when challenged.
Based on your above comment I have no doubt that you would protest not at all - it would just look silly...
By the way, I would do no such thing, of course; you are probably a fine upstanding person (the fact that you are at FreeRepublic indicates above average intelligence) and it would be wrong to slander someone for money.
As long as you are asking for differences, those that protested the Passion stated that the film was a slander against Jews (it wasn't) and that it would lead to pograms (it didn't) and that the film indicated the need for Christians to rewrite the New Testaments and abandon their false anti-semetic faith (it isn't and we didn't).
Critics of the Code note that the film is a slander against the Catholic Church in particular and Christianity in general - which it is - that is based on a combination of old Gnostic B.S., new feminist B.S. and as many hoary old anti Catholic myths that can be packed into a book/film at one time without making it look like Jack Chick was the head writer (true), and that argues that Christians abandon their false anti-feminist faith (it isn't and we won't)
I think that sums up both differences and similarities in the criticism
"Let's just postulate that I'm planning on making a movie about you - in it you will be portrayed as a self destructive lesbian, and your mother will be shown as a crack whore. I will introduce the film my stating that everything that is about to be shown is true...
...but claim it's just fiction when challenged."
But it is fiction. The only people who believe that it's the truth are probably locked up in mental institutions. Frankly, it's incredibly sad that the Catholic Church is afraid that people will turn to a summer popcorn flick for their religious instruction.
"Based on your above comment I have no doubt that you would protest not at all - it would just look silly... "
It depends... If I were a celebrity or a major institution like Catholic Church, I'd probably just ignore them.
"As long as you are asking for differences, those that protested the Passion stated that the film was a slander against Jews (it wasn't) and that it would lead to pograms (it didn't) and that the film indicated the need for Christians to rewrite the New Testaments and abandon their false anti-semetic faith (it isn't and we didn't)."
I agree that the Passion of the Christ didn't lead to pogroms against Jews nor was it anti-Semetic. However, I don't think that the Da Vinci Code is going to cause any riots against Catholicism.
"Critics of the Code note that the film is a slander against the Catholic Church in particular and Christianity in general - which it is - that is based on a combination of old Gnostic B.S., new feminist B.S. and as many hoary old anti Catholic myths that can be packed into a book/film at one time without making it look like Jack Chick was the head writer (true), and that argues that Christians abandon their false anti-feminist faith (it isn't and we won't)."
I don't think that the MSM is trying to get anyone to abandon his or her faith; the studios just want to makes lots of $$$$ off of a summer thriller.
As for the Da Vinci Code, while I don't agree with many of its conclusions, I do like the fact that it has sparked a reexamination of early Christianity (especially the role of women in the early Church).