Church's Ambivalence on Da Vinci Code: A Teaching Moment . . . Filled With Lies

Today Show/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Today Show/NewsBusters Da Vinci Code ping.

[neodad]

Brought to you by the Father of Lies.

[Frank Sheed]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/da_vinci_code/

[2banana]

The basic premise of the book. Jesus was a man who married and had kids. The church has been keeping this secret for 2000 years and will do anything (up to murder) to keep it that way. Through 2000 years of wars, famine, invasion and collapses of civilizations, this secret has been so well kept that nobody ever knew about it. It took a mighty and wise writer from New Hampshire to discovered it.

This, in an age, where a sitting president and an intern can't keep secret a BJ for more than 3 months...

[theDentist]

... It's important because people believe what they read."

Well then, Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" must've thrown the entirety of Christianity into an absolute tizzy!

[TheRobb7]

It must say something bad about Christians that they would be so hard-up for entertainment that they would even THINK about attending a movie that slams the Savior.

I don't go to many movies anyway, but there's my $0.02

[SmoothTalker]

I don't understand why some are getting so worked up over a piece of fiction. Poorly written fiction at that.

[Carolinamom]

"Tiresome" one critic said of the movie. The big hype is to get big bucks.

[weegee]

I think back 2 years ago when the media was championiing another film from Cannes. Fahrenheit 9/11.

Don't seem to recall any attempts to permit someone from "the other side" to come on the national broadcast networks and disect this film.

[weegee]

Linda Tripp was an Arkansacide away from keeping that secret. Taped phone calls and the pressure to keep the dress changed Monica's story from denial to admittance.

[uptoolate]

That's an accurate statement! Dr. Irwin Lutzer said in a series of messages entitled 'One Minute After You Die' that when we stand before Christ, we will all be in agreement of what sin is. There will be no debate over what is truth. I look forward to that day. I look forward to that day for Mr. Brown and people that have a heart like his.

[antiRepublicrat]

Maybe somebody got smart and realized that vehement protest just gives it more publicity.

[antiRepublicrat]

"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" must've thrown the entirety of Christianity into an absolute tizzy!

God is dead, vanished in a puff of logic (babelfish).

[weegee]

The Da Vinci code is about a famous painter. His name is called out in the title of this film, not Jesus.

Many people have read the book. Movies are made to attract the masses who passed on the book to "see what the fuss" was all about.

Generally the perception about any adaptation is "the book was better". They are two different audiences.

Even films from comic books are dumbed down for the screen.

[Theo]

Would you drop that silly argument? Ideas have consequences. Works of fiction, even, have consequences. Do we need to list the great works of fiction that have had an effect on this world?

[weegee]

When that's all they've got, they'll take the money any way they can get it.

They just want to keep this film from getting tagged "Ishtar 2" and sweeping the Razzies. You are only as good as your last film in Hollywood.

[Theo]

"Vehement protest"? I haven't seen that. I've seen people note the lies being conveyed through the book and movie. But not the kind of protest that accompanied "The Temptation of Christ."

[Antoninus]

Finally, Lauer interviewed, live in St. Peter's Square, Father Gregory Apparcel, Rector of the American Catholic Church in Rome. Here's where the Church's ambivalence was evident.

This guy turns a couple statements by random clerics into "the Church's ambivalence"? What this writer doesn't seem to understand is that the Church is the complete Body of Christ--not just one priest.

And trust me, the devout clergy and laity are not ambivalent. We're fired up! Of course, this writer (and the unctuous Matt Lauer, of course) couldn't be bothered to find and interview someone from TFP.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Anybody who can wade through The Da Vinci Code is a functional illiterate.

Anybody who takes it seriously has the IQ of a gnat.