Posted on 05/05/2006 10:06:53 PM PDT by churchillbuff
A well-known pro-family media critic advises Christians to forego seeing the movie screen adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, and he says they should warn others to avoid the film as well.
Dr. Ted Baehr is chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission (CFTC) and publisher of Movieguide, a biweekly journal that reviews and rates films according to their values and family-friendly -- or unfriendly -- content. And when it comes to the kind of content viewers will find if they decide to go see the upcoming theatrical release, The Da Vinci Code (rated PG-13), the Christian movie reviewer says, "There's a lot of good reasons for people not to."
On May 17, two days before the movie's general release, a group of Christian leaders are going to hold a press conference in Washington, DC, to address the issues surrounding the controversial film. Baehr, who will be part of that group, says there is a lot more to The Da Vinci Code's plot than just the assertion that Jesus married Mary Magdalene. That is minor, the critic says, compared to some of the other blasphemous ideas presented in the story.
In the novel and its film adaptation, a Harvard symbologist named Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) teams up with a brilliant French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), to follow clues revealing that the recently murdered curator of the Louvre was involved in an ancient secret society called the Priory of Sion, over which an evil Grand Master presides.
Following clues from the murder scene, Robert and Sophie are caught up in a dangerous mystery as they match wits with an unknown enemy somehow connected with Opus Dei, a clandestine Catholic organization. Opus Dei, according to Brown's story, is believed to have long plotted to seize the Priory's carefully guarded secret -- the secret the "code" supposedly obscures, that Christ was not crucified but instead survived, married, and sired progeny.
Besides the story's more obvious blasphemies, Baehr notes, are other issues that he feels make the movie unfit for Christian audiences. "One of the problems," he explains, "is that The Da Vinci Code's main point is leading up to Sophie discovering that the Grand Master's invitation into eternal life is a sexual ceremony where he's surrounded in the basement with his cohorts in the cult of the Priory, having sex with the temple prostitute."
The CFTC chairman says he has heard some prominent Christians tell other believers to go see The Da Vinci Code because they can use the storyline of the film as a springboard to tell people the truth about Christ. But God's Word tells believers to look upon the good, the true, and the lovely, the Christian film reviewer points out. They are not told to look upon the evil, sexual ceremonies that are contained in the upcoming Tom Hanks movie, he insists.
"In Ezekiel, God tells us to be a 'watchman on the wall,'" Baehr continues, "and he says if you know that somebody is going to make a mistake, you tell them not to." Christians should avoid the movie based on Brown's novel, he contends, "because the book is just chock full of occultism, Rosicrucianism, Masonic Satanism, et cetera -- I mean, we have a lot of material on all the satanic material, all the sexual material, all the pornographic material."
The Movieguide publisher says a conscientious, thinking Christian "would be hard pressed to argue that people should indulge in this, because it's going to be engraved on people's minds." He urges believers to ignore anyone advising them to "invite the devil through dialog."
At the May 17 press conference, Baehr adds, the Christian leaders involved will provide some telling information about who funded this controversial, anti-Christian film. He believes this revelation and other facts about The Da Vinci Code will raise many Christians' concerns and further show why believers should not spend one dime on the movie.
WHO FUNDED THIS ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOVIE? MOVIEGUIDE APPARENTLY WILL REVEAL SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION LATER THIS MONTH.
When are people like Baehr and institutions like my Catholic Church going to figure out the psychology of begging people to boycott a film?
What's your point? You think Christians should ignore a massively financed attack on their faith? If a movie came out that portrayed Anne Frank as a prostitute - - and it was promoted as massively as the promotion for Da Vinci Code (which portrays the Catholic Church as basically Murder Incorporated) -- would you criticize Jewish groups for objecting? I certainly wouldn't -- and by the same token, Christians have every right to object to this pile of blasphemy that Hollywood is serving up.
People will say it is just a movie, but for the rest of your life it's false facts will fill the arguments of people that challenge your faith.
Sounds horrible.
Heck, 99.99% of the movies that come out of Hollywood are unfit for Christians.
Then again, they're usually unfit for entertainment, but occasionally, something good comes out. I plan on seeing the Da Vinci Code at some point. If they did a good job, chances are I'll enjoy it.
But nothing says I'm going to believe it or treat it as anything other than entertainment, and the people likely to believe it probably aren't Christians to begin with. The best way to guarantee that something will stick around is to try and suppress it. Some things just have to go out of style on their own.
It's "just a movie" that slanders Christ and His Church as a collection of cold-blooded murderers. As I asked Sinkspur, let's try a thought experiment. Suppose a movie - admittedly fictional - portrayed Anne Frank as a prostitute. Would all the folks who are saying that "Da Vinci" is "just a movie, so what are you worried about," also be saying that "Anne Frank: Prostitute," is "Just a movie, no big deal"? I would hope not. Slurring a figure who is beloved and honored by Jews would be a vile thing - and I would be the first to protest. Likewise, slurring Jesus and His Church is vile - and people who scoff at the protestors are either hypocrites, not very bright - or secret despisers of Christianity who are cheering this blasphemous film.
Of course, Christ has been mocked and spat upon since the time of His Passion - and it will continue until His return. But I don't have to like it - or remain silent as the low-lifes engage in their perennial mocking of the Holy. They can mock God, but it's at their own eternal peril -- and no matter what they do, they can't destroy Christ or Christianity, because Christ is God and Christianity is ordained by God.
The Catholic Church, prior to 1965, had something called the Legion of Decency that would rank movies.
The worst ranking was an X, which meant the movie was "condemned."
I remember that "Lolita" was an X when it was released, and it went on to be a blockbuster.
The Church no longer rates movies; perhaps someone figured out that giving a movie an "X" rating guaranteed its success.
You didn't answer me. If the movie was called, "Anne Frank: Prostitute," would you also be lecturing and belittling people who protested, the way you belittle Christians who protest a movie that blasphemes the Lord?
You reminded me of a famous theater story. When Anne Frank first came to Broadway as a play there was one performance in which the Nazis are questioning the family harboring the Franks et al and asking, "Where are they?" A kid in the audience called out spontaneously, "They're in the attic!"
Apparently it took a full ten minutes for everyone in the theater, including the actors on stage, to stop laughing.
You Saddam appeaser, you.
I don't go to movies, ever, so I really don't care about this controversy and I care even less for a work of fiction like the DaVinci Code.
But you just go on shouting out to the world how hard you work for the Lord, churchill.
You have your reward.
"The overwhelming popularity of The Da Vinci Code is proof that the "It's just a..." attitude has gotten us nowhere."
RIGHT.
"It's just a ..." is the slouching that takes us down the slippery slope.
Amen.
The only good thing is that Ron Howard is directing, so the film will be simplistic and boring.
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