Ted Baehr Calls Blasphemy, Sex Immorality Reasons to Miss Da Vinci Code(question: who funded it?)

agapepress ^ | May 4 06 | agape press

[durasell]

I have no plans to see either. They just don't sound appealing...

[Darkwolf377]

Begging people to boycott a movie gives the MSM a story in addition to "There's a new movie out today and here's what it's about." This will fuel interest and prolong the movie's time at the top of the box office.

But why even bother bringing this up? Some seem to love to make money for their enemies' product. They will claim you're asking them to ignore this thing and blah blah blah, but they don't seem to look at the point you're trying to make: They are taking action which FEEDS the thing they are trying to starve. They don't see that; they just their righteous indignation up about how dare you tell them to just shut up and take it, when no one's saying any such thing.

Movie box office thrives on controversy. Useless movies with nothing going for them but controversy make money because people protest them. Decent movies that would make less money without the controversy look for it, too. Passion of the Christ made money from people who wanted to go see it so they could accuse it of anti-Semitism or whatever--you think they'd have paid to see it if someone hadn't started the "controversy"? (In this case, Mel Gibson fed the controversy--I would have, too.)

The question of who funded this is no big mystery; go to IMDB and look up the executive producers, the production company, etc. I have the feeling this will devolve into blaming The Jooooos or something equally meaningless.

Why meaningless? Because this stupid book with its stupid ideas and its blatant, obvious slander against the Church should be IGNORED. Imagine its box office if Christians simply didn't go see it? But nope, turn it into a Crusade and everyone who wouldn't have bothered will rush right out to the The Controversial Film.

I read enough of that stupid book to know it's boring, cliched, full of errors, and I couldn't care less if everyone else who read it loved it. But I sure won't add to its creators' riches, the way these protestors are about to.

[Mongeaux]

Supposedly the line of Christ/Magdalene produced a dynasty of French Kings called the Merovingians. All Kings claim divine lineage at one point or another, so it is no suprise the Merovingians did too.

[Antoninus]

You claim to be a Catholic, but you enjoy sneering at other Catholics and Christians who, unlike you, have the backbone to stand up for their faith.

To those of us familliar with ol' Sinky..... no comment. Let's just say he makes a lot of "claims".

[ArGee]

When are people like Baehr and institutions like my Catholic Church going to figure out the psychology of begging people to boycott a film?

With a stinker like "The Last Temptation of Christ" that argument made sense. With a blockbuster like "The Da Vinci Code" it doesn't really.

I'm not going to boycott "The Da Vinci Code" any more than I boycotted "The Last Temptation of Christ." I'm just going to avoid a movie based on a bad story. I have much better things to do with my time and money.

Shalom.

[Ptarmigan]

I read of that. Kings had this diving lineage to justify their rule.

[ArGee]

A thinking Christian understands that while The Da Vinci Code is fiction, people are asking questions based on faulty scholarship and downright unhistorical assertions.

People keep asserting that "The Da Vinci Code" is fiction. It doesn't have enough reality in it to be classified as fiction. It is fantasy.

Shalom.

[durasell]

I read of that. Kings had this diving lineage to justify their rule



If that were true, then Greg Louganis would be king...

[lastchance]

I did not read the book, I will not see the movie. I refuse to support heresy in any form. I would not put poison into my mouth why put it into my mind?

[sinkspur]

If you want to be silent, I recommend that you take your own advice (i.e., "shut up") and leave the defense of the Church to the rest of us.

God help the Church if you're Her defense.

[ArGee]

The best way to guarantee that something will stick around is to try and suppress it.

Not necessarily. "The Last Temptation of Christ" drew a firestorm of suppression. It sucked, and it's gone.

Shalom.

[ArGee]

Suppose a movie - admittedly fictional - portrayed Anne Frank as a prostitute.

Suppose a movie - admittedly fictional - portrayed Ronald Reagan as a puppet of the Chinese used to destroy the Soviets?

Ya' gotta speak FReeper language.

Shalom.

[Das Outsider]

Most people are smart enought to know fiction from fact, or at the Republican ones can.

I don't know most people, but the ones that I know which have read the book, and perhaps "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," entertain the notion that the story might be true. From my study of the not-so-long-but-certainly-twisted story of the Mary Magdalene hypothesis, this fact leads me to wonder just how smart they are.

[lastchance]

Go to www.uscbb.org. There you will find movie review and the ratings given to them. You may notice that some movies are rated O for morally offensive. The reviews are just guides but they give faithful Catholics a very good idea of what movies to avoid.

[Antoninus]

God help the Church if you're Her defense.

I'm happy to put my limited talents at the disposal of the God to use as He sees fit.

[ArGee]

Everybody would like to ban something...

DOWN WITH PROTESTS!!!!!

Shalom.

[sinkspur]

Imagine its box office if Christians simply didn't go see it? But nope, turn it into a Crusade and everyone who wouldn't have bothered will rush right out to the The Controversial Film.

"If the Church is against it, I'll go see it" has been posted by a not insignificant number of FReepers.

Ignoring this tripe would seem to be the best advice, but, as you can see, we have crusaders who must crusade.

[durasell]

Being offended is the price we pay for living in a free society. In a totalitarian police state Pauly Shore would not exist.

[ArGee]

From what I can gather, its like the Omen movies, pure science fiction.

Not really. "The Omen" had a reasonable amount of fact in it, so it qualified as fiction. "The Da Vinci Code" is fantasy.

Shalom.

[Mongeaux]

I read enough of that stupid book to know it's boring, cliched, full of errors

Ok, for example, I enjoy Clive Culler's novels. He mixes science and history with healthy dollop of fantasy and derring-do. His main character "Dirk Pitt" (gutsy name) is a typical action hero: hard drinking, brawling, military background, etc. I was impressed that, in The Davinci Code, Dan Brown managed to write a tense action-suspense thriller out of Art History, of all things! I took some art history classes and those pussy professors couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. You gotta give him credit for ingenuity. The writing was better than average for the genre too.