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."
I have no plans to see either. They just don't sound appealing...
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.
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.
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.
I read of that. Kings had this diving lineage to justify their rule.
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.
I read of that. Kings had this diving lineage to justify their rule
If that were true, then Greg Louganis would be king...
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?
God help the Church if you're Her defense.
Not necessarily. "The Last Temptation of Christ" drew a firestorm of suppression. It sucked, and it's gone.
Shalom.
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.
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.
DOWN WITH PROTESTS!!!!!
Shalom.
"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.
Being offended is the price we pay for living in a free society. In a totalitarian police state Pauly Shore would not exist.
Not really. "The Omen" had a reasonable amount of fact in it, so it qualified as fiction. "The Da Vinci Code" is fantasy.
Shalom.
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