Posted on 05/07/2006 8:05:47 AM PDT by dhuffman@awod.com
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - In the latest Vatican broadside against "The Da Vinci Code", a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called "The Da Vinci Code-A Masterful Deception."
Arinze's appeal came some 10 days after another Vatican cardinal called for a boycott of the film. Both cardinals asserted that other religions would never stand for offences against their beliefs and that Christians should get tough.
"Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget," Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specializing in religious affairs.
"Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others," Arinze said.
"This is one of the fundamental human rights: that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected," he said, without elaborating on what legal means he had in mind.
A transcript of the documentary, due to be screened in Rome later this month just before the release of the film version of the best-selling book at the Cannes Film Festival, was made available to Reuters.
The book, written by Dan Brown, has sold more than 40 million copies.
So...how did you come to the conclusion that what has been excepted for the better part of two millenia is wrong?
Did I miss some awesome book, or what?
How would you like it if someone wrote a book about your mom, or pretty much anyone you care about, and filled it full of stuff they pretty much made up? One that casts the person in question in, let us say, a negative light.
Then the author says it's just a work of fiction, no need to be upset if it isn't true!
Would you say anything about it?
BTW, what's yer point with the white boxing champs?
:)
Okay, which scientist was killed?
Look, we have people on this very thread (e.g., maine-iac7) who consider Brown's version of history factual. Unfortunately, there are millions more people out there like maine-iac7. Whether it's out of ignorance, paranoia or wishful thinking, these folks believe in the "truth" behind Brown's book.
Why would suggesting Jesus was married be negative? That's kind of bizarre.
If you mean "accepted," then your premise is incorrect.
Christianity was largely a Meditteranean religion for the first 1000 years of its existence. In other words, it was unheard of or rejected by 90% of the world's population until around 1100 AD when the Catholic church began violently imposing its religion around the ancient world.
Through their campaign of terrorism and lies, they spread christianity for the next 1000 years and they've been able to deceive about 33% of the world.
I never came to a conclusion that christianity is wrong, I just never believed and never will. I prefer not to follow a Jewish cult religion that has a history of murder and deception.
I don't believe in censorship or legal action, but I certainly think the church has a duty to respond to an attack.
If it happened after the Crucifixion - which didn't kill him - then it would imply that he was never resurrected and never rose to Heaven.
That's a biggie. :)
Then I would sue. Hey, if you can find any living relatives of Jesus, I'm sure they can file a lawsuit for slander... by then, the whole idea that Jesus had children is ridiculous right? So I guess you're SOL.
SOURCE???
Yeah, we've already established the fact that I'm not having a good spelling day. :)
Your interpretation of history, though, is a little...unusual.
Even accepting what you said, nowhere did Christ say that "thou shalt oppress the unbeliever." We aren't the Space Marines, after all. Just because some tyrants did so and used Christ as an excuse doesn't invalidate what He said. Is it Buddha's fault that medieval Japanese monks burned down each other's monasteries over trivial doctrinal disputes? The historical injustices of the past are clearly against what the son of God taught us. Feel free to condemn the perpetrators, but don't put it on His doorstep
Moreover, you say that Christians are "deceiving the world." How is that? If you have some exclusive pipeline to the truth, please, fill us in. It wouldn't be the first time FR has broken important news. :D
The Illuminati, the Knights Templar, the Opus Dei are all pieces of thread that weave a big, old conspiracy story. Dan Brown just rearranged the narrative and put a storyline over it. I guess he deserves credit for writing a compelling story, but the basis of the book is not at all original.
I asked how you would like it, not how quick you'd get lawyered up.
However, the fact that you WOULD get lawyerd up says something about how you would feel.
We feel likewise, and seeing as how we live in a free country, for the moment, we certainly have the right to express ourselves, no?
So, let's get this right...
1. The Church established what Jesus said through the canon.
2. The Church was wrong in oppressing people.
3. The Church being wrong about how it spread it's religion doesn't change what Jesus said.
Do you not see the flawed logic there? There were dozens of "gospels" but only those that toed the Church line were accepted (determined by the Church, mind you). Also, the original text needed to be translated through hundreds of years, but somehow through all this selective editing, the Word of God remained intact?
It takes a lot of faith in humans to accept something like that, and I'm afraid history doesn't lend a whole lot of credibility to the European elite.
I agree with your assessment, but the motivation of the Da Vinci apologists go beyond mere ignorance, paranoia or wishful thinking. They are driven by a deep-rooted, pathological anti-Catholicism. Brown fuels their hateful emotions, not their intellects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament
Forgot the link!
There is definitely something sinister about that...
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