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Let me see if I get this right: In Hollywood, it is bad to portray Christ as God in the flesh, sacrificed for our sins and resurrected as Lord of all—but it is cool to show Him hooking up with some first century, penitential, Emily Rose type chick and having a love child? Yes, in Stupidville, Mel Gibson was critically deep-fried for a gospel accurate depiction of Christ’s substitutionary death for the world’s wantonness, but this Da Vinci Code dude is hailed as Hollywood’s Playmate of the Month for his historical re-write regarding the deity and life of Christ. How...

I know that readers are probably sick and tired of "Da Vinci Code" threads, and don’t think there’s much more to say on the topic. They could not be more wrong. Christians rightly or wrongly vilify the movie as "blasphemy for lots of cash". Maybe they’re right. Maybe they’re wrong. I’m not Christian. But what does bear pointing out is that, as far as I know, there have been no threats of death, or even serious threats of organized violence. Keep in mind that this is a movie showing in theatres worldwide, so there would be lots of opportunities. I...

The Da Vinci Code, a New York Times Bestseller since it was published in 2003, is used in a class at Bowdoin College called “The Portrait of the Marys,” which emphasizes Mary Magdalene over Mary the Mother of God. If the movie flops at the box office, as current trends indicate it might, the film could become required college viewing as well. On the 17th of May, the month in which the Catholic Church celebrates Mary, the Virgin mother of Christ, the newly formed Interfaith Coalition Against The Da Vinci Code called for a boycott of the film. The Coalition...

'Da Vinci' shines, box office doesn't Sales still down from 2005 despite strong showing LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- A record-setting showing at the box office for "The Da Vinci Code" over the weekend still wasn't enough to propel receipts past last year's numbers, preliminary figures showed Monday. It looked as if overall box office would be flat to down, as the top 12 films were off 2.8% at $153.2 million from $157.6 million last year for the Friday-to-Sunday time frame. Final figures for the entire weekend were due later Monday. While "Da Vinci Code" made an estimated $77 million in...

Monday, May 22, 2006 12:44 a.m. EDT Mel Gibson Slams 'Da Vinci Code' Catholic actor Mel Gibson has slammed "The Da Vinci Code" book and movie for attacking the beliefs that he holds sacred, World Entertainment Network reported. "The Passion of the Christ" star has been outraged about the thriller's controversial plot concerning Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. [Editor's Note: Get NewsMax's special report "The Da Vinci Con" FREE with Ann Coulter's book, "Godless" – CLICK HERE NOW!] Gibson says, "What worries me is that people will take this as fact. "I'm not angry, per se, that it refutes everything...

Roman Catholics and Evangelicals have challenged The Da Vinci Code for proposing that Christianity is a hoax perpetrated on the world for nearly 2000 years. The liberal National Council of Churches (NCC) is also concerned about the new movie, because it overlooks Jesus' supposed endorsement of its left-leaning political themes. "Real-life scenarios are present daily that contradict the Gospel of Jesus Christ," the NCC announced in a special Da Vinci news release. "Too often it is those issues that have far-reaching affects on people's lives, and their faith, but they go without any word of protest or rebuttal -- issues...

OK, people, the early reviews could have been a little better, so Dan stepped in to do some rewrites, and he and I have come up with some minor tweaks.

It is not so much the movie (obvious fiction) as it is the new low that our society is reaching. Does anyone think that this movie would have been accepted in 1956 instead of 2006 ? There is always open season on christianity in this culture. There are millions of people going to see the movie this weekend. We assume that all of these people are smart enough to know that it is just fiction. But are they ? There are people who honestly believe that there was a 9/11 conspiracy. A JFK conspiracy. Elvis could still be living !...

Confronted with "The Da Vinci Code," the motion picture version of Dan Brown's best-selling update on the ripe tropes of 19th-century Know-Nothingism (the Vatican as conspiracy central, the priesthood as perverse hit men), a previous generation of American Catholics would have raised holy hell -- flooding the streets with pickets and boycotting not just the film or the studio but all films, in an impassioned nationwide campaign to bring Hollywood to its knees. Yet this weekend, as the much-hyped example of sacerdotal noir finally premieres, Catholics will be queuing up alongside Protestants, Jews and secular humanists. The religion that once...

It’s hard for me to keep up with our rapidly changing world. For instance, one can find the reasons that the Catholic Church is evil are constantly changing in a kaleidoscopic whirl. The Church, I discover, is not merely wrong and evil. It is wrong and evil for so very many different reasons. It is preternaturally wrong and evil; wrong and evil in ways that mere mortals don’t manage to be wrong and evil. It is wrong and evil for both denying and promoting the teaching of the Bible, for tolerating and muzzling apostate scholars, for being a sinkhole of...

But look at the Gross? Rank Title (click to view) Studio Opening* % of Total Theaters Average Total Gross^ Date** 1 Spider-Man Sony $114,844,116 28.4% 3,615 $31,768 $403,706,375 5/03/2002 2 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Fox $108,435,841 28.5% 3,661 $29,619 $380,270,577 5/19/2005 3 Shrek 2 DW $108,037,878 24.5% 4,163 $25,951 $441,226,247 5/19/2004 4 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire WB $102,685,961 35.4% 3,858 $26,616 $290,013,036 11/18/2005 5 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban WB $93,687,367 37.5% 3,855 $24,302 $249,541,069 6/04/2004 6 The Matrix Reloaded WB $91,774,413 32.6% 3,603 $25,471 $281,576,461 5/15/2003 7 Harry Potter...

All the protests and all the bad reviews could not prevent "The Da Vinci Code" from recording a $224 million worldwide opening, the second-biggest debut ever at the global box office, its distributor said on Sunday. The controversial adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel, the story of a Vatican cover-up involving Jesus Christ and his supposed offspring, sold about $77 million worth of tickets at movie theaters in the United States and Canada during its first three days, according to Columbia Pictures. Box-office watchers had predicted a North American opening of between $50 million and $80 million for the most...

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- "The Da Vinci Code" banked an estimated $29 million at the box office on its first day in theaters, an industry official said Saturday, positioning the film to turn in the strongest opening weekend for any movie this year.

A leading Catholic activist is telling Christians their worries, building for months, over yesterday's release of "The Da Vinci Code," have been wasted on an "inane," "slumbering," "anti-climatic" movie that "fails to persuade" and flounders more on its poor quality than its anti-Catholic theology. Bill Donohue "This was one of the most inane films I have ever seen," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, after viewing the movie on opening day. "It takes forever to get going, and even when it finally does, it fails to sustain the momentum," he said. "Indeed,...

Rocky Mountain News   To print this page, select File then Print from your browser URL: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4711045,00.html Chris Schneider © NewsClare Chavez, of Denver, a member of the Catholic lay organization Opus Dei, checks on her 6-week-old baby, Pilar Chavez, as she sleeps underneath a window at their home in Denver on Thursday. Chavez is one of approximately 20 members of Opus Dei in Colorado. Members of Opus Dei try to set record straightMovie puts focus on order that puzzles even many CatholicsBy Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain NewsMay 19, 2006Denver investment banker Steve Markel recalls being with a group...

Got 8 minutes? Check out this "top ten" from the stupid pile of stuff from this week. Check out the "Daily Kos" as the freshmaker, listen to Alec Baldwin ponder why doesn't have callers to his radio show, find out why DaVinci Code star Ian McKellen has "faith" in his movie - but not in actually inspired texts, see who Hillary Clinton now blames abortion on, and see for yourself how Chris Matthews earns bonus stupid points for encouraging Moonbat Congressman John Murtha to slander our troops as baby killers... all in 8 minutes on the MuscleHead Revolution V-Cast.

If you want to debate Christianity with Lee Strobel, you'd better do your homework. The California author brings to conversations the same friendly, fervent tenacity and intelligence that marked his former career as a big-city journalist and his current one as author of 17 books, including "The Case for Faith" and "The Case for Christ." Strobel, who calls himself a multidenominational Christian, has been a hit in the evangelical world, partly because his personal story is so dramatic. In 1981, the Chicago Tribune legal affairs editor jettisoned his adamant atheism and converted to Christianity. In his work since as an...

Opus Dei, the Da Vinci Code and ODAN For those of us who have witnessed firsthand Opus Dei’s deceptive and manipulative practices, it has not been easy watching Opus Dei stage a large public relations campaign in order to dispel the image the book ‘The DaVinci Code” has projected about them. It is equally hard to watch Opus Dei not be honest about their questionable practices. An inaccurate explanation of what exists within Opus Dei is being projected through their public statements and media appearances. The timing of their response to the movie appears highly choreographed and feels more like...

_______~~~Book/Movie Review of The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown~~~_______         Book Review of:         THE         DAVINCI        CODE         XX*X*X**               XXXX  Novel by: DAN BROWN Reviewed by: G. W. Watts   NEW: Book/Movie Review of Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" ; http://gordonwatts.com/DaVinci.html ; http://hometown.aol.com/gww1210/myhomepage/DaVinci.html ; http://www.geocities.com/gordon_watts32313/DaVinci.html *_Book (and limited Movie) Review of The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown_* WELCOME, Visitor: Please Turn on your computer speakers & maximize 3-D Stereo Enhancement for best sound! The DaVinci Code is set to open in theatres nationwide Friday, 19 May 2006. (Film based on Dan Brown's book by the same name.) ** Register...

The Da Vinci Code -- which opens in the U.S. on May 19 -- might be subtitled "Religion for Morons" or "Gnosticism Meets The New Age." It's fantasy posing as reality. The Sony Pictures film is blasphemous, defames the Catholic Church, and promotes neo-pagan Goddess worship. I find it offensive, and I'm not even a Christian. Director Ron Howard (who specializes in visual candy) assures us that Opie's opus will be true to the novel -- a pretentious, overwritten piece of trash that makes Bridget Jones's Diary look like one of the 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. The plot of...