Posted on 05/19/2006 6:28:58 PM PDT by rhema
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 Dan Brown's mega-best seller (45 million copies sold) goes like this: Jesus married Mary Magdalene, who bore his children, who became the Merovingian monarchs of France, whose descendants are running around Europe today -- being chased by Opus Dei or Mormon missionaries or Martians or someone.
Again, according to The Code, The Catholic Church has for centuries concealed the truth about Jesus to maintain its power. Mary Magdalene represents the "sacred feminine" -- which supposedly predates monotheism -- and which wicked patriarchalists have spent millennia trying to suppress, the better to deny man's sexual nature and subjugate women.
The book (and presumably the film) even has a ritualistic orgy, where communicants dance with orbs and the grand master of the book's mysterious order gets frisky with a plump, middle-aged lady. The scene is described on page 311: "'The woman you behold is love!' The women called, raising their orbs again. The men responded, 'She has her dwelling place in eternity.'" (All I want is lovin' you, and music, music, music?)
Brown may have achieved the impossible -- devised a type of mumbo-jumbo that makes "healing" crystals seem serious.
Orthodox Christians are rightly offended by The Code's plot, denying as it does the divinity of Jesus and his mission.
People are free to believe, or not believe, in Jesus. Jews and Christians have been debating the identity of the Messiah, what God requires of us and how salvation may be achieved for almost 2,000 years. But to turn the life of a man almost a billion people on this planet worship into a soap opera beggars the term insensitive.
At least Christians can take comfort in the fact that their's isn't the only faith maligned and misrepresented by Brown's book.
On page 309, Brown writes of his protagonist: "Langdon's Jewish students always looked flabbergasted when he first told them that the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. In the Temple, no less. Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple housed not only God but also His powerful female equal, Shekinah. Men seeking spiritual wholeness came to the Temple to visit priestesses -- or hierodules -- with whom they made love and experienced the divine through physical union."
This would be amusing, were it not so disgusting. Jews daily pray for the rebuilding of the Holy Temple. For what -- so men can "experience the divine" by getting a little nookie?
In Judaism, "Shekinah" refers to the Divine presence, at one time said to reside at the Temple. Because the Hebrew word is feminine, in Brown’s fevered imagining, it has morphed into a female deity.
There were no "priestesses" in the Temple. The Torah condemns the ritual prostitution practiced by the Canaanites as "an abomination" -- its most severe censure.
It was Judaism that first related sexuality to morality. (Christian sexual ethics come from the Jewish Bible.) Where did Brown get his understanding of ancient Judaism -- from that noted Kabbalist, Madonna? Did he discover Jewish polytheism among the documents hidden away in the Templars’ secret crypt, along with Jesus’ marriage license?
In an article on nationalreview.com, David Klinghoffer argues that Jews also should be concerned about The Da Vinci Code because of its disturbing parallels to "The Protocols of The Elders of Zion."
"The Protocols," a forged document, postulates a conspiracy of Jewish leaders to conceal the truth about their alleged control of humanity through various political movements. The Da Vinci Code claims the Catholic Church is involved in a massive cover-up to hide the real history of Jesus, in order to maintain its control of the faithful. In both cases, the public is invited to scorn the sinister conspirators -- Jews or Catholics.
As a Goddess-worshipping, neo-pagan, Brown seeks to reverse the Bible's process of taming man's erotic nature (by channeling it to fidelity and family), once again divorcing the sexual from the spiritual -- freeing man's hedonistic urges from Judeo-Christian constraints. That Brown has so many admirers among Hollywood libertines is unsurprising.
But why all the fuss? After all, it’s only a movie, right?
The novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand was once asked why she primarily wrote fiction, instead of works of philosophy. Rand explained that it's far easier to convey ideas through fiction than non-fiction -- witness Dante's The Divine Comedy, witness Uncle Tom's Cabin, witness Ben-Hur, The Screwtape Letters and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Novels and films aren't footnoted. The author or screenwriter can create a thoroughly convincing universe that powerfully projects his message. From The Birth of a Nation and Triumph of The Will to Thelma and Louise and Brokeback Mountain, films have told us how to think about the world around us.
Most movies present the world according to Hollywood (and the word became flesh -- lots of flesh) -- that the sex act is good in and of itself, that people should follow their feelings (which invariably will lead them to right conduct and happiness), that prayer is like throwing a penny in a wishing well, that God is within us, that God is love, that God makes no demands of us and that the followers of traditional religion are a bunch of uptight, puritanical, hypocritical killjoys.
Debunking Christianity -- which is The Da Vinci Code's mission -- advances this worldview.
All too many people read novels or see films and think they're experiencing reality. Their understanding of the complicated history of settlers and Indians comes from Dances With Wolves. They are informed about the crusades by Kingdom of Heaven. Their understanding of the theory of global warming comes from The Day After Tomorrow.
According to a Barna Group survey, 24% of those who read The Da Vinci Code said it aided their "personal spiritual growth and understanding." In other words, one in four of its readers believe the book’s thesis (as opposed to its storyline) is true. Our "personal spiritual growth" isn't aided by what we believe to be a lie.
The best response to The Da Vinci Code -- besides derisive laughter -- is a boycott. Resist the urge to determine just how bad it is by buying a ticket. You'll only be rewarding the perpetrators -- perhaps encouraging The Da Vinci Code: Part II, wherein Dan Brown reveals that Jesus was really married to Lazarus.
I'm a conservative, practicing Christian. And I'm not going anywhere near it. In case you haven't noticed, this thing has taken on a life of its own, FAR more than "just entertainment." You will of course do what you like, as is your right, but don't kid yourself that it's "just a movie." The book opens with a foreword that essentially says, "I've researched this to the ends of the Earth and all the principles are true."
In case you missed the stats in this and other articles, people are believing this crap. It's proselytizing and it's the kind that will land countless souls squarely in hell. Satan is thrilled with the movement and rest assured he and his minions have helped it along. Be sure to help him some more with your dollars.
MM
Why? Because everyone else does? Do you feel you have to belong, connect to the mainstream culture by reading such kitschy trash and seeing a bad movie (check out the reviews on rottentomatoes.com)? Would you feel left out if you didn't read the book, didn't watch the movie? These are serious and I hope not mocking questions. Confession: I didn't start watching Seinfeld until last year in re-runs (and I don't watch anything else.) Never felt left out. No, I'm not a better person of better Christian than you. It's just I don't understand this rush to be part of the mob consuming cultural products aimed at the lowest common denominator of taste. No Kenny G, no Garth Brooks, no Brown, no Tom Clancy for this cat. Let's aim high, let's at least aspire...
I wont see the movie because I have already read Holy Blood and Holy Grail years ago and it is just a rehash. I also don't support Hollywood much anymore.
You're taking kids to a movie with ideas like this?
Whatever...up to you of course.
Why not subtitle it...'A work of Hollywood fiction'. I think that would be more accurate.
What part of "fiction" don't you get? I just finished reading the book, it is not well-written and certainly not worth all the hype that certain people seem to like to stir up over it. At best, it is a paperback to read while waiting for a flight.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
I've sorely missed Feder, who's always struck me as a rightful heir to writers like Ambrose Bierce.
Amen. As a Catholic, it would be a grievous sin for me to support an effort that slanders my Savior and his bride the Church.
I read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" years ago and it was one reason that lead me back to my faith (because research on the theories and "facts" within were dubious at best). But I would never have read the book if I was already a practicing Catholic because of the blasphemes contained in it.
If someone wrote a "fictional" tale about your best friend with all kinds of wild accusations wouldn't you stand up for him/her?
Of course Judaism is the other religion that is maligned.
I wonder why he didn't include Islam? Oh, that's right, he wants to be alive to write a sequel.
Hi Chop, it's your former stock watching buddy, how are you.
I haven't read the book, and I won't be going to see the movie.
A fatwa can put an awful crimp in your lifestyle.
What part of "this lame excuse has been refuted on this forum numerous times" you don't understand? Short version: I'm going to write a novel in which you appear as a murderous pedophile. Fiction, you shouldn't object. At the very least do try to refute the refutations. There are certain rules governing fiction writing, that you "it's FICTION, people" don't seem to be aware of, while the rest of us, whom you take for complete idiots, do. We can accept that it's fiction, we have (big surprise!) known it all along, and still protest and critique. D'uh Vinci Code violates these rules, while Gore Vidal's novel about Abraham Lincoln (and many other historical novels) doesn't. A little edumacation goes a long way.
You seem to want to force people to go see this dreck.
And Feder has adroitly figured out what it'll be: "Resist the urge to determine just how bad it is by buying a ticket. You'll only be rewarding the perpetrators -- perhaps encouraging The Da Vinci Code: Part II, wherein Dan Brown reveals that Jesus was really married to Lazarus."
I'm a voracious reader, fifty or more novels a year plus my daily Bible reading. I tried reading one of Brown's earlier books, DIGITAL FORTRESS, I think, and the writing was so juvenile I only made it a few pages before setting it aside. I decided to give him another shot and took DVC with me on a cruise as my primary read. His writing was marginally improved and the story held my attention. Until he gradually shifted out of storytelling mode and into blasphemous preaching. At which time I tossed it into the Pacific.
MM
Jones!
How are you??
MM
Fahrenheit 911 wasn't entertainment and it sold $222 million world wide.
And allow me, as another Jew, to weigh in with Feder in total agreement.
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