THE DA VINCI CODE - BLASPHEMY HITS THE BIG SCREEN

Don Feder dot com ^ | May 19, 2006 | Don Feder

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

THE DA VINCI CODE - BLASPHEMY HITS THE BIG SCREEN

By Don Feder
Posted May 19, 2006

The Da Vinci Code -- which opened today -- 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?)

[Irish Queen]

Thank you for posting this. The writer's points are very well stated.

This article is especially aimed self-identifying Christians who's only retort seems to be, "It's only fiction".

[frogjerk]

The conversation back and forth of this movie made lots of folks curious to see it. If those against the movie had just shut-up the movie would not have had so many viewers.

Should we just shut up when Christ is being attacked?

[MHGinTN]

You apparently do not understand the meaning of 'coming to a knowledge of Him' and 'faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God'. What you spittle out is the notion that 'any gospel will do' and you appear to believe leading others into apostasy is an innocent strole.

[frogjerk]

On the four Gospels from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03274a.htm

. The formation of the Tetramorph, or Fourfold Gospel Irenæus, in his work "Against Heresies" (A.D. 182-88), testifies to the existence of a Tetramorph, or Quadriform Gospel, given by the Word and unified by one Spirit; to repudiate this Gospel or any part of it, as did the Alogi and Marcionites, was to sin against revelation and the Spirit of God. The saintly Doctor of Lyons explicitly states the names of the four Elements of this Gospel, and repeatedly cites all the Evangelists in a manner parallel to his citations from the Old Testament. From the testimony of St. Irenæus alone there can be no reasonable doubt that the Canon of the Gospel was inalterably fixed in the Catholic Church by the last quarter of the second century. Proofs might be multiplied that our canonical Gospels were then universally recognized in the Church, to the exclusion of any pretended Evangels. The magisterial statement of Irenæus may be corroborated by the very ancient catalogue known as the Muratorian Canon, and St. Hippolytus, representing Roman tradition; by Tertullian in Africa, by Clement in Alexandria; the works of the Gnostic Valentinus, and the Syrian Tatian's Diatessaron, a blending together of the Evangelists' writings, presuppose the authority enjoyed by the fourfold Gospel towards the middle of the second century. To this period or a little earlier belongs the pseduo-Clementine epistle in which we find, for the first time after II Peter, iii, 16, the word Scripture applied to a New Testament book. But it is needless in the present article to array the full force of these and other witnesses, since even rationalistic scholars like Harnack admit the canonicity of the quadriform Gospel between the years 140-175.

[Irish Queen]

This article is especially aimed self-identifying Christians who's only retort seems to be, "It's only fiction". Perhaps this will be the last time you feel compelled to say the obvious, "It is a fiction book, ..."

A phrase repeated too often becomes trite.

Examples:

"But it was only about sex."

"Bush lied."

"The culture of corruption."

and (insert drumroll here) "It only fiction."

[ClancyJ]

Good comment.

[ClancyJ]

Why do you care that we condemn the movie? If it is only a movie, why are you even commenting?

[ClancyJ]

Thrown out gospels?

Never heard of such. Go to your local store and you will find a Bible. That is the Word of God. Not some supposedly lost or hidden "code".

[ClancyJ]

Shut up? Sure that would prevent any of the boycotting. People always go see something that derides religion or gives them an opportunity to discount the church.

But what would it say about the church members and Christians if they never even spoke up about Jesus being mocked, insulted, lied about? It would say they just don't care that their Lord is disrespected.

[HEY4QDEMS]

We should also remember that the church threw out a large number of gospels and one man decided which ones.

Well you are kinda-sorta right, the New Testament is an edited compilation but it was not based on what was thrown out but rather what it would include.

Up until around 400 AD the Christian/Catholic message was a collage of writings, letters and books of various followers and messengers of Christ, there was no New Testament.

Around the turn of the 5th century, a collection of those writings etc. were assembled to create what we know as the New Testament.

What was included and excluded was decided by a council, not by one man.

Contrary to cynical belief, the decisions regarding what gospels to keep was based less on the message and more on veracity, a prime example are the books of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, the tales of each of those books corroborate each other in many areas, thus they were accepted as gospel.

Revelations was originally excluded by the council and was added to the NT years later.

Conspiracy theorists like to contend that the excluded or "gnostic" gospels were omitted because they contain information unfavorable to Christianity but there has never been any evidence to support such claims.

[Alouette]

The Dan Brown novel generator

Every time you click "refresh" it creates a brand new Dan Brown novel!

[Alouette]

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[LauraleeBraswell]

I saw the Divinci code and I thought it was really good. No one said it was a documentary AND It very much had a sureal-like quality, very fanciful. It's very apparent that Ron Howard understood the story to be fiction and he conveyed that through the way it was shot.

For example, At points in the movie when the actors were speaking of the past, we saw hazy reenactments play around them. In one scene, Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou as their respective characters walked into a church, accompanied by a procession of knights... because Tom Hanks (as Robert Langdon)was telling a story about the knights.

In another part while Hanks was trying to crack a code, a sort of virtual simulation appeared in the scene representing what was going on in his head.

The movie had a very pretend quality, it never professed to be realistic.

[A CA Guy]

It's a fantasy that blasphemes Christianity and that is the issue, despite how many ghostly knights they fictionalize on screens for you.

[The_Reader_David]

Commentary on Brown from the priest of the Orthodox parish I have been attending while away from home on sabbatical: "It's not even good gnosticism."

[HEY4QDEMS]

I worked with my daughter on a term paper about the Quadriform Gospel during her senior year of High School.

One of the most fasinating things I've ever done.

She got a B, she usually got A's. Now she's in college and won't let me help because she "want's to keep her grades up". LOL

[A.A. Cunningham]

However, the con artist author of this poorly written work of fiction claims it's all true; check his fact page for starters, and he's convinced 45 million gullible dupes to line his pockets. If William Proxmire were still alive he'd bestow upon Brown a Golden Fleece Award.

[MHGinTN]

Lauralee, does the movie poo poo the divinity of Christ? Does the movie raise goddess worship to an equal level with salvation through the Cross? Do you think there are vulnerable souls who have yet to 'come to a knowledge of Him' who will be led astray by the fanciful lies which will go unchallenged in the mind of those not educated in the ways of the Frenchman who created the grail lie and planted it in the French Archives and created the priori of scion, all in the fifties, and tried to place himself in the position of being heir to the French throne? Aside from that, what sort of Christian would I be if I remained silent while blasphemy is spewed around the world, while movie makers spit on my Lord and His Grace?

[Don Corleone]

READ MY LIPS......It is a fiction movie, based on a ficton book.....I can't belive all the hype...it is FICTION..it is a fictional movie, it is a fiction book....calm down, take a deep breath....

Would world wide reaction be the same if the religion in question was Juadism or Islam? I think not. It seems as if Christianity is the worlds fair game whipping boy.