The Da Vinci code - blasphemy hits the big screen (by Don Feder)

[EveningStar]

Much of this has already been said, but Feder is still fun to read.

Posted May 19, 2006 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...

More (http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=14987)

[Crusader]

"Religion for Morons"

Ah, that was good... :grin:

[Wyatt_Junker]

This thing reads like paganism for noobs. Brown's ego underscores the entire purpose of the book, which is to 'translate' Sabrina & The Teenage Witch reruns for all of the unsophisticated, unresearched religious morons that dot the American midwest.

In Brown's mind, Christians are unacquainted with the origins of their own faith and its main competitor; early temple court prostitution. The guy comes across like a jackass, and his pretentious asides are supposed to 'fill us all in' on the 'real origins' of religious evolution, not even considering for a minute that perhaps many Christians are themselves more sophisticated than Harry Potter's(and soon to be DaVinci's) neo-pagan converts themselves. And as this thing reads, in fact, it is the simplistic pagan explanations that render themselves as superficial cant. Meanwhile Judaeo-Christianity and her origins remain unmined, untapped and unexplained. At best, they are belittled. At worst, they are attributed as the origin of everything brutal and mysogynistic, where all wars come from, insulating us all into the paradigm of a sin-based prison.

Its pathetic. It probably wouldn't be if it weren't so recklessly and casually pedantic, make that a facsimile of pedantic. Its almost as if Brown wants Christians to quake at the thought of something that predates Christianity by thousands of millenia, not even registering that Christians already realize that, that Judaism itself, her foundation, is four thousand years or more senior to the NT. And who knows how long before it was written down.

If Brown wants to cross swords with religious history, he would be better served without reference to so much iconography or religious symbology found in artifacts and artwork. A simple Iron Maiden album will do just fine. Especially its early works before its rampant ruin in Egyptology. Or another harder, death metal band if it suits you. Believe it or not, they actually understand their roots far beyond anything in TDC. They really do. The pagan myths, the rituals, the symbols, the chain mail wife beaters and the killer riffs.

Note to Brown: There's really nothing new here and who made you the laison/translator/mediator for all us too-stupid-to-know channel surfers?

Its also humorous the way he indicts America as the hillbilly equivalent of the much truer Euro culture. He attacks the usual suspects; the US military, the Church, our architecture and culture while at the same time elevating the French way of life as the bastion of everything hip, suave and sophisticated. I couldn't help but laugh at many of the points in the book, especially its baby-talk apologetic delivery for all things pagan and I'm only in the first third of its one-dimensional plot! Not sure if I should continue, really.

[Maggie_T]

Doug Giles ain't too impressed, either.

The Da Vinci Toad (http://www.townhall.com/print/print_story.php?sid=198234&loc=/opinion/columns/douggiles/2006/05/21/198234.html)




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 sweet and . . . how telling.

-----

Now, I want to address the church. Hey, Christians: dial down a bit. Most rational people understand that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction (except for some in Miami . . . in particular, the Costco wizards who put the book in the non-fiction section).

I, personally (Lord forgive me), couldn’t care less if the ones who think this 21st century regurgitation of first century Gnosticism is true ever come to church. Who wants these gullible doofuses around? These are probably the same people that bought a Flobee, or worked for Howard Dean, or think that the Ron Popeil’s Pocket Fisherman is a real doozy, or sent Clooney medical questions while he was on ER and think Martin Sheen would make a good president. I say let these lemmings lock step with Dan Brown and his Church of the New Groove.

If this book/movie causes non-Christians to not to believe in Christ, as portrayed in scripture, then let them not believe. In addition, if The Da Vinci Code causes the fringe adherents of our fellowship to exchange the greatest story ever told for the greatest turkey ever sold, then let them. To each his own.


LOL. Don't hold back, Doug. Tell us how you feel. :thumb: