[Apologetics] FW: Da Vinci Code- Blasphemy Hits The Big Screen

Tue May 16 18:45:35 EDT 2006

Art,

If you feel certain that there is going to be a big shake-up over the movie,
why don’t you put together the pamphlet?

Marty

-----Original Message-----
From: apologetics-admin at gathman.org [mailto:apologetics-admin at gathman.org]On
Behalf Of Art Kelly
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 5:50 PM
To: apologetics at gathman.org; jmurf80 at bellsouth.net;
I.like.dragonz at gmail.com; arochaallen at juno.com
Subject: [Apologetics] FW: Da Vinci Code- Blasphemy Hits The Big Screen
Importance: High

This message states in part:

            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...

Debunking Christianity -- which is The Da Vinci Code's mission -- advances
this worldview.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: GrassTops USA [mailto:Christopher at grasstopsusa.org]
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 4:13 PM
To: GrassTopsUSA Member akelly at americantarget.com
Subject: Don Feder Exclusive - Da Vinci Code – Blasphemy Hits The Big
Screen: 05-16-06

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 THE DA VINCI CODE -- BLASPHEMY HITS THE BIG SCREEN
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Don Feder
05-16-06
          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.

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