‘Work of the devil’ – Christians blast Da Vinci Code – JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM — Uh, do any of these people know exactly the meaning of the word FICTION!??!!? Geez. These are the same sorts of people who think that soap operas are real and go up to actresses when they see them and tell them what to do in their life.
WHILE not quite calling for a boycott of the movie, The Da Vinci Code, local church leaders have sided with the international Christian community, saying the book that spawned the screenplay was a product of the devil and the work of an occultist meant to undermine the divinity of Jesus Christ.
“It’s a kind of insidious way of getting after the Christian church,” says Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kingston Reverend Lawrence Burke.
“The forces of secularism would be happy to see the Christian church weakened.”
A woman makes a phone call in front of a Da Vinci Code poster, at the site of the movie’s premiere in Beijing Wednesday. China’s gala showing of the movie was set to be the world’s first, beating the official Cannes premiere by an hour in a move that underscores Hollywood’s efforts to woo Chinese viewers. The movie opened in Jamaican cinemas May 20. (Photo: AP)The movie opened here yesterday with no fanfare.
Author Dan Brown’s 2003 fiction purports that Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vinci’s art reveals the truth about Christ.
This just in…
Despite her name, pop star Madonna’s stage show is not intended to be an accurate portrayal of the life or persona of Mary, the blessed mother of Jesus. However, protesters are always welcome, with coffee and doughnuts provided for those who arrive early to work on their protest signs.
I went and saw the film last night, it was very good. I have also read the book, which I also thought was very good. I am not a religious person. I do not take the book nor the film as fact, but as an intresting and controversial theory about abuse of power in the catholic church. I think the theory has a lot of merit to it and the book was well researched. That’s just my opinion. Even if this film goes against your beliefs it shouldn’t really offend you because you should be strong enough in your belief to laugh it off.
“It’s kind of goofy to use the paintings of Da Vinci as evidence of anything pertaining to the person of Christ…We might as well write a book called “The Seinfeld Code”…”
Right, so Seinfeld is a Grand Master of the Priory of Sion? Which book did you read, did it have big pictures and few words because I don’t think it was the Dan Brown one.
“Ironically, the United Arab Emirates is ALLOWING this movie to run, despite their rhetoric during the cartoon controversy about not allowing media that offends religious people.”
It’s not ironic because the film is not intended to cause offence to religious people. However it does share one thing in common with the cartoons: the only people who have reacted to it are religious fruitcakes. Get a life.
#20. “I have an idea…
Let’s write a “fictional” account about a man, let’s call him “J. Dvorak” who commits unspeakable crimes against his family, his friends, and his co-workers. Let’s paint him in an extremely negative light, and let’s twist the details of his life so that even his closest friends are appalled and disgusted. Then, let’s publish this work, and just say, “Hey, it’s fiction, no big deal” “This will not affect J. Dvorak or his work or how people think of him…No! It’s just FICTION!!!””
JimSl, you are using a hypothetical example that would never happen. The difference between John C. Dvorak and Jesus Christ is that no one has killed in John’s name. Millions have been killed in Jesus’ name. That is the damning difference. Look at Buddhism. No one is out defaming Buddha or buddhists. Why? Because Buddhism is a relgion of GENTLE people who use love and not force. They do not impose. They are available if you wish to be a disciple of them but they do not enlist students. Christianity and its head, the Pope, have used Jesus Christ to FUCK OVER generations after generations. The few that have escaped this viscious cycle of Christian indoctrination– this prison–are naturally bitter. They want to get back at the motherfuckers who stole their freedom. The CHURCH STEALS FREEDOM in the name of Jesus Christ. If Jesus was here today, I would say let’s crucify the S.O.B again. That is the hatred people have for the Church. John C. Dvorak offers freedom of expression. Jesus offers imprisonment. Dan Brown is commended for helping to break down the bullshit that is the Catholic Church.
The difference between John C. Dvorak and Jesus Christ is that no one has killed in John’s name.
You haven’t read some of the crack-pot replies to JCD’s Mac columns, have you?
David,
The Pope is not the head of Christianity. He is the head of only one part of Christinaity.
Christianity has not done the things you have claimed, ratehr people who claim that faith who have distoreted the message of Jesus the Christ have done those things. Christianity, Islam, Buddisim… are all at their core religions of peace. But there are those that distort these tradtions. Those who distort the tradtions typically are the loudest. Othertimes Goverments do things and because the people that goverment is made up of or governens is largley of a specfic faith, the goverment tries to say that what they are doing is in and of that faith, yet typically has nothing to do with it.
It pains me as an ordained minister of a Chrisitan tradtion to see people attack this film and claim to do so in the name of Christianity.
In doing so they distort Christianity more than any work of fiction could. It also shows who ungrounded they are in their faith. That they mistake their beliefs as their faith, and do not realize beliefs express our current understanding and way of relating to Diety, but our faith, our trust should be in the essential realities of the Ultimate Reality, and not in our beliefs about the Ultimate.
Interesting comments. The book was a good read, might see the movie when it comes on TV. If Jesus was alive today, he would probably have a residence in Key West, along with many others who are suffering from delusions of grandeur. Don’t antagonize the fundies, they might kill you if their tithes are reduced by your words.
Brown is a genius; one man gets so many people all hot and bothered, thereby generating a few billion bucks in free hype/publicity, and the book and movie net him enough to start his own religion, if he wanted.
When the book comes out in paperback I might read it, when the movie comes out in DVD I might watch it. Until then you can pretty well figure out the whole thing by watching trailers and the two or three hundred specials currently running on TV.
Cripes!
“Right, so Seinfeld is a Grand Master of the Priory of Sion? Which book did you read, did it have big pictures and few words because I don’t think it was the Dan Brown one.”
Anyone can tell that Kramer is the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion…
Loosen your jock and get a sense of humor.
Cripes? Crikeys cooler, and I think it comes from Australia, as do Mel Gibson and the Koala bears, and one of them, I think, did The Passion Of Christ, yet another slab of meat beaten until bloody in the press.
Stop! Stop! Just Stopit!
The title of this post should read, “Some Christians blast the Da Vinci Code.” Most (actual) Christians (who know anything about theology) wouldn’t give a crap!
#20 is right.If Dan Brown had meant simply to write a work of fiction, he could have had the villains be members of a fictional organization of murderous zealots like Kaos or SPECTRE. Instead he picked a real organization, Opus Dei, to make the center of wrongdoing. Organizations are not protected by rules regarding libel. And since Catholics are not the only Christians, his choice of the Catholic Church as the enforcers of a conspiracy that shores up Christendom was a deliberate one. He could have picked Copts, Orthodox Christians or even Baptists. Or a fictional church.Last year, Dan Brown went on TV talk shows describing how he had come to believe the central premise of the book. Dan Brown has declared his book to be true and not just “a work of fiction”.
this movie that the critics panned just took in 224 million world wide it’s first weekend.
The best part is…..it’s biggest box office was in areas that the most protests came from.
The Pope and others are negotiating a PR deal now with Sony.
Christians are exactly what their leaders (pope, ministers, priests, evangelists, cult leader, guru, etc.) want them to be: UNQUESTIONING. They say let FAITH be your guide. SUCKERS. When you allow faith you allow someone else to dictate what life is about. And by consequence your life is going to be the life that is ADVANTAGEOUS to the power of the leader. Christians, Jews, Muslims all fall into this category. Shit!, That’s almost the entire population. But to show you how Christians in particular cannot think for themselves look at how they view the Davinci Code. The book reveals that Jesus took Mary Magdalene as his wife. Christians do not want to believe this although they want to believe that JESUS WAS MAN. They want to believe that Jesus was crucified at the age of 33 BUT REMAINED A VIRGIN! What are you, on drugs? JESUS HAD SEX. He had to because that is the definition of man. It makes perfect sense that Jesus would choose a prostitute form his wife because only a prostitute would know the meaning of sex. Also, a prostitute gives of herself to EVERYONE without judgement. THIS IS WHAT JESUS PREACHED. Of course he would marry Mary. You see, most women would have wanted Jesus only to herself. WOMEN ARE SELFISH when they say they are looking for a man to commit to them. Any other woman would have told Jesus that he was only allowed to LOVE HER. That is like demanding the Sun only to shine on them. WOMEN ARE SELFISH. Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, would have had no problem with Jesus having sex with hundreds of other women. Jesus, if he really was MAN and GOD would have slept with every woman he came across not as an act of selfishness BUT AS AN ACT OF SELFLESSNESS. A man IS DESIGNED TO LOVE MANY. The world’s predicament is that WOMEN ARE SELFISH. Women do not want men to fulfill their destiny. A MAN CAN LOVE MANY. SEX is just a manifestation of LOVE. Only a woman who has reached CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS could understand that to be a Jesus (Man/God) or a Mary Magdalene (Woman/Goddess) is to have sex/love indiscriminately. THE CHURCH DISSALLOWS THIS because sex is the God-given tool to ENLIGHTMENT. Those religious people are waiting for the Messiah to return. YOU ARE THE MESSIAH– you will understand this when you give yourself selflessly to others via sex. That is the TRUE MESSAGE OF CHRIST AND GOD. God came down to Earth so HE COULD FUCK! Get the message! WAKE UP! All of you who call yourselves Christians are really working AGAINST GOD.
Let me open by saying: I know this is fiction. I understand and fully grasp this concept within the confines of my mind. That being said: I don’t hate this book because it’s fiction. Heck, I don’t even hate it for the controversy it has created within the church. The church has weathered worse than the Duh Vinci Code–doesn’t anyone know their history, and remember learning about Roman Emperor Julian (whom the cutthroat Christians call “the Apostate”) trying to wipe the religion off the face of the Earth–and he had GOOD reasons for it (like corruption, greed, molestation, and low ethical and moral standards). A Christian soldier killed him.
No, I don’t hate the book or Dan Brown for those reasons. I hate it because on his “fact page” (I was forced to read this in English class) he says the Priory of Sion is a real organization created in 1099. Um. . .no. I’m a student in a high school and I know this. It was made up by Pierre Plantard in 1956. Look it up on Wikipedia; yeesh. I hate him for making up “facts”, and–though people don’t seem to realize this–for stealing shelf space of other, better-written, more deserving books. Read Foucualt’s Pendulum and get back to me. Ma gavte la nata, Dan Brown.