What's with church politics? "The Da Vinci Code" is awful

[CTyankee]

I don't fully get why the Catholic Church and other Protestant churches in this country are so vociferously denouncing "The DaVinci Code." It is a terrible movie, from acting, to script, to directing. Most of it is in exposition dialog describing the Priory of Sion and other historical events in Christianity and before).While I kinda enjoyed the historical depiction, the whole exposition in dialog between characters, designed to explain what this thing was all about, just got tiresome. Character development suffered as a result. None of the actors got too far in filling out their roles to much extent.

I am disappointed in Ron Howard. I LOVED "A Beautiful Mind." I thought it was one of the best modern movies I had ever seen. So I was psyched about seeing "The DaVinci Code" but I am terribly disappointed.

Geez.

[Zynx]

1. The "historical" information is rubbish.

The information about the Priory of Sion that Brown cited was later proven to be a collection of forgeries.

[RoyGBiv]

18. The Priory of Sion is rubbish ...

Most likely anyway...

A lot of the rest of it is based on history or research into history that has a tradition vastly pre-dating the "Secret Documents" hoax. So, it's not total rubbish, and that's the point that causes the Church to stir.

[acmavm]

2. The church, any church, is as jealous as any twelve year old girl

is of the class beauty. (And we've all been there.)

[Perky]

3. Actually In protestant circle is false outrage

Fear mongering to sell books and DVs that debunk the historical myths

[applegrove]

4. I agree. But told a few truth out of school. And then turned into pulp

fiction.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. But they loved an ugly snuff film - "The Passion of the Christ"

Which was the equivalent of understanding lasagna by watching noodles boil.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. I wish the "church" would dig into some of this data and realize that

they are not the only game in town, they may wish they were, but they are not.

http://www.gaiamind.org/hopi2000.htm
Recent message from the Hopi Elders

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered...

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for."

Oraibi, Arizona

Hopi Nation

[CTyankee]

7. Yeah, I get that. I really do and I think the divine female is great

But everything in this movie just kinda falls apart into silliness. Nothing is very important at the end. It just whimpers on and on until it wheezes out.

I just don't think Ron Howard knew how to make this into a movie. He had some good spots, with his brief cameos of historical depiction, but they were just sparse and not very well related to the subject under discussion ( and that went on and on and on and on...). I love history so the film was interesting to me on that end but it was a waste of a lot of talent, IMHO.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Thanks for saving me some cash.... I was sort of thinking about

going, but now not too much.... not at all really.

[CTyankee]

9. Yep. Waste of time and money, IMHO

The book was a page turner. If you can get it from the public library free, it would be worth a read. I enjoyed the book more than I did the movie.

[WestSeattle2]

10. I don't understand the opposition either...

it was a horrible movie, oddly paced for one thing, and it's clearly fiction. The movie was almost laughable, very disappointing, and I'm not even a movie critic.

[Peace Patriot]

11. Whatever the defects of DVC the movie, or the book, the subject of

the suppression of the Goddess, suppression of the Gnostic Christians (the earliest Christians, who believed in both God and Goddess), and burning of the "other" gospels, in the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, and associated topics such as the equality of women, are EXTREMELY touchy matters to the male hierarchy of the Catholic Church, because of grave crimes and dreadful lies and deceptions of which the early "church fathers" were guilty, that sent the early Christian movement in the entirely wrong direction, AWAY from the teachings of Jesus. Jesus would be horrified at what this Church has done in his name, and has become--and amazed that any worldly institution, let alone the one that was created and that we see today--could claim to be authorized by him. If you read what he actually said, and read of how he lived, HIS views come through in all the versions of stories about him, authorized or unauthorized. Love thine enemy. Live simply and communally. All are equal. That's about it. The notion of enforcing doctrine with the sword--or even of formulating "doctrine"--of anathematizing people because they have some slightly different idea of him or of heaven or of God, or because they are Pagans or Jews, or the idea of accumulating material wealth and political influence as the Church has done, of cementing church and empire (5th century, Council of Chalcedon*) or of banning women from the altar--or even having an altar (HIS altar was the fields, the hills, peoples' homes, the highways and byways)--or of, God forbid, burning people at the stake, waging wars in his name, and all the rest--these things are so alien to what he taught, as to be mind-bogglingly absurd.

Collectively, they represent a GREAT SIN, which the current male hierarchy adopts and takes "credit" for, in their obsession with lineage back to St. Peter. Possibly the worst crime of the 5th century "fathers" was the slaying of Hypatia, a neoplatonic philosopher at the Alexandria Library, whom I believe represented a mediating figure between the new Christian movement and the old Pagan religions. She was famous as a teacher of BISHOPS, though she as a Pagan. (The letters of her pupil Bishop Sinesius are one of the few good sources on who she was. He revered her deeply, and they had scientific projects together.)

The worst of the church "fathers" at that time--the powermongers and doctrine-creators--Cyril of Alexandria, whose ideas and modes of behavior greatly influenced the subsequent turn of the Christian movement away from true Christianity--is believed to be responsible for a mob of Nitrian monks who grabbed Hypatia on the street and skinned her alive, in 415 AD.

DVC, the book, tries to use this core idea--of a wrong turn that the Church took--but it is very superficial. I didn't much care for it. I hope its popularity may lead some people to some deeper readings, and a better understanding of the origins of Christianity. Elaine Pagels "The Gnostic Gospels" is a good place to start. I haven't seen the movie, and probably won't. Too bad that it fails. I had hoped it might improve on the book, with Ron Howard directing.

-----

*(ES&S, one of two Bushite corporations who now control our elections with secret programming, was initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things. Curious coincidence?)

[CTyankee]

12. I saw Pagels book at B & N right before I went in to the movie!

B & N reallyknow how to sell their books!

It's too bad that the goddess message got all messed up with this awful movie. It will make people think that the sacred feminine is part of the balderdash of the movie and that's not good.

[Fleshdancer]

13. I liked the movie

I thought it was entertaining. :shrug:

[jazzjunkysue]

14. Me too. Great footage of paris. Athiests enjoy the intrigue!

[Fleshdancer]

16. I'm just trying to figure out what the expectation was

The book was a fun, fast read. The movie reflected the same level of entertainment IMO. You're right about the Paris footage and I love that the female character drove a smart car. They're everywhere in Paris but the crowd at the theater laughed a little when they saw it. The smallest car you see here is the Mini Cooper and you don't see much of them.

I liked the conversations regarding the symbolisms, especially in DaVinci's The Last Supper. I liked the "treasure hunt" the two main characters had to go through in order to find their answers...it's an interesting plot line.

[alarimer]

19. When I saw it last night, the smart car got the biggest laugh

it was sort of derisive laughter too. Like "what a stupid looking car". Of course most of the audience was made up of teenagers so that may be a factor too.

I liked the movie and I enjoyed the book as well. I don't put a lot of stock in any Holy grail theory, including this one but I am not a big fan of the Catholic Church at all. I think there is an element of truth in that it is a very partiarchal organisation that has oppressed women from the very beginning. A lot of other nastiness too in the history of the Church.

[jazzjunkysue]

21. Those smart cars park sideways: Facing the curb, They're a riot.

My daughter wants one so bad.

[Blue_Tires]

20. i was entertained as well

[Jade Fox]

15. The sheer volume of their attempts to counteract this movie....

smacks of a major sense of losing control. Of course, heavy-handed attempts to control adults always have the opposite effect: more people will see the Da Vinci Code than if it had come and gone un-responded to by the Church.

[RoyGBiv]

17. Because of what it says ...

I'm swimming against a forceful current in even suggesting this, but I'll say it anyway. Despite the hoax surrounding the so-called Priory of Sion and the planted "Secret Documents" that supposedly proved its existence, a sizable body of historical research exists, and is still ongoing, into the possibilities surrounding the life of an actual individual known as Jesus, who he was, what happened to him, and his nature. Even if you discount every last bit of it as invented myth, which is a mistake in my opinion, the Catholic Church from its inception was involved in creating and formalizing what essentially amounts to a legend that, because so many people believe it, gives it immeasurable power. The Da Vinci Code, or more precisely the research on which it is loosely based, strikes very hard at the heart of this.

Wars were fought over the question of whether Jesus was a man or if he was divine. The divinity of Jesus was something that was decided in council, and it formed the basis of much of Christian dogma. Question that in a way that excites the popular imagination as much as the Da Vinci Codes, and it creates a crisis of faith, which in turn undermines the Church's hold over people's lives, and that requires the Church, for its own sake, to face it and attempt by whatever means necessary to destroy it. If we were living in the 13th century, the Church would start a crusade over it and in fact did over something very much like this in Southern France around that time.

Put another way, the essential theme of the Da Vinci Code -- and again the historical research on which it is based -- is that the Church has willfully created a mythology that has been used as the justification for its own existence and has condoned everything up to and including mass murders, or genocide to maintain its power. The details are less important than this theme, so like any good political organization (and the Vatican is very much a political organization) it focuses on the most easily discounted bit of evidence in an attempt to obscure the reality behind it.

I'll say this. The conspiracy of which the forger(s) of the "Secret Documents" are accused is far more complex and unlikely than the conspiracy of which the Church itself is accused. The irony is that the Church accuses its accusers of "wild conspiracy theories" and people blow it off as so much nonsense, not realizing that the accusation itself invokes a massive conspiracy theory.