Robert James Bidinotto notes that a number of Catholic prelates are calling "for boycotts and legal action (i.e., government-imposed coercion) against author Dan Brown and his DaVinci Code for dissing Jesus." Read Now that we have the Muhammad precedent...
Among the crosses Catholics frequently must bear these days is the cluelessness of many of those charged with running the church (I do not include the Pope in this number). The same group of clowns who all on their own, without any help from secularists, threw out the glorious Tridentine Mass and replaced it with the tacky vaudeville routine known as the Novus Ordo now wants to do something about a movie based on a lousy novel. Anybody whose faith would be shaken by The Da Vinci Code doesn't have a very lively faith to begin with.
If you don't want to see The Da Vinci Code, don't go. I'm planning on attending a screening of it myself. I could see it being a better movie than it was a book. It's hard to imagine it being worse.
Frank, good post, and I found much with which I agree ... thanks for bringing up the subject ..
ReplyDelete"DaVinci Code" came up yesterday morning, in Sunday school.
Yes, there were concerns about the impact of the book and the film ... one member of our class cited the analogy of those who believe know all about the Kennedy assassination by watching "JFK" ...
No calls, though, for the actions and protests you mentioned in your post ... even though we ARE Protestants! :-)
As for questions of faith, The associate pastor who teaches our class stressed that, many of those questions raised by the book and the film, can be answered by reading 'The Book' ...
I believe the film WILL have an impact, and there's nothing that can be done for some - but not all - who feel that impact ... I am reminded of the time, a few years ago, when the television station where I work aired a made-for-TV movie about the Exodus ... I fielded some phone calls from people who were outraged by the way the film showed the Levites killing others in the camp, after Moses had returned from Mount Sinai to find people worshiping the Golden Calf ... 'Wasn't there enough violence on tv, already,' we were asked, 'that we had to make up something like this?' ...
This, from people who had not read the Book of Exodus, but HAD seen the Book of DeMille ...
I've been arguing for years that the Bible ought to be taught in public schools because it is impossible to appreciate English literature without a working knowedge of the Authorized Version. Maybe people will start taking my argument seriously when they realize people can't understand a made-for-TV movie without such familiarity. It would certainly impress people in my business who think that the only thing Americans do is watch TV.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Bible should be taught in any school where literature is taught seriously. It is a comment on our culture's relative immaturity that we cannot handle that. Neither can we handle, apparently, the implications of popular fiction. The Da Vinci Code is full of historical inaccuracies (I'm no expert, but I even I can see through claims like the Emperor Constantine commissioning the Bible!), which make it all the more entertaining, in a kind of ironic way. Dan Brown takes himself soooo seriously.
ReplyDeleteBut why don't Catholics or any other kind of concerned Christian use the book as a jumping off point for a historical and theological discussion? I'm amazed that this is too much to ask in our day and age.
I agree that the Bible should be taught in any school, but as representing a part of our history, not as definitive proof for the existence of God, or as a substitute for science.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brendan that Catholics and other Christians could use The Da V Code as the basis for a discussion of Christian history and doctrine - though one would have to read the book, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI guess genuine fundamentalists - a tiny sect, not to be confused with Evangleicals - may think of the Bible as an alternative to science, but I don't think many other people do. At any rate, Scripture does not belong in any science class.
In the meantime, I'm thinking of re-reading and writing about Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy.
There's lots of tosh out there. What makes DVC any worse than all the rest of it?
ReplyDeleteBecause it pretends to be not tosh.
ReplyDeleteIs that "it itself", Noel, or the industry that has grown up around it?
ReplyDeleteNobody pays the same attention to the rest of Dan Brown's output, do they? Or any of the other many books that have silly interpretations of religions, myths and other writings held dear?
I don't really get it all -- I admit to having read DVC a couple of years back, and finding it forgettable tosh just like a lot of other similar books. Can't get why everyone is making such a fuss about it. I;ve certainly found many books more offensive.
Here are my problems with the book:
ReplyDeleteFirst, it's based on a proven fraud.
Second, it's a book taken from a book about a proven fraud.
Third, it's poorly written.
So as far as tosh goes, I think the DaVinci Code definitely qualifies as offensive and I agree that there is plenty of offensive tosh around.