Even more DaVinci
As I understand it (having neither read the book nor seen the movie), The DaVinci Code posits a Christ Who didn't really die on the Cross, but survived the Crucifixion and went on to marry and have at least one child with St. Mary Magdalene. The importance to most Christians of the fact that Christ did die and rise from the dead is pointed to in this text of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 15:3-4):
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures....
By turning this very old false teaching (as most Christians understand it) into entertainment, even if "merely fiction" - we know it is in more ways than one! - this book and movie insult o/Orthodox Christianity, even pose a threat to those Christians whose faith may be weak.
In most Catholic and Protestant countries, of course, you're legally allowed to insult Christianity. In most Protestant countries (including the USA) there's a long tradition of insulting Christianity. And of course, the Latin Church is skewered in DaVinci Code. But should you? Do you have to?
It doesn't help that, according to most sources, Tom Hanks is Orthodox. Except maybe to show that we don't enforce marching in lock-step like conservative Catholics want to have happen in their Church (again).
Some Christians feel persecuted by Western modernity. Some want the kind of sensitivity most of the West showed Muslims during the Cartoon Controversy; they don't realize that part of Western modernity is its adolescent(!) rebellion against the historical power wielded in the West by Christianity, and still wielded in many parts of the West.
Me? At first I thought I'd see the movie just to see what all the press was about. But then I felt I didn't want to support heresy with my money. And then my therapist, a fan of murder mysteries, said the book was disappointing as a mystery. Then the critics really slammed the movie! So I'll do something else.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures....
By turning this very old false teaching (as most Christians understand it) into entertainment, even if "merely fiction" - we know it is in more ways than one! - this book and movie insult o/Orthodox Christianity, even pose a threat to those Christians whose faith may be weak.
In most Catholic and Protestant countries, of course, you're legally allowed to insult Christianity. In most Protestant countries (including the USA) there's a long tradition of insulting Christianity. And of course, the Latin Church is skewered in DaVinci Code. But should you? Do you have to?
It doesn't help that, according to most sources, Tom Hanks is Orthodox. Except maybe to show that we don't enforce marching in lock-step like conservative Catholics want to have happen in their Church (again).
Some Christians feel persecuted by Western modernity. Some want the kind of sensitivity most of the West showed Muslims during the Cartoon Controversy; they don't realize that part of Western modernity is its adolescent(!) rebellion against the historical power wielded in the West by Christianity, and still wielded in many parts of the West.
Me? At first I thought I'd see the movie just to see what all the press was about. But then I felt I didn't want to support heresy with my money. And then my therapist, a fan of murder mysteries, said the book was disappointing as a mystery. Then the critics really slammed the movie! So I'll do something else.
posted by me at 7:08 AM
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