•Tuesday, May 23, 2006
i am yet to watch the highly publicised tom hanks starred christian thriller ‘the da vince code’. in my peer circles i am always the last to gulp the latest movies or to take advantage of the many ticket offers by our fm radio stations whenever a sensation showing is in town. this is not naively though, just that I try my best to train my mind to counter hype and swim upstream or so i convince my ‘enlightened’ self that thinks it has everything all figured out. that’s the same stratagem i apply to beat the seasonal consumerism campaigns that have at times threatened my ‘financial stability’ standing. i am still in the social market and some product traits are worth protecting jealously.
monetary issues aside, i am not in the mood to watch the movie after i got a raw deal when i purchased the issue of the bestseller early last year. after all, it took me a month to watch mel gibson’s the passion of the christ last year, after it hit town. that one blew off the imagination of the tuku tendeleza folk as to what happened to the christ during his last hours on earth before running off the cross as revealed by the latest ‘jesus papers’ by michael baigent. it moved me to teary eyes, imagining that in our time and age they still chose the rugged cross despite our weaponry advancement. the da vince code is thrilling alright, but i would rather had bought the referenced books such as the holy blood holy grail. furthermore, the orgy scene put off the religiously wired part of my brain. a google search on the person of leornado da vince, whose propositions form a major background of browns work, did not appeal either. at first i thought it was new knowledge but when i came across the first century ‘heretical’ stories, the apocryphal books and other non-canonical books, the fate of da vince code became just another collection, another thriller and so is the movie. well i should have taken seriously the claims that the book is a fiction thriller based on facts. but there is a way it infiltrates the conscience with the notion that it is not just any other fiction work and this puts the typical christian on the defensive. nevertheless, the movie is a must watch.
this easter, all eyes were on the gospel according to judas courtesy of national geographic. from its composition, judas must have been angelically minded. the way it is penned gives the other gospel writers a run for their money. well, it came a little bit too late since most of the christian minds cannot even under compulsion process judas and gospel in the same compartment. it was supposed to shake the very tap roots that nurture christianity. it made most interesting reading but it came nowhere near felling the faith, unless a slow death is in the offing. but it definitely raised serious concerns as to the authenticity of the christian bible nearly as much as the da vince code has done to the infallibility of the christ. is the christian religion on the verge of demise, or is it a shake-up that will separate the wheat from the tares?
monetary issues aside, i am not in the mood to watch the movie after i got a raw deal when i purchased the issue of the bestseller early last year. after all, it took me a month to watch mel gibson’s the passion of the christ last year, after it hit town. that one blew off the imagination of the tuku tendeleza folk as to what happened to the christ during his last hours on earth before running off the cross as revealed by the latest ‘jesus papers’ by michael baigent. it moved me to teary eyes, imagining that in our time and age they still chose the rugged cross despite our weaponry advancement. the da vince code is thrilling alright, but i would rather had bought the referenced books such as the holy blood holy grail. furthermore, the orgy scene put off the religiously wired part of my brain. a google search on the person of leornado da vince, whose propositions form a major background of browns work, did not appeal either. at first i thought it was new knowledge but when i came across the first century ‘heretical’ stories, the apocryphal books and other non-canonical books, the fate of da vince code became just another collection, another thriller and so is the movie. well i should have taken seriously the claims that the book is a fiction thriller based on facts. but there is a way it infiltrates the conscience with the notion that it is not just any other fiction work and this puts the typical christian on the defensive. nevertheless, the movie is a must watch.
this easter, all eyes were on the gospel according to judas courtesy of national geographic. from its composition, judas must have been angelically minded. the way it is penned gives the other gospel writers a run for their money. well, it came a little bit too late since most of the christian minds cannot even under compulsion process judas and gospel in the same compartment. it was supposed to shake the very tap roots that nurture christianity. it made most interesting reading but it came nowhere near felling the faith, unless a slow death is in the offing. but it definitely raised serious concerns as to the authenticity of the christian bible nearly as much as the da vince code has done to the infallibility of the christ. is the christian religion on the verge of demise, or is it a shake-up that will separate the wheat from the tares?
what is the one pillar that holds the christian religion together, which if proved false would change its face? is it the divinity of christ, the virgin birth, his death, his celibate lifestyle, his resurrection, the holy trinity, the church dogma as we know it, the canon of the scripture as we know them, the original sin, the existence of the christian god as perceived or what? would the fact that christ was married alter the destiny of the many who proclaim him and how? or that he did not actually die and resurrect, that he was in a sedated state? the resurrection is the bedrock of the faith! what if what transpired at the garden of eden, literally or symbolically was a fallacy? what would become of the christian world? i can count so many who would be in denial and choose to live the lie, rather than face the emotional and psychological torment of such a reality. and that’s the one challenge that dan brown and his accomplices will face in trying to change the face of christianity.
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8 comments:
Hi jp,
According to my more devout Christian friends (and family, I might add), the da Vinci Code is blasphemous on many levels, the most important one being that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
I read the book and loathed it. I felt it was badly written (all that fiction presented as 'researched facts' argh!).
I may see the movie although all the reviews I have read have been pretty dire. Then again, I may just spend my money on X-men 3 and wait for the DVD:)
most people don't even know that dan brown just strung together a bunch of myths and legends some of which had nothing to do with each other and added a healthy dose of fiction. a reading of "holy blood, holy grail" and other texts proves that the theory that jesus and mary magdelene had a child has been around for ages.
i still haven't gotten an answer as to what the issue is - the book doesn't detract from the fact htat jesus came to save us all. i tried having a discussion with someone who took offense that even though i wasn't a "good" christian i had the audacity to still ask what all the fuss was about. ah well.
interestig post you have there, you took the words right out of my mouth.
hi mshairi
true, the da vinci is wanting in many fronts, the major one being the mary magdalene marriage theory. i hadnt thought of waiting for the dvd but seems a good idea and save the big screen for some deserving movie. though my buddies are so full of da vinci movie praise, i doubt their judgement. don't you think blasphemous is quite too strong?
@spicebear
there are people are ignorant of the origin of the claims by da vinci and may be prompted to take him at his word.
you see if the bloodline claim be true, it will put the divine nature of christ into disrepute thus scuttling the whole salvation story or there will be some godly chromosomes propagating in france since jesus' days. it will also open the way for other heretical claims such as the no-resurrection claims to be 'truthfied' for lack of a better expression.
the divine nature of jesus as i see it is because he is the son of god. he came, he preached, fulfilled promises of the coming of a messiah, died for our sins, rose again and ascended into heaven. whether he was married or not, so what? does that take away from his ministry? people forget that the bible is silent on what happened between ages 12 and 30 of jesus' life.
besides, others have tried to discredit the resurrection of christ before and people still believed. as long as you believe, that's all that counts.
the problem I have with the code is that the majority of people have not read the book and all they're watching the movie coz someone told them this and that, these people actually believe the stuff in the movie...as for me, I will not be watching the movie,at least not for a while, I have about 3 or 4 movies on the list before it.
spicebear,
i concur with your observation that as long as one believes in the mission of christ, the rest comes second. the publicity of the movie should make xtians more alert on the times of false prophets. but there are those who will naively believe what dan brown suggests in his work coz of ignorance and the sensationalism associated with his book and movie.
wambui
yeah, there is a lot of hype associated with the movie and many will fall for the theories therein. there are even calls to ban which to me is not worth it. hopefully, people will search more on the truth behind the da vince code.
I don't see why people are becoming so outraged about the movie.
If someone came and said that the sun was green, why should people take to the street in protest? If you can argue and prove that it is not, why get outraged?
And if someone can stop being a Christian after watching the movie -- they can't have been much of a Christian in the first place....
Personally I enjoyed the book (at least the bits touching on history). However about halfway through Dan Brown decided to stuff as much as he could into it, making it a glorified Hardy Boys type book...
Moderation, moderation!
@m
i actually do not understand why the clergy even in kenya are calling for the banning of the movie. this is the time for them to teach their flock the true history of the church so that when such claims as made by dan brown come by, they are in a position to tell the truth from the distortions.
otherwise censorship of such material is reminiscent of the dark ages.