Jason has been sending mass emails for a while now trying to convince all that he knows and loves to 'othercott' The DaVinci Code.
I respect the hustle J. But...
I haven't responded to any of those emails. And you wanna know why?
Cuz I am NOT threatened by this movie at all.
I believe people who profess the faith(TM) should go see it. You know why?
Ok wait. Before I get to my reasoning, lemme give some background cushioning.
I despise the Catholic church and the institution of the Vatican, point blank. I don't think I've ever made that secret. I hold it in absolutely NO authority over the faith, over Yesh, over anything that has to do with those who follow him. Because of the Catholic church, religions worldwide have been born and have been misguided and mislead and continue to be in mass confusion over all that is God.
MIND YOU...I don't have a problem with Catholic people, I have a lot of friends who are Catholic and/or were raised Catholic and aren't Catholic anymore (surprise, surprise) and those who happen to unfortunately fall under the heading who GENUINELY are down for Yeshua, cuz there's tons of them. I mean I was singing along with a bunch of them on the subway when they were here in Tdot for World Youth Day 2002. Those people were on FIRE, lemme tell you. And I love them, and other Catholics dearly.
I had a love-hate relationship for Pope JPDeux (more on the love side)...I think he was just caught up in the the whole Pope-ism mix and couldn't really get out of it.
HOWEVER...the institution of Catholicism and the havoc it has reaked on the world is undeniable. (I'm not even gonna go into world history, cuz then I'd REALLY get heated.) The religiosity of its precepts and practices have surely screwed over the 'Christian' world. And I use the term 'Christian' loosely because I don't like it much. But that's a discussion for another day.
Anyway, the Catholic church has this overwhelming arrogance that this movie is completely contradictory to the 'Church' and the attitude presented is that the 'Church' can do no wrong. THAT IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE. The 'Church' has done and still continues to do MUCH wrong to this world and to those who claim Christianity. The foundation of Catholicism contains a resevoir of lies, and they're shaking in their boots now because a movie (and book) dares to oppose their authority.
I say go ahead and do it. Test em! Let them sweat a little.
DONT GET IT TWISTED though. I'm not in support of the book proclaiming itself to be TRUE either. I think the author has issues. To me, it's fiction and that's what its intention should be. EVERYONE has a right to write about what they want. That's the world we live in, and that's a God given right = it's called free will. Anyway, the movie, from what I've heard and read from Ron Howard, IS NOT PROCLAIMING itself to be truth. And even if it WAS, who the heck CARES? People can believe what they want to believe, even if it conflicts with YOUR belief system. Deal with it.
I honestly think people need to face up with what conflicts with their beliefs. You see it as lies? You see it as a disgrace? You see it as something that insults everything you believe in and stand up for? Then use THAT as your counter arsenal. You think HaSatan is sitting around saying 'oh boo hoo the Christians and their bibles! How do i ever get them to stop telling lies about me!" THE DUDE HAS MEMORIZED MORE SCRIPTURE THAN YOU ALL AND I BOTH. He uses his oppositions truth as his ammunition. So what can we do with this movie? We can go see it, learn what they've learned, get equipped with the knowledge of it and then ATTACK those suckers afterward with what we deem as utterly false.
I think that's a dope battle plan. But maybe that's just me.
I just think we're drawing way too much attention to this movie, and it doesn't HAVE to be controversial.
It's like this other film that's out which I'm going to go see called Marock. There's this whooole controversy between Muslims and Jews now because the movie DARES to defy both religions rites and customs and it's all heretic and blahblahblahzayblahbleh.
LET GO OF YOUR RELIGIONS PEOPLE! Religion does not come before TRUTH. And religion is sure to set off fires people don't know how to put out. But I'm deviating from my original argument, which is again:
Learn the enemy's tactics. All people in battle know this is a sure fire way, not only to win a war, but to keep your opposition from even TRYING to test you again.
I'm sorry for all the war rhetoric. As a pacifist, it's kinda crazy that I'm using all this terminology. But then again, I watched The Chronicles of Narnia FINALLY last night. And I'm in a spiritual warmonger mood. lol.
Anyway, I think I've made my point. And if I haven't, let me know where I've slipped up or where it doesn't make sense. I'll be happy to clarify.
Now I'm not much of a mainstream movie goer so I won't be seeing it tomorrow. Probably in the next few weeks or something, cuz I have a ton of indie flicks to check out at the moment. But that's it. I mean all power to you all, who decide to 'othercott' or boycott or whatever else, but I just don't think that's the answer or by doing that, will it facilitate necessary discussions between people about faith, religion or spirituality. We need challenges. We need conflicts. But mostly, we need open minds. Because minds willing to open, are willingly open to change. And movies/books/things/ideas/thoughts/conventions that rattle us, shouldn't be things we're scared of or run from.
But things we face head on.
I'm just hardcore like that.
Maybe some of you are too.
Upendo.
Shalom, chaverim and Oyasumi nasai.
Hebrew Word of the Day:
Leshem Shamayim
(le-shem sha-MAI-yeem) phr. “For the sake of heaven!” For the Name of God; in honor of God. Machloket leshem shamayim is an argument/strife (machloket) for the purpose of reaching truth.
Current e-Motions: I think I missed CSI!!! *sobs*
Wikked Riddims: Leslie Feist - Monarch - "La Sirena"...I *swoon* this song...
7 comments:
Hello Celestial.Cee and all,
Here is my rant...
There is a way to verify the truth...
There's a bit more to the story of the Vatican's reaction than most are yet aware of. Read my missive below to understand what they truly fear. It's not the DaVinci Code or Gospel of Judas per se, but the fact that people have been motivated to seek out the unequivocal truth about an age of deception, exactly when they expect me to appear. The Gospel of Judas and DaVinci Code controversies are allowing people to take new stock of the Vatican and the religions it has spawned.
Remember, "I come as a thief..." ?
Yes, the DaVinci Code is a novel. It is no more accurate as a literal version of history than is the New Testament. In other words, neither is the literal truth, which is a key fact of the story and ancient history. The primary sub-plot is about purposeful symbology being used to encode hidden meanings, exactly like the Bible and related texts. Arguing about whether the DaVinci Code, Gospel of Judas, or the Bible are accurate history is a Machiavellian red herring designed to hide the truth by misdirecting your inquiry away from the heart of the matter.
Want to truly understand why we can't let the Vatican succeed at telling us what to think about ancient history? There is a foolproof way to verify the truth and expose centuries-old religious deceptions. It is also the common thread connecting why the ancient Hebrews, Yahad/Essene, Jews, Gnostics, Cathars, Templars, Dead Sea Scrolls, DaVinci Code, and others have all been targets of Rome’s ire and evil machinations. What the Vatican and its secret society cohorts don’t want you to understand is that the ancient Hebrew symbology in all of these texts purposely encodes and exposes the truth about them. Furthermore, the structure of ancient symbology verifiably encodes the rules to decode messages built with it. This is what they most fear you will discover.
If the Bible represented the literal truth or even accurate history, there would be no need for faith in the assertions of deceptive and duplicitous clergy and their ilk. Wisdom and faith are opposing concepts, because wisdom requires the unequivocal truth where faith obfuscates and opposes it. Religion is therefore the enemy of truth and wisdom.
It is undeniable the New Testament is framed by ancient Hebrew symbolism and allegory. The same is evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic texts, biblical apocrypha, DaVinci Code, and other related texts. All ancient religious, mystical, and wisdom texts have been shrouded in mystery for millennia for one primary reason: The ability to understand their widely evidenced symbology was lost in antiquity. How do we finally solve these ages-old mysteries? To recast an often-used political adage: It’s [the] symbology, stupid!
It is amazing the Vatican still tries to insist the Gospels are literal truth. It is beyond obvious they are replete with ancient Hebrew symbology. Every miracle purported for Jesus has multiple direct symbolic parallels in the Old Testament, Apocalypse, Dead Sea Scrolls, and other symbolic narratives and traditions. This is the secret held by the ancient Gnostics, Templars, and Cathars, which is presented with dramatic effect in the DaVinci Code. None of these narratives or stories were ever intended as the literal truth. That is a key fact to unraveling ages-old mysteries.
Likewise, the following Washington Post article ( The Book of Bart) describes how many changes and embellishments were made to New Testament texts over the centuries, unequivocally demonstrating they are not original, infallible, or truthful.
It's no wonder the Vatican fears the truth more than anything else. Seek to understand the symbolic significance of my name (Seven Star Hand) and you will have proof beyond disproof that Jews, Christians, and Muslims have long been duped by the great deceivers I warned humanity about over the millennia. What then is the purpose of "faith" but to keep good people from seeking to understand truth and wisdom?
Now comes justice, hot on its heels... (symbolism...)
Not only do I talk the talk, I walk the walk...
Here is Wisdom!!
Revelations from the Apocalypse
What indie flicks do you have your radar on?
btw: expect a Catholic backlash with your post. Way more bloggers peep your page than you think. besides, if the reaction at Cannes is any indication (the premiere met with laughs, hisses and jeers), the film isn't worth seeing and prolly won't be breaking any box-office records:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyid=2006-05-17T213631Z_01_FOR639302_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEISURE-CANNES-DAVINCI.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
did you know, chris, that everything that you believe in regarding Jesus as both God and man, regarding his redemption and love, regarding God's holy and continuing work on earth goes back to the Holy Scriptures? did you know that the institutionalization of those Holy Scriptures as befits common Christian theology is well-founded and - for anyone willing to study an ounce of history - verifiably accurate. did you know that the whole of the Church (yes, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the royal priesthood, the nation of priests, the living Temple - all collective terms) with few exceptions (i.e., the Ethiopian Church) was solely made up of what we now know as the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
did you not know that this book/movie doesn't come into any sort of reliable questioning about the Catholic or any other sort of organized religion (which we do need to confront on a regular basis, lest we forget how man's evil heart often gets the best of us and we allow ourselves to be used by the devil rather than God's purposes), but instead takes some questionable research, stretches the facts sometimes a thousand-fold, squarely puts the blame on one part of the Church (scapegoatism) and then presents those "facts" as truth.
and when all else fails, we regard it as "fiction." bullsh*t!! you see what kind of crap it attracts if you look at the insipid lunatic ^^. see? s/he's been warning us of this for thousands of years. WHAT?? there have been distortions added to the bible over the course of the last two thousand years. WHAT?? by who. the Church is a wonderful body, but it's also too divided to actually get together to agree to distort.
sorry, chris. you know i love you. i love you too much to let you get away with this sloppy, ahistorical and flammable rhetoric.
shalom! or else! (haHa)
and by "insipid lunatic", i didn't mean hhr, whose post above didn't appear over the half hour of spotty writing it took me to write that hap-a-slap above.
and, besides, while speaking of learning the enemy's tactics, i do not need to see a movie or read a particular book in order to know what it says or speaks on. (though i do claim ignorance on the Koran and want to remedy that.) for example, i read a hundred pages into the Left Behind book (the first one). those are 100 pages of dreadful reading that i'll never retrieve - bad theology and characteristics all. i didn't need to read it to know that. and i will not waste my time on another turn-the-page thriller that i don't wanna watch anyway. there's too much good fiction and non-fiction that i'm not able to spend time on anyway.
so, long-story-short, you wanna learn the devil's tools, read this:
http://www.spu.edu/depts/uc/response/summer2k5/features/davincicode.asp
by one of my faves, n.t. wright.
if you wanna waste precious time watching what is apparently a dreadfully boring movie, that's your choice, not mine. but recognize i'm not scared of the movie or the fact that it'll tear down the Church ("the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"), but that my admonitions and rallyings against it are a part of an integrated act of worship ("Zeal for thy father's house consumed me." "They that worship God must worship in spirit and in truth." "To the praise of the immortal, invisible, almighty God.").
and, honestly, i think what action the church should as a whole do to defend against such attacks is to teach a holistic church history, including the bad (again, a part of our history that we - as a whole and not just parts - have to acknowlege) and the beautiful (of which there are many instances, starting in Acts chapter 2) in order to fight such misrepresentations as done by mr. brown, and the demonic seven star hand above (and i never attack other posters, but that's just villainous above there).
Some interesting points there... it is true that Christians don't have enough moxie nowadays... not even close to enough...
hey todd,
long time.
yeah, i agree. though i'm the chief of softies.
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