The Da Stenchi Code

WARNING: I amy give away parts of the movie, so stop reading if that will p*ss you off.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Well, this started as a rant on the Da Vinci Code and wound up as a ramble on spiritual discovery- be forewarned.

Many religious organizations have protested this movie out of fear that it may shake the faith of followers the world around.

I saw this flick last night, and my faith was indeed shaken. It brought into question many things which can not be accounted for.

There was a time when I believed... that Hollywood might produce a decent blockbuster on occasion, but I am not so sure anymore. The loopholes are gigantic in this film. Admittedly, I didn't read the book, so there is the great possibility that Dan Brown connected some dots there that just didn't mesh in the movie, but the lack of any compelling evidence didn't seem to deter the filmmakers in the least.

Okay, the big deal is the combination of two suppositions. Firstly, that Jesus and Mary Magdelene were married, as was allegedly suggested in the book of Phillip, which was not accepted as legitimate by the church at the counsel of Nacir in the 300s.

Secondly, that the remains of Mary Magdelene were being kept and that the DNA in the remains could be linked to a surviving heir.

The big who-gives-a-shit is obvious to me, but apparently is not deemed worthy by director Ron Howard. The end of the world as we know it is the suggestion, but even if it WERE proven to be Mary Magdelene's remains, and if if they WERE linked to a survivor, and even if hillip WAS accepted... that doesn't prove it was Jesus' child...not unless they dug up the cross somehow and checked HIS DNA against that of any supposed surviving heirs.

There are so many manipulated facts in this movie that I can't fathom why any church segement would give a shit about it. If you aren't clever enough to realize this is fictional, you are in trouble anyway, likely to be tempted away from faith by the gay Tele-tubby or Howard Stern.

I was skimming channels yesterday and passed by some show on the Catholic channel that presented an historian illustrating historical evidence to refute the Da Vinci Code as fictional.

Why go to the trouble of proving that fiction is fictional? Am I missing something? Are there actually people that BELIEVE the Da Vinci Code is REAL?

To me, it seems like getting all up-in-arms about this only draws attention and lends credence to theories that have never been accepted as fact in the first place. This film is so implausible and so lame that it's more likely to be converted to homosexuality by the purple Tele-tubby than it is to be diverted from Christianity by this piece of crap.

The notion that someone would die to protect this lie is inane to me. One of the things that leads me to believe Jesus was in fact divine is the willing death of all his deciples- the same deciples that abandoned Him when he was being murdered. Why would those guys defend His name and refuse to deny Him even to their own deaths when they chickened out when he was alive, had He ot actually come back as He said He would?

That doesn't make sense to me.

Think about it simplistically for a second.

I'm Jesus... I tell you I am going to die, then come back. You kind of blow it off. I get arrested and you run like a punk. I DON'T come back, I am NOT resurrected... why the hell are you going to claim me as your Lord now? Why would you claim me even as you are tortured and murdered?

The short answer is that you wouldn't...

The best thing any religious person ever did for me was to trust in God's power and leave me to my own thoughts.

I had serious questions about His existence, so I asked my boyhood minister "who is this Jesus guy? and "Is He God, or what?"

The minster said to me, "Why don't you ask Him yourself?" and left it at that. I couldnl't believe he trusted Gid enough to reveal Himself to me, that he wasn't going to try to manipulate me into believing what he thought was the truth.

He said, "Ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you, ask Him if he's real. Ask God to show himself, and He will."

Mind you, I had already had a vital spiritual experience that had altered my state f mind, consciousness and had saved and changed my entire life, but I still had absolutely no conecption of what Power had caused this.

I started with prayers like, "Who are you?" and "Jesus, are you real or what?"

All I can say is that my faith grew from that into a... well, a knowing.

When you KNOW, you don't really worry so much whether everyone else believes what you believe, it somehow becomes unimportant.

I am not smarter than anyone else, I only "know" because I was near death and desperate and willing to open my mind. Experiences came to me that revolutionaized my thinking and belief system.

There are people that simply have it more together than I ever did. These people can get through life without this type of vital experience. The fact that I needed it just to function doesn't make me better than the next guy.

I guess the point is that I don't understand why people of real faith get unnverved by a horrible movie based in fiction. If faith is vital and real, it just can't be shaken by the beilef, or un-belief of another.

Instead of protesting bad movies that don't make sense anyway, go help someone. Make a sandwich for a homeless guy- give him a cold can of Coke with it. I am really going out on a limb here, speaking for Christ... but my guess is that if He were here today in human form, He would be making the sandwich and handing it out, not holding a sandwich board.