^
I have no problem with Christ. I have a problem with the historical distortions of christianity, which even in Gibson's "passion" are issues that are quite questionable when looking at historical evidence. But that goes back to the whole "anti-semetic" arguement again. Which is a discussion within itself.
The thing i loved about Da Vinci Code, is that in a mainstream fashion.. it brought up issues such as the Gospel of Mary... dead sea scroll.. lost gospels. It showed Christianity's roots in both a patriarch AND a matriarch. It showed where the powerful, through institutions, have taken a wonderful religion.. and given people such as myself, ten million things to bitch about.. that i would be much happier if they just never happened.
While i thought Gibson's movie was quite moving and powerful... i also think he knew damn well that violence, gore, and shock value sell. I know damn well that he used a prophets name and story in order to get rich. I also did not like the fact that he painted Pilate as a kind and compassionate man.
Originally posted by zorn
I'm very suspicious of the bit about the Jews vs Pilate bit... It's simply way too contrived, this elaborate charade which tries so hard to exonerate Pilate and blame the Jews. It serves such an obvious purpose, since by 100 the Christian-Jewish relationship had cooled towards hate but the Christians relied on the tolerance of Rome. And it doesn't match up with what we know about Pilate -- the man was IIRC recalled to Rome for excessive brutality, which took some doing!
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?postid=2087915#post2087915
My point is, Da Vinci Code is incredible.. b/c furthermore it shows where pagan traditions were stolen and incorporated, it shows how christian holiday "dates" were moved to match pagan holidays for converts.
It goes after the crap Constantine did to the bible, it ruthlessly attacks the motvies and actions of the Vatican.
It's exposing christianity at it's roots to the best of our ability. Which i think is a very enlightening and interesting religion. This crap they preach every sunday in trailers, churches, and on tv... what the average person considers to be christianity.. is nothing but embellishments, factual fallacies, changes made hundreds of years ago so someone could maintain a place of power... it's bullshit.
I'm not one to say whether god is real or not. And i find Jesus admirable. And there's alot of moral arguements througout the OT and NT i could debate and debate.. but the image of christianity's roots and what it was attempting to achieve before it got hi-jacked, by catholics and romans is something worthwhile.. and i think people need a mainstream way to have that shown to them.. without downright attacking their religion.
I do not feel Da Vinci Code brutally attacks christianity by any means.. just this political hogwash that's been added on throughout the ages. And the fact that it's done in a very mainstream fashion, with a plot and character development, explores art and architecture history... makes it all that more lovable.. to me anyways
