And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.

Christian Da Vinci Propaganda on the Sci-Fi Channel

Last night I watched a special on the Sci-Fi Channel about the Da Vinci Code. I was expecting something like I had seen in the past; a program which would discuss the elements of the book in a non-biased way - scratching the surface of the truths and quasi-truths of the book - ultimately telling us that it was a work of fiction based on many factual elements. What I got from "Cracking Da Vinci's Code" was Christian propaganda.

I watched the almost two hour long program in utter disbelief. Every person interviewed for the special either had a book debunking the Da Vinci Code (thus furthering their own agenda and that of the Church) or was a Christian minister of some kind. The arguments were completely one sided and not at all objective. I had to double check to make sure that the program was indeed airing on the Sci-Fi Channel. I thought perhaps I had mistakenly hit the section of Christian Channels that I affectionately call "Jesus Row".

The main point of "Cracking Da Vinci's Code" seemed to be the claims of truth in the first pages of Dan Brown's book - speaking of factual and accurate representations of documents, architecture, and artwork, etc. Dan Brown himself is painted as an immoral man who delights in lying to the public as opposed to simply being the talented writer of fiction that he is.

The program goes on to say that there is no such thing as Gnostic Gospels. This is a complete lie. The parchments within the Nag Hammadi library are often referred to as the Gnostic Gospels by scholars and educated lay people alike. Complete scholarly books have been written on the subject of these lost gospels. (http://www.webcom.com/gnosis/naghamm/nhl.html)

At the very end of last night's presentation I, as the viewer, was told that the truth is within the Bible and that I should seek that instead of the entertainment of a fictional bestseller. Once again Christendom feels it is necessary to tell the world what to believe. Isn't this how Mary Magdalene was painted as a whore in the first place? Of course, in "Cracking Da Vinci's Code" they claim she was never known as a whore. In fact it is true that no where in the New Testament does it say that Mary Magdalene was a whore, but in 591CE Pope Gregory decided to tell the people what to believe about her and it stuck for almost 1500 years. People who know nothing of the Bible - who have never read it - still remember that Mary Magdalene is supposed to be a repentant prostitute. Yet more half truths told by the producers of the program.

To close I would like to tell the people of the Sci-Fi Channel to stick to what they are good at: UFOs, Bigfoot, and cheesy B-Flicks about Mansquitos, Chubacabra, etc. Oh, and Ghost Hunters is fabulous. Leave the Bible thumping to TLN - whose Executive Consultant for Network Development, Charles E. Sellier, happened to have produced last night's one-sided, Bible fueled TV program. Sellier has also done work for the PAX channel whose show Faith Under Fire was spearheaded by Lee Strobel. Strobel has also joined the mission against the DaVinci Code and Dan Brown. (http://www.leestrobel.com/)

For those of you not familiar with TLN (Total Living Network) their mission reads as follows:

"To direct people to Christ and to provide resources for a vibrant relationship with Him through the electronic communications media."
http://www.tln.com/mission.html

On Charles E. Sellier (CEO of Grizzly Adams Productions): http://www.tln.com/leadership_sellier_bio.html

Grizzly Adams Productions:
http://www.grizzlyadams.com/ http://www.grizzlyadams.tv/

Press Release for "Cracking Da Vinci's Code": http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06050073.htm


5 comments:

S. Nichole said...

That musta been a hard pill to swollow. I hate TV programs with an agenda.

If you're looking for some better programs about the Da Vinci Code check out the History Channel or (if I remember right) the Discovery Channel. Both had programs that were both informative and fair. While both had shows that were very mythologically Christian based, they did have "experts" that took you through some of the history of the claims made in Dan Brown's book, which I found to be very interesting.

In the end, they also said there is no way we can know the truth of what happened because of things that were lost to time, for whatever reason (truly lost, conspiricy, etc).

Just remember, right now people are threatened by this book which is a work of fiction and that is why there are so many programs like the one you saw. Yeah, some people will be swayed by the propaganda machine that is being hidden under the name of "Christian ministry," but in the end all these programs bring the story to the attention of the people. Some will go see it, some won't but maybe it will get more people thinking about what they truly believe.

Anonymous said...

You did not hear the last sentence of the program, where it said that the Bible itself was a work of fiction. Listen to it again, before slamming Christians.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: I don't recall slamming Christians at all. My beef was with the producers of the program and the Sc-Fi Channel.

Do you have this program on tape? If so I would to hear the transcript for the last segment of the program as I don't remember ever hearing the words "The Bible is a work of fiction" uttered during the course of watching it.

Anonymous said...

Forget the Da Vinci code and these books and programs that try to cash in. The Grail, like Christmas, Easter and all the other "Christian" festivals has its origin in paganism. There never was any "grail" because the story of Jesus dying on the cross is nonsense. The Romans did not work like that and they thought the Jews were idiots and would not have accommodated Jewish wishes.
The Bible as a work of faith is fine, if people are so inadequate they need a crutch they're welcome. The Da Vinci code is a pot - boiler that did not deserve to sell 20,000 let alone 20 million.
If you want to know the origins of the Grail story you can't do better that "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves. Its a scholarly work and was written a while ago (not great bedtime reading) and he's dead, so he doesn't have an agenda.

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