by Seeker4 38 Replies latest jw friends
""Honestly I think it puts the Society in a tough spot because the Christian churches are railing against it because it puts into question the whole bible. But the Society can't really side with the Churches because they take great pride in being (supposedly) different.""
Why bother? The Da Vinci Code is a work of FICTION. There is nothing there to be upset over. I can not understand why the Christian chusches are up in arms over a work of fiction.
I know that movie ratings are different from country to country. In the US R-rated movies are highly discouraged by the WTS officially.
*** w82 7/15 p. 24 pars. 12-13 Benefiting From Your God-given Conscience ***
Even though an individual feels it is a ‘personal matter of conscience,’ if it damages others it can lead to his receiving Jehovah’s adverse judgment. This shows how deceptive it can be to think ‘if it is up to my conscience, it is all right.’
Consider the experience of a couple who were having a Bible study, attending meetings and approaching baptism. An elder in the congregation told the man of his having enjoyed a certain motion picture. The man replied, ‘What! Do you go to see R-rated movies?’ The elder tried to excuse his actions, saying that certain of these films (considered questionable even by the world) have value if the objectionable aspects are ignored. But it appears that the man was affected. After that he progressed more slowly than his wife. Had the elder reflected on texts such as Colossians 3:2-8, Ephesians 5:3-5 and Matthew 7:12, they might have affected his conscience and his conduct.—1 Corinthians 9:22, 25-27.
Unofficially, in the last 5 years, certain COs have told elder bodies that elders and MS could be removed for going to R-rated movies. I never heard of that happening so I wonder if it was an individual quirk of that CO or just an empty threat.
Some elders do wait until an R-rated movie comes out on DVD and purchase it making sure they put those DVDs under lock and key. Can't have some visitor seeing them and being "stumbled."
Otherwise, movie selections are across the board. Some JWs may openly be picky acting as the conscience of others or even worse secretly watching R-rated movies at home.
I know of JWs that say that they just speed up through the "bad" parts..........
Blondie
Why bother? The Da Vinci Code is a work of FICTION. There is nothing there to be upset over. I can not understand why the Christian chusches are up in arms over a work of fiction.
So is Harry Potter and Carrie and The Exorcist and Omen and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Yet we all know that certain JWs (among other Christian churches) get upset over those works of fiction.
I have been to District Conventions where movies were specifically named (such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) as being inappropriate for JWs to see. Yet it's a work of fiction. Why bother?
While the plot of the DVC is fiction, there is a fair amount of history in it as well. Opus Dei, the Knights Templar, Leonardo Da Vinci, the churches mentioned and The Louvre all exist - the fiction of the book is in the conjecture of how all of these people, places and organizations might be tied together.
Where the DVC might strike some interest is just where Scully mentioned - in bringing up the fact that the NT is a compilation of books that was not codified until hundreds of years after Jesus' life (if in fact there is such a historical character). Just like Brown wrote, there was a struggle by many, many factions claiming to be Christians as to what exactly constituted Christian teaching.
Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels is an excellent, popular scholarly look into this. There were groups claiming all sorts of teachings, especially the idea of a personal relationship with god that made unnecessary connections with churches or congregations, teaching overseen by elders and deacons, and so on. I enjoyed, as I remember it without looking again at the book, that the gnostics claimed a direct knowledge of god that was experential and not involving a lot of dogma and theology. Of course the men in power didn't like this, so they wanted to disfellowship these heretics. The gnostics' response was that these men lacked their special knowledge of god, were as such not true spiritual men, were completely devoid of authority among believers and therefore were to be ignored!
Even one of the chapters in the old All Scripture Inspired book talked about the development of the Bible canon, and how some books we now accept were left off many of the early Bible book catalogs, and some we reject, or have never seen, were accepted. That shocked me a bit when I first read that as a teenager.
Christianity developed in a messy, slipshod way, and was an extensive power struggle. The DVC presents that pretty well.
S4
DVC probably falls under the huge and confusing Conscience Matter™ umbrella. So different kinds of JW's probably make different choices in regards to it.
Theocratic type JW's understand that Conscience Matters™ for the most part are things that the "slave" would prefer they not do, and that compliance with these unwritten regulations is what constitutes them being regarded as Mature Christians™ by the hierarchy.
For social type JW's, Conscience Matter™ means "Yay we're allowed!"
I know that movie ratings are different from country to country.
Yes, that is true, but what really surprised me is that when I visited southeast asia, I found that one of the local bible study groups within the congregation typically
rented a movie on dvd once every couple weeks so that they could watch it as a group, sometimes even after their bookstudy. (Keep in mind this is a poor country
and these movie nights are something they can't afford individually.) Anways, what surprised me is that the movies they watched were typically R-rated american movies.
I mentioned this to one of the dubs and the response was that the local brothers were fine with it.
My wife is still very active as a JW and still wants to see the Da Vinci code so guess nothing has been said about it.
Well, I got the book from an elder, but had to wait because I was third on the list of people who wanted to read the book. The first was the PO the second another elder....
about the movie I did not hear anything....
""So is Harry Potter and Carrie and The Exorcist and Omen and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom""
Yes but Harry Potter deals with witchcraft, Carrie, the Exorcist, and the Omen deal with demonic possession.
Subject matter IS important. The DaVinci Code does not deal with any of these.
Never heard anything about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Subject matter IS important. The DaVinci Code does not deal with any of these.Never heard anything about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The DaVinci Code calls into question whether Jesus was of divine origin. It calls into question Jesus' celibacy and claims that he was a mere mortal and that he was married to Mary Magdalene and produced an heir. It also suggests that the Bible is nothing more than a collection of books that included those "gospels" which supported a male dominated church and excluded those "gospels" which supported gender equality in the church, as part of a conspiracy to keep men in power in the church. That's not blasphemous to a JW? C'mon... you can do better than that. Personally, I'm all for JWs who want to see the film, particularly women. It might help them realize that the whole concept of Headship™ is oppressive and insulting and that just because someone was born with a penis does not put them on the fast-track to having God's Approval™.
As far as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: from the platform at the District Convention in Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 14, 1984, Ken Little (Canadian Branch Overseer) denounced the film for having scenes depicting ritual human sacrifice.
edited to remove personal information ~ Scully
