Tolerant Christianity Bans The Da Vinci Code Again
The Da Vinci Code has been banned in a second Indian state reports the BBC as previously noted on this weblog Christians in Nagaland were successful in banning both book and film versions of the Da Vinci Code. Now authorities in the northern Indian state of Punjab under pressure from Roman Catholics have also decided to ban the Da Vinci Code.
Bishop Symporian Keethprath from the diocese of Jalandhar says:
“shameful and liable to hurt the religious sentiments of the Christians of the Punjab if its screening was permitted.”
Father Franco Mulakkal of the same Christian diocese said:
“Fictional details attributed to in the film The Da Vinci are highly offensive and intolerable to all Christians.”
How tolerant is this ? Banning a film just because you do not agree with its contents smacks of the intolerance that Christianity has shown throughout its history while claiming to preach love.
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May 28th, 2006 at 15:49
I was raised in a predominantly Christian nation, attended a Christian church as a child, and occasionally attend a Christian church as an adult. Yet I am not a “hard-core” Christian.
I read The Da Vinci Code a couple of years ago. Although I recognized the challenges to the orthodox story of Christ’s life, I never thought that Dan Brown’s motives were anything more than an effort to tell a good, gripping story, which I think he did. I frankly do not understand the degree of opposition to this story from the Catholic Church or other Christian organizations.
You commented: “How tolerant is this ? Banning a film just because you do not agree with its contents smacks of the intolerance that Christianity has shown throughout its history while claiming to preach love.”
I think you have misunderstood the opposition to the film/book. It is not that those who banned it did so because they disagreed with the story, but because it is viewed by them as blasphemy. It is similar to the violent reaction to those cartoons depicting Muhammad.
Christians do not hold a monopoly on intolerance while claiming to preach love.
May 28th, 2006 at 19:09
James I know they banned the book/film beacuse they view it as blasphemous. I am surprised at the media reaction to these successful attempts at censorship by Christians. Why is there not a media storm about this story as there was about the cartoons?
May 28th, 2006 at 19:12
There’s no media storm because the differences are huge. No burning buildings, no burning flags, no demonstrations on the street in almost every country… come on…
And I’m not defending Christianity here. I just think there’s a huge difference, you probably see it too
May 28th, 2006 at 19:19
mononoke there is a difference as with the case of the cartoons people where killed, buildings burned and demonstrations but in the end the cartoons stood there was no censorship.
However in the case of the Da Vinci code as far as I know there have been demonstrations but no deaths and the book gets banned. So as far as principles of free speech are concerned the second one is far worse.
May 28th, 2006 at 21:28
I disagree. The book is banned in… how many places? the Vatican?? Probably not even there. And the consequences of the cartoons were disastrous. Starting with boycotts… apologies from the government?!… and death threats… we’ll have to agree to disagree I guess
May 29th, 2006 at 01:28
I have to agree with Mononoke, the degree of reaction is far more extreme in the Muslim world than in the Christian world. The general perception is that Muslims are overall far less tolerant of such things than Christians. I have to say that the evidence supports that perception.
May 29th, 2006 at 02:28
Why has there been no condemantion of these bans in the mainstream media. Why are people not jumping up and down in condemantion ?
May 29th, 2006 at 04:22
Because a couple of bans is insignificant, and even if there were many bans, a ban is a not burning cars and buildings, or inflicting harm or death on people. The scale of the reaction is vastly lower than the reaction to the Muhammad cartoons.