Orthodox Church, Da Vinci code and Belarus

[Comrade Marcel]

'Da Vinci Code' Off Screens in Belarus Over Protests
Created: 25.05.2006 10:13 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 10:13 MSK, 6 hours
36 minutes ago

MosNews


"The Da Vinci Code" has been pulled from cinemas in the Belarus
capital after only four days because Christian groups in the ex-
Soviet state complained the film was offensive, the state film
distributor said, Reuters reported.

Christian groups have also protested in India, Thailand and South
Korea about the film, an adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling
novel which suggests that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and
had a child by her and that elements of the Catholic Church plotted
to suppress all knowledge of this.

Leaders of Belarus's majority Orthodox Church which has 80% of religious Byelorussians and the large Catholic community which claims 12% of the religious population, launched a campaign in the local media to have the film banned, saying it was offensive and could undermine Christian beliefs.

"We showed the film for four days in Minsk's largest cinemas to give
everyone a chance to go to see it," an official from the state
company Kinovideoprokat told Reuters. "We have decided to alter
cinema programs due to the protests."

Cinemas in the capital Minsk replaced "The Da Vinci Code"
with "Memoirs of a Geisha".

President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing
fundamental rights and harassing independent cultural institutions,
reveres Soviet traditions but enjoys close ties with Belarus'
Orthodox Church. He has repeatedly urged Belarus' 11 million people
to be wary of Western culture.

[Comrade Marcel]

Russian Orthodox Church slams "insulting" Da Vinci Code
25/05/2006 12:53

MOSCOW, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - The controversy around the Da Vince
Code continued Thursday, as a senior member of the Russian Orthodox
Church said it was insulting and could engender religious or ethnic
violence.

The Hollywood film based on Dan Brown's bestseller opened the Cannes
Film Festival in France on May 17 and is now being screened
worldwide. It has already come under vehement criticism from the
Vatican.

"This film deeply hurts our religious feelings," said Metropolitan
Kirill, addressing an expert meeting of the world's religious
figures in Moscow.

"It has been made not by Muslims, Jews or Hindus, but by people who
are outside any religious tradition," he said. "They found it
possible to insult a religious tradition under the disguise of
freedom."

The metropolitan also commented on an "outrageous exhibition"
called "Beware of Religion", which opened in Moscow in January 2003.
The exhibition featured, among other things, an image of Jesus
combined with a Coca Cola logotype, a figure of a saint whose face
was cut out so that visitors could place their faces in the hole for
a picture, and a poster with a crucified naked prostitute.

A Moscow court then found the director of the exhibition site and
his assistant guilty of inflaming religious hatred, and fined them
100,000 rubles each ($3,700).

Metropolitan Kirill said that believers had destroyed the
exhibition, sparking heated debates in society about whether such a
protest was proper. The overwhelming majority of Russians then said
that it was blasphemy against religious and sacred values.

In warning that was clearly hinting at the Hollywood movie with Tom
Hanks, he said: "If we let people insult religion, it will be
impossible to keep them from ethnic conflicts."

[Janus]

It's also banned in 4 Indian states as well.


The government of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has banned the release of the Hollywood film The Da Vinci Code, an official statement said.
The decision to ban the film followed appeals from local Christian leaders who felt that the film might hurt the community's religious sentiments.

Tamil Nadu is the fourth Indian state that has banned the screening of the film, which was released last week.

The film is based on the best-selling book by Dan Brown.

A statement issued by the Tamil Nadu government said the release of the film, which portrays Jesus as a married man, might "lead to demonstrations and disrupt peace and tranquillity" in the state.

Christians comprise 6.1% of Tamil Nadu's 63 million people.

The movie has faced stiff opposition from the Christian community with some Catholic groups asking for a ban on its release.

The states of Nagaland, Punjab and Goa have already banned the film.

The movie opened in India to a mixed reception last week.

[Mariam]

and going to be banned in Egypt.

[The Living Red]

:blink: Just shows how difficult it's going to be to get rid of religion/religious extremism. After 70 years of being under pro-atheist government, it's like the Russian Orthodox Church is back with a vengeance.

Even in Belarus, where society is still very 'Soviet-esque' do people still fall foul of the religious nuts.

This is surely proof that, after the revolution so to speak, we must find alternative ways of combatting religion than the ways of the past. With hindsight, the attempts of the Soviet government prove not to have weakened religious feeling at all.

[Ander]

This really pisses me off. It's sad when religious pressure causes a film to be banned. If you don't like it, shut your mouth and don't watch it.

[The Grey Blur]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2006, 04:26 PM
If you don't like it, shut your mouth and don't watch it.
This statement is irrational, if it was a Nazi film we would protest

[JimFar]

Living Red wrote:


Just shows how difficult it's going to be to get rid of religion/religious extremism. After 70 years of being under pro-atheist government, it's like the Russian Orthodox Church is back with a vengeance.

Even in Belarus, where society is still very 'Soviet-esque' do people still fall foul of the religious nuts.

This is surely proof that, after the revolution so to speak, we must find alternative ways of combatting religion than the ways of the past. With hindsight, the attempts of the Soviet government prove not to have weakened religious feeling at all.


Well in the former Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church, in fact enjoyed an almost privilaged position, despite the fact that the government was officially atheist. During the 1930s, Stalin waged a campaign to suppress the churches and his regime placed a strong emphasis on teaching atheism in the schools and promoting it in the media. That changed following the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union during WW II. Stalin reversed his policies concerning religion, allowing the churches, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church to reopen many churches that had been shutdown in the 1930s, and suspending most of the regime's antireligious campaign. These new policies continued on even after the war, and remained in place right up to Stalin's death. It was the reformist leader, Nikita Khrushchev, who sought to revive the antireligious campaigns in the early 1960s. There was a renewed effort at teaching atheism in the schools, Soviet cosmonauts proclaimed that they didn't see God in outer space, and so forth. Like much else, this campaign petered out during the Breshnev era.

I remember that at Breshnev's funeral, they had dignitaries from the Orthodox Church in attendence, where they bestowed blessings on Breshnev's casket. The funerals for Breshnev's successors like Chernenko and Andropov featured similar events. Finally, under Gorbachev, the last vestiges of "offical atheism" were ended, and the Orthodox Church and other churches were permitted to take an expanded role in Soviet society. which paved the way for the so-called "religious revival" that would occur under Yeltsin, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

So it seems to me that Belarus is simply continuing what was already a policy trend in the late Soviet era.

[Ander]

Originally posted by Permanent Revolution+Jun 4 2006, 01:50 PM--> (Permanent Revolution @ Jun 4 2006, 01:50 PM)
[email protected] 4 2006, 04:26 PM
If you don't like it, shut your mouth and don't watch it.
This statement is irrational, if it was a Nazi film we would protest [/b]
True. It's just that these religious fanatics drive me completely insane. :angry:
I hate that they have so much power when it comes to government.

[Janus]

I hate that they have so much power when it comes to government.
They haven't come to power in these countries. The government is doing this in order to appease these communities even if they're very small.

Pakistan bans Da Vinci Code film

Originally posted by BBC News
Pakistan has banned The Da Vinci Code, which has been the subject of protests from members of Pakistan's small Christian community.
Culture Minister Ghulam Jamal said the film was blasphemous.

The screen adaptation of Dan Brown's book revolves around the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their descendants survive today.

A number of states in India have banned the film, although the federal censors have cleared it for release.

Supported

Mr Jamal said: "Islam teaches us to respect all the prophets of Allah Almighty and degradation of any prophet is tantamount to defamation of the rest," the official Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.

The government had indicated last week that it wanted to ban both the film and the book. The book has been available in Pakistan for some time.

Christian protestors have been supported by the country's six-party Islamic alliance, the MMA.

On Saturday, Andhra Pradesh became the seventh state in India to ban the film.

[Janus]

It's also banned in 4 Indian states as well.
Make that 7.


The government of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has banned the release of the Hollywood film The Da Vinci Code.
This was done despite the fact that Christians only make up 1% of the state population.
India extends DaVinci Code ban (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5043934.stm)

[Guerrilla22]

What the fuck Belarus?

[Janus]

China has abruptly banned this film as well.

China bans DaVinci Code (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5059658.stm)