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2006-05-13 -- WDC Media News
A senior Vatican official has called for a boycott of “The DaVinci Code,”
while the Council of Churches in Jordan and Roman Catholic activists in India
want their governments to ban the film altogether.
But popular TV talk show host and Gospel communicator Bill Keller of
LivePrayer.com contends that movie boycotts by Christian organizations often
backfire and end up making believers look like a bunch of holier-than-thou
finger pointers.
Keller, whose website Liveprayer.com has personally responded to over 60 million
prayer requests since its 1999 launch, is encouraging his 2.1 million daily
subscribers to educate themselves on the facts about Jesus Christ should they
choose to see “The DaVinci Code.”
So what does Keller himself think of the new movie – and the book its based
on? “It’s utter rubbish,” he says without a pause. “The ridiculous
theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a baby together goes against the Bible
and is in direct conflict with respected historians like Josephus, Pliny,
and Tacitus.”
Nonetheless, adds Keller, simply boycotting the movie may not be the best
response. “One of the problem with boycotts is that they often prompt even
more attention to the movie and drive up ticket sales,” he says.
Keller, who pulls in 250,000 viewers per night in Florida for his “Live Prayer
With Bill Keller” talk show, says that the problem with targeting movies for
boycott is that “70 percent of the motion pictures that Hollywood produces
offend Christians on one level or another. Believers would need to open up
boycott offices in every city just to keep up with most of the smut Hollywood
produces.”
Adds Keller, “The best approach to ‘The DaVinci Code’ is to educate
yourself on who the real Jesus was – and is – and begin to engage friends,
family, and neighbors on the real truth about Christ – and the lies in this
movie.”
Keller’s nightly television show will go national in July on PAX Television
Network.