Spirit Daily

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Lost Innocence: Movie Shows That Dark Has Arrived With A Spirit Of Anti-Christ

Where have you gone, Barney Fife? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

We know where Opie is -- this week, he is at Cannes, in the way of director Ron Howard -- and we know what he just did: that fellow who was the picture of innocence on The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days has come to resemble a nation that was likewise innocent and has likewise turned a dark corner. He directed The DaVinci Code. He needs our prayers, as do the actors involved.

It's all coming down, and you can feel it. We are starting to see more clearly what is what and who is who. At no other time in the nation's history would a movie based on such a harmful and blasphemous book garner this kind of attention. Movies like The Last Temptation of Christ were equally horrid but were shoved off into a genre of the avant garde.

But this is Opie and this is Sony Pictures and bashing Christianity and particularly -- viciously -- Catholicism has become such a norm that we can rightly be concerned about the rise of what many have foreseen for years.

There is the spirit of darkness. There is the spirit of anti-christ. The stage is being set for a personage of evil. It is also being set for a purification that is going to tear down the artifice we have arrogantly constructed.

To openly besmirch Jesus -- to cast Him as the father of a child by Mary Magdalene -- and to openly promote the rise of the goddess (with which this evil book apparently concludes as almost an invocation) is the height of arrogance and strong testimony to the rampant atheism or at least antagonism toward Christians that led an actor in the movie, Ian McKellen, to brazenly state Wednesday that instead of a disclaimer on the movie noting that it is fiction, such a disclaimer should be placed on the Bible.

These are people taken seriously by the media and granted the type of respect that was formerly withheld from such ilk and afforded instead to movies like It's a Wonderful Life and The Bells of St. Mary's.

Where have you gone, Jimmy Stewart?

While a nun wearing a brown habit knelt at the red carpet at Cannes this week, praying, in protest, the glitterati of Hollywood looked down upon the crumpled woman and Howard said only that if the movie is likely to upset you, don't go see it.

For those who long have seen the rise of anti-christianity as a prelude to persecution, it is a time of concatenation. Perhaps the word is "precipitation." Evil is precipitating from dark clouds and will lead to a raucous future.

It is hardly only this movie. It is books like Potter and theme parks based on a sorcerer's hat and upcoming films like Sacred Evil, along with the standard cartoons defaming the Pope and the biased media coverage of the Church. There is the whiff of persecution and the whiff of an evil personage who may take the stage in the not-too-distant future.

Yet as the darkness materializes, so do images of Jesus -- more than ever, in a way that has been gradual but that is gaining momentum. Steadily, Christ is manifesting. He is increasing His Presence. Nature is groaning in anticipation of a manifestation -- however you want to interpret it. A revelation of the invisible is becoming visible. And it is occurring in nature. From Mexico comes the report of believers hiking by the hundreds into the mountains of southern Chiapas to view a rock that some say bears an image of Jesus. A 57-year-old Tzotzil Indian, Gregorio Gomez, discovered the image after a voice told him in a dream last month that he would find it, said the news. It is one of dozens of such recent stories.

Ron, take note of that. Be careful. We will pray for you. We will pray for the country that has traveled so far since Opie. But caution, Ron. The Lord is real. He is good. The DaVinci Code is evil.

Opus Dei says it is just a passing episode. Let's hope so. The Vatican reportedly is in a "raging" debate on what to do about it. One Vatican Cardinal -- in charge of cultural affairs -- called the film a "shocking and worrisome" development. A survey indicates that it can have a profoundly negative effect on faith and in our view we face similar future challenges.

We tossed the book halfway through because of the aura it exuded (after glancing at that last page). We don't believe you are dark, Ron, but we do believe you are deceived and pray you will see your way out of it.

As for your advice about not seeing the movie, no worry there; we never had any such intention.

5/17/06

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