Korea's Christian Council called on the court authorities to ban the release of the film in cinemas. For Catholics, "guidelines explaining how to tackle the themes raised in the film" would suffice.
Seoul (AsiaNews/CI) Korea's Christian Council has called on the Seoul district court to prevent Sony Pictures from screening the film, "The Da Vinci Code" in cinemas it is scheduled for release in May.
In a press conference, a Council spokesman said: "We cannot help but have deep concern that the film may disparage and insult the divinity of Jesus Christ and the truths told in the Bible. The movie will severely infringe on individual's religious beliefs and will be an obstacle to Christian missionary work."
Apart from concern that film offends the faith, the council "is wary of the content expressed: the film is based on a conspiracy that the church attempted to hide the fact that Jesus Christ's children are alive, and did not hesitate to kill people to protect their disclosure. This could incite serious conflict between Christians and non-Christians, who may believe that a theory is historical fact."
Catholics have taken a different stand. Although the Korean Church has not yet stated its official position on the matter, a survey conducted by the Catholic Times revealed that 72% of readers "simply want to have guidelines from the Church on how to tackle the themes in the film and the book". Only 9% of those interviewed said the film should be banned, and 3% said "Christians should be discouraged from going to watch it".