Progressive Christians Uniting

What’s The Matter With ‘Da Vinci’?

We’re almost a week away from the opening of the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s mega-bestseller The Da Vinci Code, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the cultural tug-of-war over the movie’s merits. One side insists that Da Vinci be either excused or dismissed as Hollywood fluff, while others are certain that the film will create scriptural illiterates at best and raging pagans at worst.

(For those of you who’d like to judge The Da Vinci Code for yourselves and hear our founder George Regas’ thoughts on the movie and controversy, Progressive Christians Uniting will host a screening at 8:30 a.m. Saturday May 20 at the Paseo Stadium theaters in Pasadena. Call or write PCU to find out how to buy tickets.
As usual, it’s an oversimplification to divide audiences into two polarized camps. Even the Catholic Church, which apparently isn’t viewed very warmly in the film, can’t decide whether to urge its followers to boycott the movie or treat it as a teachable moment.

But a few elements of the Da Vinci controversy are worth exploring to determine how we as progressive Christians might more reasonably and effectively react:

• For fans of the book, the movie’s advertising tagline “Seek the Truth” has nothing to do with Biblical scholarship and everything to do with their non-doctrainaire relationship with the Divine.
• For the creative forces behind the book and film, the intent of the material has nothing to do with trashing Christianity and everything to do with collecting as much money as possible.
• And for a number of right-wing Christians, criticizing the movie has nothing to do with wht’s on the screen and everything to do with what’s in the polls.

Let’s take these in reverse order:

Rallying the Red States

The latest round of political surveys indicate that George W. Bush’s disapproval ratings are somewhere between Lyndon Johnson’s when he announced that he would not seek reelection in 1968 and Richard Nixon’s when he resigned in 1974.

This doesn’t bode well for The Decider. But it’s part of an ever bigger crisis that faces Republicans running for congressional, state and local offices this fall. Between the way things are in Iraq and at the gas pumps, the outbreak of scandals implicating a variety of GOP figures, and the rising inequalities  dividing the rich and poor, something needs to be done to generate fresh support among the right-wing faithful.

And so as Thomas Frank outlined in his book What’s the Matter with Kansas, it’s time to antagonize and distract cultural conservatives by reviving some of their favorite (if relatively meaningless) hot-button issues: Outrage over the flags flown and songs crooned by undocumented workers. A Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. And, or course, Hollywood-bashing.

If The Da Vinci Code is a smash, you can be sure that conservative pundits such as Bill O’Reilly will decry how the movie industry is determined to tear down the fundamental values of our country. After all, this is a Christian nation, and the way the movie casts doubt on Jesus’ divinity shows how much the folks in La-La-Land hate the beliefs of Real Americans.

And if the film bombs, it’s another example of how out of touch Hollywood is with the mainstream. Either way, criticizing the movie is a sure-fire way to ratchet up pre-election fears of what might happen if liberals are in charge.

Next: what really motivates Hollywood.

Posted under: Reviews