May
2006
43 Million People Can Be Wrong: What Are We To Do About ‘Da Vinci’?
A substantial number of Christians on both the left and right deserve credit for seeing the success of The Da Vinci Code as an opportunity to engage the book’s 43 million readers and the additional millions who will see the movie. But while it’s one thing to assume that most of these readers and viewers have at least some interest in the spiritual, it’s quite another to believe (as the plans of many Christian groups indicate) that these masses are ripe for conversion to the One True Faith.
(For a look at how Progressive Christianity in particular might react to the book and film, please join us for a screening of The Da Vinci Code this Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. at the Paseo Stadium theaters in Pasadena. PCU’s co-founder George Regas will offer some thoughts after the movie. To reserve a space at the screening, please send an email to , write “Da Vinci” or “Da Vinci Code” in the subject line and give the full name of everyone planning to attend. Tickets will be $12 at the door.)
Clearly, just because a significant audience shows an interest in something containing Christian themes doesn’t mean that the audience is looking to be saved. Using this logic, all fans of the reigning movie box-office champion Titanic desire to take a dip in the North Atlantic.
It’s worth reminding ourselves that the majority of Da Vinci readers and viewers were and are seeking an escape from everyday life. One could cheer that so many people are showing at least a passing interest in Jesus — but that interest is mostly on the surface. These readers and viewers just want to have fun. And it’s hard to imagine any effort to correct Da Vinci’s misinformation seeming fun enough to make them pay attention.
Still, it’s clear that a significant percentage of the book and movie’s audience is spiritually (or at least intellectually) inclined. The problem for those looking to proselytize this group is that much of the audience’s attraction to Da Vinci stems from how the story and its protagonists question organized religion.
Those who think there’s something spiritually profound in The Da Vinci Code would be less likely to choose a movie like The Passion of the Christ as a model for their spiritual outlook than the TV programs The X-Files and Lost. These widely popular shows revolve around bizarre occurances and byzantine mysteries — mysteries that serve as a model for how many in this group seem to imagine that the universe (and whatever controls it) can or should operate.
Da Vinci’s riddles and conspiracy theories seem to offer an intriguing yet very accessible “theology”. It’s a world view that is complex yet solveable. It doesn’t rely on someone from on high telling you what to think — you can put the clues together and figure it out for yourself. (And it doesn’t offer the rewards that come with service, sacrifice or believing in anything bigger than oneself… but that’s the sort of attitude that seems to leave Da Vinci fans ice cold.)
So can we reach out to these people? Shoving doctrine down this group’s throats is guaranteed not to work. But discussing how the tradition of a risen and redemptive Christ offers far more vast and rewarding mysteries than those found in a detective thriller (without sounding as judgmental as that just did) is worth a try.
Let’s start by listening to what this vast audience has to say, and offering our own stories and questions (and even some answers) in response. And a screening of The Da Vinci Code seems like a great place to start that dialogue.
Right now, I have this mental picture of Dan Brown sitting at his desk, watching the drama and trauma that his book has created, and rubbing his hands together as he thinks about all of the income this is generating for him! That picture makes me sigh and shake my head in sadness for the world. But the thought that I cannot shake is that we as the church have done such an abyssmal job of witnessing Christ to the world that there are people who are actually looking to find the facts, if not the truth about Jesus from a piece of fiction and the motion picture it spawned. At that thought I hang my head in shame. So what am I to do? Is this a call to arms, a call for dialog? Certainly it’s a reminder that we cannot go anywhere until we pray. So I did, and I do. And I am called back to the source, back to scripture. Not so much for little scriptural nuggets to refute the fiction, but for those things that God reveal about himself to us through scripture, the real truth. In my study of scripture over the years, and as I mature as a believer, the Holy Spirit brings me to a place of peace with what scripture doesn’t say. If it’s not there, it’s not important. No mention of Jesus as a married man? Then God doesn’t intend for us to concern ourselves with that thought. Could it have been? Don’t worry about it! We are to focus on living in God’s amazing grace as imparted through our resurected Lord Jesus, and not on the possibility of a human bloodline that he may or may not have left. And of course study reminds me that God is never about keeping secrets. How can there be that equality among believers that Paul writes of, and there be secret knowledge hidden from all but a handful of initiates. That goes against everything that scripture reveals about God’s plan for our salvation.
And I must take exception to one item from Peter Laarman’s excellent piece on the Huffington Post. “Peter (that “rock upon which I will build my Church”)”. The reference is to Matthew 16:17-18. But I would argue that Jesus did not set Peter aside for any special role, but that the “rock” he refered to was Peter’s confession of Christ in verse 17: “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” This is far more in consistant with Jesus calling, discipling, and treatment of the apostles. Why would Jesus appoint a human leader when the understanding always was Christ as “head and cornerstone” of HIS church. And I must add that he gave those metaphoric keys of the kingdom to Peter, not to those who claim to be his spiritual and pastoral successors. Jesus never did a thing, never preached a word, never endorsed a thought that did not place God the Father at the beginning, center, and end of everything.
So I would encourage what I challenged my Sunday School class to do; Read the book, see the movie, satisfy your curiosity. But for every minute you spent reading the book or watching the movie, spend just that much time in the Gospel of John.
To God belongs the glory!
I’m not saved or anything, but I’m floored by the calm and insightful approach of this essay. It’s not judgmental! It’s not condescending! If more devout Christians were this reasonable, I would stop jumping off cliffs when they start to proselytize.
I also find that many people who try to actively “spread the word” just aren’t that intelligent or articulate, and speak in cliches. Bible cliches, but cliches just the same. Sad when you have people like whoever wrote this piece. You really should give people a test before you let them loose.
I’ll be back.