Wherein I Am Both Confused And Misunderstood

So, about two weeks ago I wrote about the Church's response to The Da Vinci Code. I wrote that post for two reasons. The first was that it seemed to be more than coincidence that every church I knew of was incorporating the book into their sermons over the past three weeks. The second was that a local preacher/blogger had this to say:

The Greek Phrase for both the Gospel of Judas and Davinci is "hogas washas" where we get our term "Hog Wash"

This response is by no means unique. I've heard many people be equally dismissive of the book. Yes, Roger,it's fiction. Yes, Dan, it's highly-improbable fiction. Yet thanks to Mr. Brown's infamous opening "Fact Page" many readers are left confused as to what portion of the book is factual. So we've now been blessed with many people who believe that some of the book's more outlandish claims are true. (Of course, there are also people who claim to be members of the Jedi religion, so clearly a case can be made for a fringe element. )

Since I must not have been clear in the original post, given Dan's vehement reaction, allow me to restate that I stand most closely to Brian McLaren's take on the matter.

I would like to see churches teach their people how to have intelligent dialogue that doesn't degenerate into argument. We have to teach people that the Holy Spirit works in the middle of conversation.

So, today, when Dan writes:

So my point is here is a book that is taking away from the deity of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but is hiding behind the "fiction" title ...Therefore if the Davinci code is "fiction" then why is people killing themselves to find out if they are Marivians?†

I am confused.

Surely, if we as Christians believe that people are being led into false doctrine by this book, then the best response to that, in my mind would be similar to Paul's responses. You know...through him God wrote all those really long letters that patiently addressed the false doctrines that were leading the Christians of various cities astray. (The church at Corinth was so confused they got two letters!) Now, we don't all have to bang out epistles on our keyboards. I daresay there are enough Da Vinci DeBunk Books on the market as is. And we don't all have to read the book or see the movie.

Yet, as I pointed out earlier at Jamey Tucker's site, there are those of us who feel the call to respond by reading the book, seeing the movie and having polite conversations about where the story departs from fact. I love Jesus as much as anyone. And I honestly think that He would like me to be kind and considerate to the others that He loves, despite any confusion they may have after consuming The Da Vinci Code.



† This is as written by Brother Dan. I believe he is actually referring to the Merovingians. One of the main ideas in the book is that the bloodline of Jesus survived in France and was found in the Merovingian kings. This psuedohistory originated in Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a much more dull and boring book that says basically the same things as Brown's more recent work.