Polimom is amazed by the hysterical noise rising from Christians (of every denomination and sect) over Dan Brown‘s The Da Vinci Code. The calls for boycotts, “other-cotts”, and the huge reaction to a fictional story epitomize the “my way is the only way” thinking of religious institutions — the exact reasons Polimom rejected religion many years ago. (Houston Chronicle):
Why the fuss about a movie based on a work of fiction? Detractors have a quick answer: Brown’s facts are just plain wrong. Some call the book blasphemous, anti-Christian or anti-Catholic. They worry that moviegoers will get confused and believe much of what is said.
“And that’s putting it mildly,” said Carl Olson, a Catholic theologian and co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax. “I don’t believe we can really call it ‘just fiction.’ Even if it’s a lightweight book, there is a personal responsibility to get the facts right.”
What is it, exactly, that people fear? Surely it’s not the questions themselves… is it? Can a novel really threaten “the faith of millions”? (from WaPo)
Across the United States on Saturday and Sunday, television viewers were to be offered “The Da Vinci Deception,” an hour-long program produced by Dr. D. James Kennedy and his Florida-based Coral Ridge Ministries.
The video, also being offered for sale, exposes “how a best-selling book threatens to undermine the faith of millions,” its promotional trailer states.
Christian community leaders are releasing teaching materials for churches, to help combat the messages in the book and movie, and to leverage the world’s enormous interest into increased church attendance. It’s all very exciting (if a bit breathless), but Polimom thinks they’re totally missing something important: the most valuable debates and discussions aren’t going on in churches. They’re occurring in homes, cars, natatorium bleachers and soccer fields… everywhere and anywhere people gather in numbers greater than two.
I think it’s wonderful, but then, I have a natural tendency to question everything I’m told or read. This entire debate is normal in Polimom’s world.
Shortly after the book was released, Polimom’s DH (Dear Husband – a lapsed Catholic) and I purchased it for ourselves. We read it cover to cover, and then went after the underlying books and research that sparked Dan Brown’s imagination. We spent many enjoyable hours discussing Catholicism, the Bible, Jesus, and why the church would have indigestion over the book’s storyline. The reaction by church leaders, in fact, received some pretty serious discussion in its own right.
We engaged in spirited debate with intellectual friends, both religious and secular, and all of us welcomed the exploration.
For Polimom, though, the most positive outcome was the spark lit for Adorable Child (AC), who has voiced her desire to see the movie itself. Since it’s rated PG13 (and AC is 9), Polimom will have to screen it first, but I can already tell you that it’s highly likely she’ll be allowed to view this movie.
Why? Because it’s already generated enough serious questions and thought on her part to be enormously valuable (imho). In a recent conversation she asked, “Jesus was Jewish?” (in response to my comment about his status as a “rabbi”), “What, exactly, are the differences between Judaism and Christianity?”, and “You mean there’s a whole field of study about various religions???” (when I talked about theology).
When she fully grasped that Christianity didn’t exist until Jesus died (and rose again) she was astounded. She had already learned this, of course, but there’s a vast world of difference between being told something (and just accepting it), and wrapping your mind all the way around it. Up until that very moment, she thought the whole Bible was about Christianity. (Oops.) She just hadn’t considered who, and what, was involved with the Old Testament, and until this incredible controversy over the release of the movie, it never came up.
How are these ideas bad?
Questions are the hallmark of healthy intelligence — not just for children, but for everyone, and although a 9-year-old always asks them (I think it’s in her contract someplace), the spark has obviously been lit for millions of people the world over.
So why would churches be afraid? Since this isn’t a rejection of Christianity, but a reinvigorated discussion of religion and faith, Polimom suspect the fear is more related to perceived challenges to entrenched power… and that’s not a bad thing either, folks.
It’s obvious that minds have been opened to thoughts never considered, and from where I sit — trying to raise a thoughtful child in a world very different from the one in which I grew up — Dan Brown’s book, movie, and all the hoopla and excitement are worth their weight in gold.
That’s an awesome impact for a novel, don’t you think?
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