Da Vinci blah, blah, blah
Saw the movie the other night and thought I'd weigh in on this whole thing.
I read the book about a year ago and thought it was a great book. Guy had me hooked in from the second page and I read it in a couple of days over vacation. Really enjoyable. The historical stuff was plausible and challenging and that bothered me because I don't think it's true and just serves to confuse people, but as entertainment, it was great. I thought the movie was just as entertaining. Followed a difficult story line well. Had some good, funny one-liners as well as some tense moments that had people jumping out of their seats.
I'm not sure the makers had an agenda past making lots of money but by the end of the movie, Tom Hanks, who all during the movie is kind of rebuffing implications that Biblical picture of Jesus could be wrong, is speaking very matter-of-factly about how we have everything wrong and Jesus did have a kid and the church has lied for 2000 years. That really bothered me. It didn't make me angry. I didn't want to jump up and shout, 'blasphemy!', but it hurt my soul. I was talking to Jason Saturday and he put it perfectly. He hadn't seen it but said it sounded like someone was saying stuff that wasn't true about a friend and you feel like there's nothing you can do. That's perfect. It did feel like someone was saying all this untrue stuff about a great friend, and there isn't much I can do to stop it.
I've kind of been in that 'It's just a story' camp, but I'm not so sure anymore. I guess I don't want people to see it, especially people who don't know Jesus, because I don't want them to get the wrong impression of Him.
I think the church overall has done OK with this. I don't think we've totally bashed Dan Brown or Ron Howard or Tom Hanks. It seems like we've just tried to get our side of the story out there and used it as an opportunity to engage a conversation. But there's something irritating about how every single church is doing something on the Da Vinci Code. I was talking to a friend the other day about this and I think what's annoying is that this type of thing is what the church is known for in our culture. We're known for what we react against. Makes me wish we were known for our compassion, for justice, for our acts of mercy. This whole Da Vinci response would be set in a better context if we were.
posted by jeff @ 9:30 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
in my opinion, the most powerful thing that the Da Vinci code has done for the church is the way it has forced churches to notice that creating holistic faith in their members means teaching PoMo people about the basics. It means giving people tangable evidence (be it historical proof, or frequent disciplined action (i.e. giving to the poor) for why Christ is dynamic and fundemental to living a life that is alive. I think that if people had watched Christ produce living fruits in their lives, they wouldn't be led astray by (for example) Dan Brown.
2. Cor 11:3-4 says it well, Pauls writes something like "Like Eve was tempted by the seperant, I'm afraid that your minds might be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." he goes on to write "For is someone comes and teaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you recieve a different spirit you have not recieved or a differnt gospel, you bear it beautifully."
I guess this scriptures make me ask, what did the church at Corinith do that allowed them to bear so beautifully with the Dan Browns of their age....i don't know the answer..but if you find it i'd like to know. but i think Jeff is right, its about action..
I saw the movie as well, and on the surface level, i was entertained. The plot to me is bothersome in the fact that this film is being placed in the genre of historical action/adventure which pushes people to believe that it's truth.
As for what we can really do about it. Forcing this film off of screens to me seems like the wrong thing to do to me. I don't think we should be forcing our believes on anyone that's not opening up and asking for it.
I don't think we are getting the right message to the masses by standing outside a theatre protesting by saying dan brown is the devil either.
I don't know really the best way to handle such events, but i think we get a good hint throughout the beginning of the church.
I believe bigger events have come and gone, and are to come and go challenging the Christian faith. At the same time i have no doubt that the truth will hold up...
I think the movie is exciting in that everyone is talking about Jesus. But we do need to be equipped. And I fully agree with anonymous. If more of us had stories about transformation and shared them then these kinds of things would not be threatening. I just take it as thorns that can choke out seeds.
I read something interested in The Resurgence blog about this. Remember how a cartoon of Mohammed caused global rioting and protests? So despite some misguided fighting I'm glad that we're not doing that. Hopefully Christ will come out looking good in the end. After all, everything is about His glory, right?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would rank Tom Hanks's hair in the movie?
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