As mostly a non-fiction book reader, I was in no big hurry to read The Da Vinci Code. I made time in recent weeks to get it read, as a professional duty. My wife read it in a couple days between everything else. Now we are trying to make time to go see the film. We are not particularly discriminating and critical film-goers, so I suspect well enjoy it.As mystery thrillers go, I found the book a great read. But I could never get out of my head that, realistically, Langdon and Sofie could never have maintained the fast-paced events that are seemingly all pressed into one long night In Paris and London.
Da Vinci fatigue is upon on the land already. I think many are tuning out the discussion. The fact that it is pure fiction should be constantly remembered. Oddly, a whole industry has grown up around debunking or capitalizing on the top bestseller worldwide. Networks have done their specials, a host of educational CD are being distributed, websites galore discuss it and the presses have cranked out countless related books and newspaper and magazine articles on the “Code. Congregations are holding their own discussion groups or seminars, in part to discredit any suggestion that Jesus may have married or was less than divine.
There are more side-stories to this phenomenon than anyone can keep track of.
Here at the Tribune, Ive had hundreds of unsolicited Da Vinci-related e-mails, the vast majority from parachurch organizations and faith groups. Some of the headlines on these press releases read, Code Creates Crisis in Christianity: Christian and Jewish Organizations Align Against ‘The Da Vinci Code; Book Which Counters Errors in The Da Vinci Code Receives Official Approval from the Catholic Church; and 1,000 Prayer Vigils Against The Da Vinci Code.
The latest issue of The Catholic Sun declares All Eyes on Da Vinci: With Da Vinci Code film near, Catholic leaders urge caution.
Over and over again, Catholics and other faithful are encouraged to think “fiction, fiction, fiction.
Catholic leader across the nation were telling followers to absorb the book and film with caution and skepticism, separate the fact from the fiction and use it as a teaching moment. The Catholic News Service diligently elicited national comment from leaders. One Delaware bishop concluded The Da Vinci Code had been found entertaining and offensive, but the worst concern is that some have found it believable and it could inflame prejudice or precipitate a crisis of faith because an impressionable person “could conclude that everything the church has taught about Christ is true.
Surely, the book and movie have given license to Catholic critics to more safely level their complaints about reputed malevolence and corruption in the church.
One group, The True Jesus (www.TheTrueJesus.org), argues Jesus and Mary Magdalene had three children and it has methods to use DNA to trace descendants to that bloodline. We created a ‘Jesus and Mary Gene Test’ that is a unique state of the art DNA-testing method to help us locate other descendants by giving people their Jesus and Mary DNA test results on-line in four minutes using sound, it asserts.
That group says of the Da Vinci debate, We understand the fundamentalists fear. It must be terrifying to be challenged to a debate of their own scriptures…
There are healthy debates, and it is helpful to have ones faith put to the test. Because a work of fiction is behind it all, I suspect few minds will be changed.
