The Da Vinci Code

I have not yet read the book, "The Da Vinci Code" nor have I seen the movie but I have read and watched much about the controversial nature of this story. It seems that the Christian community is very divided about how to deal with this material. My son, who has read the book, was visiting another church and heard a woman who had seen the trailer about the movie say, "I could feel the evil coming through the screen". (Can you really do that? Does evil make its presence that known? I always thought evil tried to dress itself up and look respectable until it has you in its grasp and reveals its ugly, true nature to the haplessly entrapped soul). Here in Fresno, pastors are developing sermon series on it; one church is even renting out an entire theater for opening night in order to invite people to come and than discuss the film. There are many churches and church leaders who see this film as an opportunity to dialogue with those unfamiliar with the bible and church history (that would include the mass of both believers and non-believers); about the real story of Jesus and the real story about the church through history. What should I do?

Well, I think I will preach on it. My reasons are simple. It points up an issue far more problematic than the fiction Dan Brown uses in his book to create an interesting yarn. It is this. How do we process information in this new age? If we do, indeed, live in the Information Age and we have unbelievable resources for information gathering, are we being responsible with the information gathered? For instance, is something true because someone says it? I've been listening to the History Channel's discussion on the book and it has a group of "scholars" on it that are making many statements, some of which have no scholarly merit to them at all. For instance, one man who is an author was commenting on the idea that Da Vinci had painted John as a woman in his Last Supper fresco. He said he took out his art books and, "Sure enough, I looked and it was a woman!" I looked and it was a woman? You've got to be kidding me! Is there no research into how medieval artists depicted young men in an effeminate manner? Is there no research into how this compares to other depictions that DaVinci has done of young men? But, because he said it, it had enough merit to be placed on the show as a statement of truth or support (Do you think the director had a point he/she was trying to make?).

With so much information coming our way, we must take a greater responsibility for differentiating between information and interpretation. One is neutral and the other is not. Granted, all biblical information is written so that others may believe but, at least, they are up front about it. The Bible is a document of historical truth designed to enable those of us who follow to believe in that truth which changed the world. The rest (like Dan Brown's book and Ron Howard's movie) is just speculation. You should know the truth and you should be careful what you believe to be true.