Leonardo the Ninja Turtle, or Da Vinci?

Greetings all.

I am currently at my church office right now, it feels good. Like I said, more on my recent travels w/ pics soon. I have to upload them all which will be kind of a pain.

I found this article on Yahoo today (which I check compulsively). It talks about Evangelical Christianity's response to the upcoming movie The Da Vinci Code. My friend Steve and I were talking about this last night as well. (That conversation took place as we were enterting the theatre to see Mission Impossible III, which was freaking awesome by the way. Ridiculous, but that was to be expected)

Personally, I have not read the book. I need to, if nothing else just to remain "in touch". However as my other friend BB has pointed out, it's not very encouraging to young men to read books if we can just see a movie instead! That being said, I feel like this whole movie debate thing brings up some good points. I have similar feelings about this movie as I did "The Passion of the Christ": no matter how you feel about the movie, it's great to generate conversation.

So THAT being said, i'm a little ticked off. Here's my start of the conversation.

1. Dan Brown is an author who writes books TO MAKE MONEY. So all this stuff about how his book is not factual should be inherent in the fact that it's ENTERTAINMENT. The Catholic Church calling for a boycott because it's blasphemy....to borrow a phrase from my youth....NO DUH!!!! We read books or see movies that distort history all the time, pretty much any Mel Gibson historical epic you've seen. Now, it's a bigger deal because the non-truths or distortions contained in the Da Vinci Code deal with Christ, but folks need to realize this is entertainment.

2. Folks need to not be like mindless slaves to whatever information they're presented with. For all the skeptics (sp?) of Christianity looking for an excuse to rip us some more, this movie could provide some great material. But, go back and read number one. People, especially Americans, LOVE CONSPIRACIES. How many movies have some type of cover up by the government or a double cross at the heart of the plot? This is no different. Roswell New Mexico's entire local economy is built on the idea that Aliens may or may not have landed there. People devote their entire lives to Jimmy Hoffa's dissapearance, or JFK's assasination. We love the suspicion of getting to the bottom of what we've been duped about all our lives. If you're looking for a reason to be down on Christianity, it might be easy to see the movie and think that the whole church is a big conspiracy, and that Christ was not really who we've claimed all these years. Dan Brown picked a sensative and deep reaching topic to use as a means to prey on our love of conspiring. Shrewd. Even the previews attract us with the line: "...The biggest cover up in human history." But if people just go see this movie, and take it as fact, that's lame. I don't have much sympathy for a person who would see a movie or read ONE book and take it as a faith shattering or non-faith confirming experience. The same reason I doubted the Passion as a "conversion tool" is the same reason I doubt this movie will be the naysayers paradise. IT IS A MOVIE. A MOVIE. I will go watch it definately, but it's A MOVIE.

3. I hope this pop-culture and Christian culture intersection can lead to some good conversation. Maybe people will be intruiged by the historical person of Jesus, and discover the living Christ today. Maybe kids will show up at youth group with a thirt for knowledge, cause they don't want to have Hollywood tell them what is true any more. I dunno. I liked the article in Yahoo, and we'll see how it goes. I like the fact that church's are giving seminars and encountering this opportunity with education, instead of blind opposition and boycotting. Maybe we are learning something!

....I'll let ya know what I think of the movie!

Peace.