Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Da Vinci Code Hubbub

The Da Vinci Code Movie is coming out this week. I get the feeling that there are some Christians who are afraid Dan Brown’s story will somehow usher in some kind of evil darkness devoid of Christian thought.

Google “da vinci code Christian” and you find that the Da Vinci Code needs debunking, breaking, deciphering, dismantling, and cracking. You can find out the truth about it, whether it’s fact or fiction, and why it has appeal. And every one of those links is on the opening search page. I didn’t have to hunt for them. Sheesh!

I got an email Jerry Falwell this morning with the subject line “The Da Vinci Code Deception.” My first instinct was to delete it. I do that a lot with his stuff because I’ve grown tired of his combative approach to every issue and what I perceive as his need to be right about everything.

But as I started thinking about writing this, I went back into my deleted items because his stuff is usually pretty well thought out, even if it is belligerent. I was hugely disappointed to find it was just an advertisement hawking a book of his own on the subject!

Our church has even had a few weekend messages devoted to the subject. I think they were a good idea because the approach was to try to give folks an idea of what all the hubbub is about.

Now here’s my thing: Are Christian leaders really afraid that the Scriptures that have withstood assaults for millennia are suddenly going to collapse because some guy writes a novel? Come on!

If I based my world view on something that flimsy, I would want it shaken up a bit!

I want to base my life on capital ‘T’ Truth. If some new mystery/thriller was all it took to shake my belief system then how true could it be?

The author even claims it as fiction. Does he stir the pot and muddy the waters? Of course he does. I bet he thinks the more controversy, the better since it equals free publicity. Publicity sells books and lines his pockets. If you read Dan Brown’s faqs you’ll see what I mean.

So we are in a rather ironic situation where Christians, in their effort to stand for truth and confront evil, are doing all the heavy lifting to make sure that the offending book gets as wide an audience as possible.

I think they’ve missed the point. God is big enough to manage His own reputation. He doesn’t need my help. (Sure I try to do little things to make Him look good. But that’s really more for my benefit than His. It’s not like His reputation is dependant on me!)

The problem is most people have never put any real effort into figuring out what they actually believe so they end up chasing what ever new idea comes along. It’s as futile as chasing the wind.

Sailors know you don’t chase the wind. You certainly can’t control it. The wind is going to blow where it will. All a good sailor can do is set his sails to the best of his ability so he can harness the wind to get where he wants to go.

When folks chase each new idea that comes along they are like a sailor steering all over the compass trying to chase the wind.

If they actually invested some time getting familiar with the source documentation, they might actually come to understand the things they believe and not be so prone to wander off after the next big thing. They could set their sails based on that truth and steer a straight course through life.

It’s high time Christians got a little passionate about the things they are for and stopped worrying so much about all the things they are against!


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liz Strauss recommended your blog and I now come here on a daily basis. I like what I read because I can feel your commitment. Even though I'm not a Christian...at least not in an institutional way.
I relate to the metaphor of "chasing the wind". Going with what is given and dealing with it trustfully. Well put!

Chris Cree said...

Thanks for your comment Tania. I appreciate your honesty and willingness to read even though you are a skeptic.

I looked around at a lot of different ideas before I accepted the things Jesus had to say. I was very much a skeptic myself and I saw a lot of bad example of Christians around me. I got really hung up on the huge amount of hypocrisy that’s out there.

But it’s like I told my best friend this morning, talking about another subject:

Just because the messenger is a hypocrite doesn’t necessarily mean the message is invalid. Once I was willing to look past all of Jesus’ imperfect followers, it was much easier for me to become one myself. And I’m still imperfect. Just ask my wife!

Now it’s like I have a safe harbor during the storms of life. And I can steer a steady course regardless of which way the winds blow because I’m following an unwavering steady compass. Without core unchanging truth I was drifting and rudderless.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your profound response! I appreciate it!
My steady course comes from following my inner voice. I consider it God's voice. It's creating/building my sense of being harboured.
No, I'm not a sceptic at all.
I think we share the feeling of being sup-ported by a greater power. Or at least this is what the sub-text of your blog feels like to me.

Smiles, Tania

Chris Cree said...

Tania,

I found my own inner voice could not be trusted as a reliable source of guidance. I am a fickle and emotional person. There are things I should do that I don’t feel like doing and sometimes I feel like doing things that I really should not.

And I am smart enough that I rationalized my way into making some poor choices when I relied on my own inner voice.

That is my point about looking for an outside anchor point of known truth. It is a filter by which I can test my inner voice and feelings to be sure I am making wise choices.

In rough weather the captain looks to the lighthouse as a reference point to steer by. He doesn’t look in at his own ship which is being tossed about. When the storms are raging, he must have a fixed reference point that he knows is not moving. Otherwise he’ll hit the rocks as often as not.

That’s why I now use the Bible as my fixed reference point.

Of course it doesn’t mean I am always on course. I still make mistakes. But now I have something to compare with and I can get back on track more quickly because my point of reference doesn’t move. It took me much longer to recover from my mistakes when I only had my inner voice to go by.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your profound insight. I'm "chewing" on it. The point of reference...
You have given me quite a food of thought.
Best
Tania

Voice in the Wilderness said...

Completely agree. COMPLETELY. Like the "Last Temptation of Christ" and "Y2K" - we will be wondering what all the hubbub was about a year from now. The only winners here are the publishers (secular and Christian) and the movie studios.

Chris Cree said...

Thanks for the comment, Voice. If we can talk about the book/movie without coming unhinged than there could be lots of winners.

Unfortnately, most Christians out there seem to be paniced whiners instead which only adds to the noise level without helping anyone.

I like your DaVinci Code Conclusions too. Good Stuff.