THE DA VINCI CODE?

Love it or loath it it certainly is a phenomenon! I'm referring of course to the "Da Vinci Code" It's publishers are boasting that it will outsell the Bible- well maybe in an airport bookstore for a few weeks- let's see how it's doing 100 years from now! Perhaps the question Christians need to ask is why IS it so popular! After all the story line is mediocre at best. What is unique is that by combining airport fiction,supposed facts and a deadly religious conspiracy spanning centuries some button is activated! It seems to me that there are at least two discernible forces at work: Firstly there is Man's innate hostility to the simple truth of the gospel. As believers we must take seriously the declaration of Scripture : "The natural mind is hostile to God" Rom 8:7 The willingness to believe any attack on the gospel - no matter how transparently false and obviously motivated by money is a sober testimony to our total depravity!
Secondly a willingness to ascribe to Roman Catholicism murderous capacity to suppress truth. The fact of course is that for centuries Rome did indeed use lethal force to suppress all her enemies orthodox and heretical alike. Brown has tapped into a rich subterranean vein of anticlericalism and anticatholicsm that is shared with different emphasis in both continental Europe and North America. The fact that he has for what ever reason conflated Christian orthodoxy and Roman abuse of power is unfortunate. The results have been interesting . I purchased a DVD - produced by a mainline evangelical group in the US challenging the Da Vinci Code. Before long it was obvious that as well as Evangelical worthies like Chuck Missler the DVD also featured an extreme Roman Catholic apologist. He used the opportunity to undermine the evangelical case for the non canonicity of the Apochrapha! Also the DVD stated that Opus Dei was a similar organisation to the Navigators- just getting together to promote discipleship! For those who don't know Opus Dei is a conservative Roman Catholic Society deeply committed to all the Tridentine anti evangelical doctrines of Rome. And though Dan Brown makes some silly mistakes in his portrayal of the Society he is correct in that they do promote and practice corporal "mortification" -including self flagellation. Not quite the Navigators after all!
In our reaction to the Da Vinci Code we need to be careful who we endorse on the way! My enemy's enemy may not be my friend! Wisdom is indeed called for. If you are interested in following through the Biblical Christian answers to the Da Vinci Code, the following site is great! http://www.rbcdavincicode.org/