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Monday, May 7

The DaVinci Code

I'm aware that this post is a little behind the times as all the hype and controversy over the Davinci Code has already come and gone.
However, I hadn't had the chance to read the book or watch the movie until last weekend. So my husband and I rented it on Saturday night as it was rainy and we had no where exciting to go.

I can see why the church was in such a fluff about the movie. (besides the fact that churches often like a good "fluffing" for no good reason)
I understand that the premise of Jesus being married and having children being blaspheme and sacrilege etc. etc. yadda yadda yadda
Clearly, nobody in the church is going to like that idea.
This did not offend me.
I thought, "well that's an interesting idea, highly improbable since the word of God says nothing at all about it, but the author took the time to think about the world-wide reprecussions of such a "discovery" and that was creative of him."

But I was not offended by this. I just shrugged it off as total nonsense.
This is not to say that the movie did not offend me. It did. I was offended for different reasons than the outrage offered up by the church on behalf of Christians.

This is what offended me...

The idea of the church being the source of violence, war and oppression on the earth is a disturbing claim. The notion that ending the power of the church (by disproving Christ's divinity) would end all war, violence and oppression on the earth is disturbing to me.
It is a subtle sort of hate-mongering aimed at Christians. To me it is reminiscent of propoganda against one particular race or religion, and that never ends well.

This is very dangerous in light of an "emergent church generation" that is frustrated with the structure of the church as an organization. Its too easy to hop on board the church-bashing wagon these days. I'll openly admit that I have my beef with the church at large, but to say that they are the source of of violence, war and oppression is both unfair, and untrue.

This is untrue because there are many civilizations and cultures in the world that experienced war, slavery, violence and oppression before, during and after the introduction of Christianity.
I do not believe that the world without the church would have been an utopian holiday.

This is unfair because we live in a culture with a growing social pressure towards tolerance for all races, ethnicity and religions except Christianity. This philosophy seems reasonable to many people who work in the humanities because "Christianity had its turn being the majority and look at the damage it did." (Again, not arguing that the church has done no damage to our culture in its hay day)
My point is that this age of tolerance can not exempt Christians from having a voice. Simply because past church practises have left much to be desired, this does not mean that all Christian principles should be dismissed as antiquated or irrelevant.
In fact, if such a film had been produced about any other religions, there would have been riots in the streets and the film would have been widely disreputed as hate-mongering. But since the target was the Christian (mostly Catholic) church, its fair game.

The other thing that I thought was interesting was that the author claimed that the key to disempowering the church was in it's separation from the divinity of Christ. Ie) Without Jesus being God-Incarnate, Christianity would have no basis as a faith and the power of the organized church would dissolve.

Wouldn't it be nice if that were true?
Sadly, the power of the various world-wide Christian denominations would not fall to pieces by being separated from Christ. This is the difference between Christianity-the relationship with Jesus and Christianity (whatever the denomination) -the Church Culture Club.

This is sort of the point of the emergent churches. When is the church "an organic being formed in worship with a connection to God" and when is it a social club with membership fees and a political agenda?

I thought the movie was thought provoking (obviously) but I did find it disturbing. The fact that blatant hate-mongering against any religion went unchallenged in our super-tolerant society upset me. And that is my two cents about that!
Erica at 10:31 PM

7 Comments:

Blogger Rebecca said...

Hey Ric...what do we do then with history...like the Crusades, etc? And what do we do with war and terrorism of any kind that is linked to religion? Like the war in Iraq with the US (God fearing religious country)...I am glad you did not get wrapped up in the churches fluff over the movie (book) and that you have a really good mind and thought process.

2:22 AM  
Blogger Erica said...

Rebecca,
I think the only thing the church can do about the history of wrongs it has committed against the world, is apologize, make amends... reconciliation is required. (Don't think it'll ever happen but that is another story)
I was not saying that the church has done NO wrong, I am saying that they are not responsible for ALL wrong.

Thanks for reading my very long post. I think many people click on the site, see a long post and just click out again. Thanks for taking the time!

10:47 AM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

Well.. I think they should read...it is true, some people say that if you write a long post they click out...but I just ignore them, because - after all - your blog is about what you want to say and show....The REAL readers will always be ther....which brings me to my question...where the heck is your Mum?? Has she given in to Northern Life and taken up residence at the Bingo Hall? Or has she divorced all of us in Blog World????

1:41 PM  
Blogger Erica said...

Rebecca,
Personally I think she is hanging out at the T.I. trying to pick up empties to bring home to Relic!!!
ha ha ha
Just kidding, Relic gets his own bottles!

8:55 PM  
Blogger Jude said...

I read the book. I'm amazed at the reports that say people actually think this is based on fact and not fictitious conjecture for the sake of the story. But I digress.

I agree. A lot of screwed up things have been done in the name of Christ by those who claim to be the church. That is PART of the story. The other part is the blessings that the church has brought into the world that would not be here would it not be for people wanting to serve Jesus. To say this world would be a better place without Christianity is to put the blinders on and ignore the majority of what has happened over the centuries. Examples: the roots of feminism and social work are in the church. The defeat of slavery came at the hands of faith-blessed people. Schools, hospitals and other charitable and non-profit organizations exist by the 1000s in the name of Christ.

Jesus talked about his kingdom being like yeast, slowly working it's way through. I'm convinced we aren't even aware of most of what Christ, through the church, has done that impacts our lives every day, every second, because it is so quiet, so sneeky. We live in a culture that was created out of values that arose from Judeo-Christian beliefs. That people no longer recognize their source says a lot about our abiity to follow history, but not a lot about the evils of the church.

11:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i didn't get what the big hype was... i read it and thought it was lame. i figured out who the killer was right away. it was obvious where the grail was.

lame.

i have been able to talk about church history, how the bible came to be, and jesus a lot of times because of it. that's cool.

the church isn't always bad. lots of times it is - read fox's book of martyrs. read the history of martin luthor (that's the craziest - catholics kill his guys, he kills the catholics, then they gang up and kill the jews).

those guys aren't me, though. we're the church now.

10:58 PM  
Blogger Lynne said...

We haven't seen it yet either. Maybe we'll rent it and come up with our own offenses. hee hee

(P.S. I read your long posts because you always have something impacting to say to all of us.)

11:59 AM  

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