Why is movieguide.org so afraid?
The website movieguide.org today has published a "white paper" concerning the May 19 release of The Da Vinci Code. It is safe to say that Ted Baehr does not like the movie. It is his right to feel offended by it and to encourage individuals to boycott the movie.
However, the White Paper's rhetoric seems a bit excessive. Listen to some of its statements:
The release of this movie is characterized as war on Christianity... a vicious attack on Christianity unprecedented in the history of Hollywood.
The Da Vinci Code, it asserts, presents blasphemous fiction as fact, ... denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, ... alleges Jesus married Mary Magdalene with whom [he] had a child, ... falsely claims the Christian church has historically hidden these 'facts' through deception, murder and conspiracy, ... [and] has already caused great harm.
Why is The Da Vinci Code so dangerous? Because many Christians are already theologically malnourished; how will they withstand the assault of distortions, lies and bigotry from The Da Vinci Code.... We must combat The Da Vinci Code's attack on Jesus, the Bible, and the very integrity of the Christian faith.
This sounds like the rhetoric of some very frightened people, and I very frankly do not understand Baehr's alarm. It seems to me that the Christian movement has withstood challenges far greater than a paperback novel over the past two millennia. Among these, to name just a few:
• The church survived the execution of Jesus of Nazareth by the Roman Empire just three years after he began his ministry. In all probability, the movement should have withered and died, right then and there...
• The church has survived the persecution and martyrdom of countless believers, not only in the first few centuries of the church but in other times and places when Christians have dared to witness to their faith and to speak unpopular truth in the face of unjust social conditions...
• The church has survived the co-option of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine who made it into a State Religion, who imposed onto it an orthodoxy formulated by the Council of Nicea, and who utterly changed the nature of its worship and lifestyle...
• The church has survived the unconscionable behavior of many unwise leaders of the church who instigated violence in the name of Jesus. Remember the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the bombing of family planning clinics?
• The church has survived the unbending rigidity of Christian fundamentalists who, like fundamentalists of all faiths, claim to possess the only faithful interpretation of the truth...
Such offenses have posed—and continue to pose—a far greater danger to the church, its faith, and its life, and yet somehow, by the grace of God, the movement begun by a Palestinian rabbi in the first century is still alive. If the church can overcome all of these assaults, some self-imposed and others imposed from without, surely it will survive the release of a Hollywood movie.
Allow me this brief theological commentary: The Da Vinci Code is just a novel. It is a good read, but it's fiction. It explores the imaginative possibility that Jesus might have been married, that Jesus might have fathered a child, that Mary Magdalene might have been his wife. The gospels are completely silent on the question of whether Jesus married. It is not impossible. It might actually be the case. It might not be the case. But whether or not Jesus was married, it does not affect his message in the least. It does not diminish the spiritual genius reflected in the Sermon on the Mount. It does not detract from the ethical imperative of the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor. It does not quiet the church's voice from speaking truth to power in our day. It does not prevent Jesus' followers from ministering to the hungry and thirsty, the naked and homeless, the sick and the prisoners. It does not stand in the way of our solidarity with those who are oppressed.
Why is movieguide.org so afraid?
However, the White Paper's rhetoric seems a bit excessive. Listen to some of its statements:
The release of this movie is characterized as war on Christianity... a vicious attack on Christianity unprecedented in the history of Hollywood.
The Da Vinci Code, it asserts, presents blasphemous fiction as fact, ... denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, ... alleges Jesus married Mary Magdalene with whom [he] had a child, ... falsely claims the Christian church has historically hidden these 'facts' through deception, murder and conspiracy, ... [and] has already caused great harm.
Why is The Da Vinci Code so dangerous? Because many Christians are already theologically malnourished; how will they withstand the assault of distortions, lies and bigotry from The Da Vinci Code.... We must combat The Da Vinci Code's attack on Jesus, the Bible, and the very integrity of the Christian faith.
This sounds like the rhetoric of some very frightened people, and I very frankly do not understand Baehr's alarm. It seems to me that the Christian movement has withstood challenges far greater than a paperback novel over the past two millennia. Among these, to name just a few:
• The church survived the execution of Jesus of Nazareth by the Roman Empire just three years after he began his ministry. In all probability, the movement should have withered and died, right then and there...
• The church has survived the persecution and martyrdom of countless believers, not only in the first few centuries of the church but in other times and places when Christians have dared to witness to their faith and to speak unpopular truth in the face of unjust social conditions...
• The church has survived the co-option of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine who made it into a State Religion, who imposed onto it an orthodoxy formulated by the Council of Nicea, and who utterly changed the nature of its worship and lifestyle...
• The church has survived the unconscionable behavior of many unwise leaders of the church who instigated violence in the name of Jesus. Remember the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the bombing of family planning clinics?
• The church has survived the unbending rigidity of Christian fundamentalists who, like fundamentalists of all faiths, claim to possess the only faithful interpretation of the truth...
Such offenses have posed—and continue to pose—a far greater danger to the church, its faith, and its life, and yet somehow, by the grace of God, the movement begun by a Palestinian rabbi in the first century is still alive. If the church can overcome all of these assaults, some self-imposed and others imposed from without, surely it will survive the release of a Hollywood movie.
Allow me this brief theological commentary: The Da Vinci Code is just a novel. It is a good read, but it's fiction. It explores the imaginative possibility that Jesus might have been married, that Jesus might have fathered a child, that Mary Magdalene might have been his wife. The gospels are completely silent on the question of whether Jesus married. It is not impossible. It might actually be the case. It might not be the case. But whether or not Jesus was married, it does not affect his message in the least. It does not diminish the spiritual genius reflected in the Sermon on the Mount. It does not detract from the ethical imperative of the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor. It does not quiet the church's voice from speaking truth to power in our day. It does not prevent Jesus' followers from ministering to the hungry and thirsty, the naked and homeless, the sick and the prisoners. It does not stand in the way of our solidarity with those who are oppressed.
Why is movieguide.org so afraid?
posted by David Ourisman at 3:30 PM
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