Monday, February 06, 2006

Da Idiot Code

On the local news last night I saw this bit:

"An Indiana minister is claiming the best selling novel 'The Da Vinci Code' is a distorted picture of the history of Christianity....He says the book attacks Christianity and much of what Christians have been taught to believe. He says even thought the book is a novel-- it's done in such a way that it's hard to tell fact from fiction. `Shallow as it is the book is a weapon being used to discredit the Christian faith,' said Pastor Stephan Munsey."

I can just hear him now (celebrity idiot minister voice impersonated):

"My brothers and sisters, those who oppressed us stoned Stephen and crucified Peter upside down. They threw our fellow believers to the lions and put them to the sword. But now, we face our greatest challenge, as our Lord, he who created the earth and the heavens and conquered death for our sake, must now do battle with POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT!!"

Oh please. It's a book meant for beach reading and killing time on an airplane, and it will be a movie meant to idle away a couple of escapist hours. If a potboiler book and a popcorn movie can shake your faith, then there isn't much there to shake.

Now I'm a big fan of the Dan Brown novels (I loved Angels and Demons in particular) but these WORKS OF FICTION are about as relevant to theology and history as Fox News is to...news. I would suggest that the good reverend concentrate on the many evils that do inhabit the world rather than inventing demons from novels and matinee movies.

 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The thing that irritates me most is that authors pitch things as fact and truth, when really they are not.

Dan Brown takes historicaly trivia and sells this theory as fact. It's funny, I heard him say something to the effect of "you can't really disprove the things this book says." Well, it's hard to disprove the Flying Spaghetti Monster too, that doesn't mean it's valid.

drmagoo said...

I think what the reverend is trying to say is that his parishoners are too stupid to distinguish fiction from reality. They're the sort who write letters to movie characters and agree with things that Bush says.