Final Word on the Da Vinci Code

A lot of people have said their piece. I would have opted to stay a silent spectator to this pretending-to-be-religious rollercoaster if not for my temper. Besides, what kind of a writer am I if I would not do my share in plucking out the truth?

Here’s what I have to say:

The Da Vinci Code controversy is not more than a blasphemy to the Christian faith than it is a blasphemy to our being. A movie based on a self-confessed fictitious book being banned in cinemas and even in one city, people out in the streets protesting against fiction, a bestseller being burned just to make a statement, empty arguments among conservatives—I don’t think those are signs that we deserve the faith we pretend to defend.

The Da Vinci Code, contrary to what people have been ranting about, is not a test of our faith but rather a test of our intellect. With the way our leaders and so-called elders, together with a number of “active” youth, react against it, we seem to have flunked the test. We manage to display how much of a baby we are. By doing so, we have just insulted the highly complex mental faculties God blessed us with.


No wonder we are having a hard time moving towards anywhere near progress. We can barely keep a mature mind, let alone an open one, to something which from the start has been declared fiction. Dan Brown said it. Try opening the book. You need not go far to see Dan Brown’s disclaimer. I bet majority of the people dipping their toes in this issue have not read any part the book. They have ripped its pages, burned the cover, and, in the process, wasted their money and energy. Then they added to the flame of their wrath pirated VCD and DVD copies of The Da Vinci Code movie. They might as well have thrown in all pirated discs while they were at it. Edu Manzano would.

We have seen people, active church individuals who are not necessarily priests or nuns, being interviewed on television. Yes they are passionate for their cause but do they sound like they know what they are talking about? No! Because obviously they have not read the book nor have they seen the film. Someone just told them that there is this movie based on some book which challenges the divinity of their god. That is when they panicked. That is when they forgot that, if indeed the devotion of their followers were strong, it will take more than a book or a movie to strip them off of their faith.

I, for one, am more predisposed to lose my faith inside the Church than in front of any form of entertainment. I remember watching The Last Temptation of Christ when I was a child. I cannot recall why I was allowed to see it but I saw it anyway. The said movie presents a more detailed, not to mention a more graphic portrayal of Jesus’ life and relationship with Mary Magdalene. Even with a minor’s level of understanding, I never ended up doubting Jesus’ divinity or questioned my religion. I did not have to hit the age of majority to be able to grasp that what I saw had nothing to do with my faith, that it was just a movie.

Yes, you will seldom see me in Church nowadays, probably even less than seldom. Witnessing the so-called “servants of the Lord” (again, this phrase is not exclusive to those belonging to the religious order) do things which I know their lord would not approve of explains my absence in the religion I was baptized into.

I can hardly understand why “conservatives” are reacting rather late to Dan Brown’s work. The book had been out a year ago, maybe even earlier. It had been a bestseller since then. Meaning it has already reached many people—those who could afford to buy the book, those who had connections to acquire the book even temporarily, and those who had someone willing to share with them the story contained in the book. That is quite a network of our people! It looks like the anti-Da Vinci Coders have not been hanging out in bookstores in the past year or so. Then again, they may be one of those who would rather watch than read thus explaining their underdeveloped brains.

It is such a waste of time and energy debating over Dan Brown’s work. He does not deserve all these attention. First, he is not that good a writer. He may get a star for his flair in cliff-hanging but that is it. Second, The Da Vinci Code is not really an original idea on his part. It was even rumored that another author is suing him of plagiarism. And third, he simply is not worthy. After reading Dan Brown last year, I thought of him as a coward, pushing “his ideas” to the edge then retracting his balls in the end. Dan Brown himself is afraid to commit blasphemy that he sacrificed the conclusion of his story to save his “soul.”

Read the book. See the movie. And laugh at Dan Brown as he takes everything back, everything our leaders, so-called elders, conservatives, and “active” youth are crying against. Only then will you be worthy to say your piece.

COMMENTS

and i never heard the shortsighted hypocrites protest about the jurrassic park books and movies and the possible evilness of cloning prehistoric creatures which god has deemed expendable and should be wiped out extinct via meteorite crash.
tsk tsk.
Posted by: Poli | June 12, 2006 08:14 AM

As what i have always pointed out to my fellow christians, the da vinci code must be viewed as a form of entertainment not as a theology. that is cut and dried.
Posted by: Adam | July 2, 2006 05:45 PM