May 18, 2006 10:31 AM
The Da Vinci Code
This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking About Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You.
When The Da Vinci Code was first published, like many Christians, after reading several reviews, I put it on my “Books I’ll Never Read†list. My mind was made up that Christians should avoid like the plague a book which denied the divinity of Jesus and portrayed his relationship with Mary Magdalene as sexual.
However, in the two years since its publication on March 18, 2003, The Da Vinci Code has been translated into 40 languages and has sold 17 million copies. A major movie is in the works, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks – both well-loved movie icons. Clearly, the story has become a cultural touchstone, whether people actually believe its false premise or not.
As for me, I’ve finally ordered a copy and am plowing my way through it. Why? Because I realize that not having read it puts me at a distinct disadvantage should I ever have an opportunity to talk to someone who has. Because if I knew what I was talking about, I’d have a starting point to launch a discussion about the spiritual truth versus the spiritual counterfeit. I’d be ready to defend the divinity of Christ.
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What Does God’s Word Say?
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.â€
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
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Familiarizing ourselves with the things of the world does not necessarily corrupt us, if we are looking at them from a Christian perspective. It’s simply doing our homework as missionaries of light in a dark world, using the current culture to spark conversations.
Compare our situation with that of Paul in Acts 17:16-34:
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.It’s frustrating today to see newspapers, magazines, movie marquees and best seller lists chock full of questionable “religious†ideas and current objects of pagan worship: sex, drugs, materialism.
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
We do our best to share with those who will listen, those with whom we share some common language.
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Sounds like what our children put up with when they go to public high school and secular universities.
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.Paul familiarized himself with their territory and used this knowledge to seize their attention before diving into what he really wanted to tell them about: the Truth. Imagine if he had said, “Don’t you know these idols are all false?†We have the same stultifying impact when we say, “Oh, the Da Vinci Code? I didn’t read it because it’s full of lies,†or “I didn’t let my kids read Harry Potter because wizards are demonic.†How much greater credibility would we have with nonbelievers if we could use the things that interest and influence them away from God as a springboard into the realm of Truth!
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'"
Now Paul contrasts the true God with the idols worshipped in the Athenian culture. Likewise, we can speak today of the distinctives which set God apart from the confusion of other objects of worship.
"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
Paul lets them know that now that Christ has died and risen, men no longer have any excuse to remain ignorant. Once they’ve been shown the truth, they must make a decision. Sounds a lot like the Four Spiritual Laws, which for 50 years Campus Crusade has been using to bring people to Christ. And an important part of the Good News we bring people today.
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed.Some sneered. When we share the gospel, we take the risk of people’s contempt. But some became followers as well. And it’s clear that to maximize our chances of being heard and understood, we need to start from the familiar base of what people already know.
As a Christian, you have a certain relationship with the media. Hopefully, your faith is not compartmentalized from your entertainment choices. Hopefully, you bring a certain Christian perspective to what you find there.
But for those without a spiritual foundation, the media represent the closest thing they have to a religion. Since we were made to worship God, those who don’t know Him are all engaged in trying to fill the void one way or another – which explains the cults which grow around rock groups, tattoos and piercings, TV and movie series, and books like Harry Potter.
Earlier, I posed some representative questions: What is my next-door neighbor thinking? What’s driving my plumber to midlife crisis? What’s wrong with my son’s college professors? What’s eating my coworker with the Darwin fish-bedecked minivan?
The best place to find the answer to these and similar questions might be your local movie theater, where you’ll find the wide-open masses eagerly absorbing Hollywood’s eye-view of history, society, morality – and yes, spirituality.
Witness how one movie – Saving Private Ryan – awakened an almost-oblivious generation to the sacrifice of their fathers in World War II. Or the surge in belief in reincarnation following a slue of 90's films sentimentalizing loved ones returned from the dead.
Film makers like to claim – especially when they’re under the gun – that movies don’t influence, but simply reflect the culture. Actually they do both. And their power to change people’s lives both individually and en masse is enormous.
Paul Harvey has written:
Nobody could have persuaded a generation of Americans toWholesome themes and wholesome dividends are not something we associate with Hollywood these days. While family fare like Sound of Music and Ben Hur once swept the Academy Awards, since the late ’60's, with Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate, each year movies have grown darker, edgier, more morally ambiguous. This year’s winner, Million Dollar Baby was an emotionally compelling film with an agenda about as subtle as a train wreck revealed only at the end: the Romanization of euthanasia.
produce a baby boom, but Shirley Temple movies made every couple
want to have one. Military enlistments for our Air Force were lagging
until almost overnight a movie called Top Gun had recruits standing in line.
On other fronts, recently acclaimed films Cider House Rules (1999) and Vera Drake (2004) have gone to great lengths to portray abortion sympathetically, with the abortionist as a heroic and noble figure.
Some films, like Mystic River, rise to the top of the critical heap without much of an agenda other than pushing darkness and despair.
More and more, it seems, modern film makers have much more than entertainment on their minds. In spite of the fact that family-friendly movies make the best money at box office, the powers that be continue to push a “sophisticated,†amoral, and politically correct worldview – with various axes to grind and envelopes to push – in technically superb and seductive multi-sensory packages.
It may seem only reasonable for Christians to avoid their message altogether.
Then again, for some – especially those desiring to minister to those still walking in darkness – ignoring “bad†movies may be self-defeating. It’s fair to say that the more we turn away from our own culture, the less equipped we are to take it on, to join in the spiritual battle for those whose souls are still in play. After all, God never censored wickedness and evil from Scripture, but used it to show us the weakness of man and the wages of sin.
Those weaknesses and wages remain with us today.
I believe Paul, speaking on Mars Hill, truly cared about those he was going to witness to. Rather than carrying a sign saying, “God Hates Idolaters,†he showed respect for them by demonstrating his understanding of where they were coming from.
I believe that if we truly love our neighbors, our knowledge of what’s going on in the secular arena of ideas gives us a place to start: “Yes, Million Dollar Baby was a powerful movie, but I’m not sure I can go along with the ending.†Nor must we fear contamination from familiarizing ourselves with the things of this world in order to speak to others of the next.
Posted in Culture, Current Affairs, Movies | Permalink
Comments
I think this is a wise decision on your part. I purposely read many, many things that espouse differing viewpoints than my own. For one reason, I want to know what the "oppostion" has to say, not someone else's take on what they say. The other reason, as you say, is so that I can intelligently discuss things with those who hold the opposing viewpoint. It also keeps people from telling you that since you never read it, you don't know what you're talking about.
Posted by: Mothersong | May 19, 2006 1:51 PM
*applause*
If we want to engage our culture, then we need to know what they are thinking. I see the wisdom for saying that new Believers might want to stear clear of some stuff, but once we mature a little, if we want to be a voice in our culture, then we need to know what they're thinking instead of just shoving our opinion down their throat.
Paul knew the culture and USED it to his advantage, when he quoted a famous Greek poet to all the philosophers/idolators on Mars Hill (in the book of Acts)...quoted their own poet to help them see Jesus! Pretty cool, I think, and a good lesson for the rest of us.
Posted by: molly | May 22, 2006 1:09 PM
