For the Brainless

posted by BH

As you read this, millions of people are flocking to movie theaters across the country to see the adaptation of The DaVinci Code. Some are going because they loved the book. Some are going because they hated the book. Some are there because they want to see what all the hubub is about, while some just want to see a good mystery. Religious groups have lined up outside theaters in protest, afraid that their 2000 year-old faith based on the teachings of the Son of God cannot withstand a historical fiction written by a guy who's barely 50. It always seems that the best way to encourage self-exploration and spirituality is to ask people to ensure their ignorance.

While the occasional review has been positive, the bulk of them have been decidedly negative, calling the movie boring and long. Here's the thing. The book was boring. It wasn't that good. For being such a short book, it was kind of a long read. There is no literary reason this book was any more accomplished than anything else on the bookshelf. What stirred this book's sales was controversy. An author doesn't sell forty million copies unless there's a little help from outside forces. How many Christians, after hearing the pastor denounce the book as gnostic lies, bought it out of curiosity? How many people sat around their work lounges on lunch breaks talking about their newfound knowledge of the lineage of Jesus, and how, oh my God, it could be true because there are all these gospels out there that didn't make it into the Bible because the early church didn't think they belonged.... A book doesn't generally lead to scholar after doctor after professor writing books about...the book. Really, it isn' Dan Brown's best book. Angels and Demons was way, way, way better. It was like The DaVinci Code, in that it revolved around corruption within the church, specifically, The Vatican, but it wasn't about Jesus. Therin lies the gold. Write a controversial book with any sort of mention of Jesus being something other than our Renneisance Italian white guy, and Christians around the world act like Satan has a firm grip on America.

Even though I thought the book was kind of bluh, I'm going to see The DaVinci Code. I like Tom Hanks. I like that he's from Red Bluff. I like that Brown wrote a book about Jesus, no matter what he wrote about Jesus. To the people who take offense to the book and subsequent movie based solely on the idea that it strays significantly from The Bible, I feel bad. You have faith, but you really don't have any faith. You know the Bible. Maybe you have faith in The Bible. But you know little about faith.