The other day I was in Bern when Muslims were making a peaceful, if quite noisy, protest against the Danish newspaper caricatures of Mohammed, calling for "freedom of the press / speech, without insulting" religion. Elsewhere in the world the protests have not been as peaceable, and in some Islamic countries churches have been fire-bombed and Christians attacked. One must at least wonder whether there is a double standard at work here! Having a church fire-bombed would seem to be rather further up the "insult scale" than publishing a satirical cartoon. Some might respond, "An insult to 'The Prophet' is an attack on people's cherished beliefs and on a holy figure."
Now there is a new film due out in May, the cinema version of a well known book. No, it is not the film version of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, though if it were, the fatwa, or religious edict, condemning Rushdie to death (which has just been renewed on Valentine's Day, the anniversary of the 1989 edict by Ayatollah Khomeini, along with a $2.8 million bounty for Rushdie's head) would no doubt be extended to include the makers of the film. (Check on the Internet if you want to know more.) The new Hollywood blockbuster is the film version of The Da Vinci Code, which is likely to be seen as "insulting" by Christians from across the globe
Will the film version of the book be greeted by mass protest in the streets, will foreign ministers and other leaders call for restraint, and will government ministers who go to see the film be threatened with the sack? Or will those Christians who grumble about "blasphemy" be told to grow up and stop making a lot of fuss about nothing?
Yet The Da Vinci Code, in print or on the screen, is an attack on the cherished beliefs of many millions of people, and it strikes not just at a holy figure, but at the man that Christians believe is not only a man but also God himself in human form. The novel's claims include: that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, that he had children who were shepherded off to the south of France, that Jesus' divinity came late in a close vote at the council of Nicaea in AD 325, that many gospels not found in the Bible portray a strictly human Jesus, a message that was suppressed after orthodoxy gained its victory, and that Leonardo Da Vinci knew all of this and "coded" some of his paintings accordingly.
What should the Christian response to this nonsense be? Should we organise a demonstration in the Bundesplatz, or boycott the cinemas that show the film? Or would that sort of response simply confirm the suspicions that many will have: "that there must be some truth in what is being alleged?"
Well, some Christians have already responded, to the book a couple of years ago, showing what nonsense it really is, and more recently to the film, discussing how Christians should react to the arrival of the film. Richard Mouw, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, in an essay on, "Why Christians Ought to See the Movie," says: "It's going to be water cooler conversation, so Christians need to take a deep breath, buy the book and shell out the money for the movie. Then we need to educate Christians about what all this means. We need to help them answer someone who says, 'So how do you know Jesus didn't get married?'"
Darrell Bock, a professor of New Testament studies, and author of "Breaking the Da Vinci Code", says: "How do you solve a problem like The Da Vinci Code? Simply put, you take up the challenge to show that Jesus is, as he claimed, the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) - both in history and in one's own life." To do this we need to learn about the origins of our faith, and be able to explain how all of us need what Jesus offers, namely forgiveness of sins and an ongoing, eternal relationship with God.
Richard Mouw and Darrell Bock are two of the writers on an intriguing website: www.thedavincichallenge.com, being offered by Sony Pictures to opponents of the film. This is obviously good marketing, and, no doubt, Sony sees it as a way of defusing some of the criticism they expect. However, it also offers Christians an opportunity to prepare for the film, and for many other attacks on the Christian faith that are likely to come our way. Also worth looking at is the website of the magazine Christianity Today, which includes an article by Collin Hansen, Breaking The Da Vinci Code, which is a reasonably succinct account of why the novel is nonsense.
Richard Mouw concludes: "As The Da Vinci Code hits theatre screens, Christians will be surrounded by people who are curious about spiritual matters that are generally not topics of polite conversation in our society. Believers must earnestly pray for open minds among the curious, and for their own ability to intelligently and compassionately interact on issues that are often contentious and emotionally charged. We must also pray for wise, non-hysterical leadership to emerge from within the community of believers in response to this challenge to Christian orthodoxy."
Yours in Christ,
Richard Pamplin