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Warning: **Spoilers!** If you haven’t read the book, don’t read this post! Run out of your cave and read the book right now so you can keep up with the rest of civilization!

Pretty much everyone in the world has heard of Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code, and most people have actually read it. The plagiarism trial and upcoming movie have revived all the uproar originated by the book.

The story is woven around a theory presented over two decades ago in another book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Both books present the idea that a secret society, the Priory of Sion, has been protecting a shocking secret about the life of Jesus – that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their daughter Sarah was the beginning of a royal line that exists, in secret, to this day. The books also suggest that this secret was covered up by the Church and deliberately excluded from the Bible.

Needless to say, this has kinda pissed off thousands of Christians and Catholics, who have based their entire religion on the idea that Jesus was strictly divine. In addition, the threatening characters of the DVC are members of Opus Dei or the Catholic Church, so obviously they’ve not happy about being portrayed as villains.
Archbishop Angelo Amato, the number two official in the Vatican doctrinal office, today addressed a Catholic conference in Rome, called the book "stridently anti-Christian... full of calumnies, offences and historical and theological errors regarding Jesus, the Gospels and the Church� and asked attendees to boycott the film. He whined that if "such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust they would have justly provoked a world uprising… Instead, if they are directed against the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished."

Now, I have to wonder if the Archbishop actually read the book. He certainly didn’t read it with an open mind – he must have approached it with the assumption that an opposing view must be inherently antagonistic to his own. I have a number of Christian/Catholic friends who refused to read the book because they felt it bashed on Christianity.

I read The Da Vinci Code. And, because I’m a nerd like that, I went and read Holy Blood, Holy Grail (it’s a fat book and thick reading – not for the faint of heart). And I examined what the authors had to say about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei. And the message was this: Appearances can be deceiving. The truth may be hidden – or may just be a matter of interpretation.

Members of the Catholic Church and Opus Dei appear to be the villains of DVC... but they are vindicated by the end. They are revealed to be good, well-meaning people, the unfortunate pawns of a murderous, devious individual (who, I may point out, is not a member of any Catholic organization). There are no pure villains in this book – all the characters are sincerely devoted to their beliefs and strive to do what they feel is best for the world. The only “bad guys� are the ones who are willing to kill to reach their ends.

Dan Brown, through his main character Robert Langdon, actually argues on the side of the Catholic Church. He describes religion as a way of understanding the world, and argues that even it doesn’t really matter if the religion is built on true “facts� or created “myths,� because it is the act of believing that helps millions of people lead better lives. The character insists that the present leaders of the Church are wise, holy men – not members of a murderous conspiracy to silence rebel forces.

HBHG likewise makes no claims that Christianity is evil or wrong – perhaps just missing a few pieces of the puzzle. The authors of HBHG are also very careful to present their theory as just that – a theory. Not fact, not anything that can be proved, because the motives of historical figures can only be guessed at. Almost every chapter implies the impossibility of proving anything: Such-and-such happened. Fifty years before, this other thing happened. Could the other thing have been the cause of such-and-such? This guy might have known this other guy; did they do this thing because they were both members of the same secret society, or for some completely innocuous reason? This might be the reason behind all of this; but it’s just an idea.

So these books don’t bash on religion at all – in fact, they assert that belief, that not knowing but accepting all possibilities, is a beautiful thing. They do not attempt to diminish the teachings of Jesus or their importance. They do not even address whether Jesus was a divine being or strictly a mortal, historical human – they only propose that he was mortal/human enough to have sired a human child. Which is really not all that far-fetched, considering Jesus himself was born of a human mother.

The Archbishop does have a point about the books containing “theological errors.� The authors do choose to interpret biblical and historical texts in debatable ways; they make connections or infer meanings where none might exist. But the Church itself has been guilty of this before – the popular perception of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute was the result of a faulty interpretation by a Catholic bishop; the Vatican only recently acknowledged that there is no textual basis whatsoever to support the designation of prostitute. So the Archbishop could cut Dan Brown a little slack. His theories are no less plausible than anything presented by the Catholic faith – depending on how you wish to interpret things.

Where the Archbishop starts to lose credibility is his implication that DVC and HBHG deserve to be the subject of a “world uprising,� that being reviled by millions of Catholic faithful would be just punishment. This is similar to the fury and bloodshed by some Muslims recently caused by irreverent cartoons. Is this really the sort of thing we want to encourage? Every time someone aims the smallest slight against your religion, you are fully justified in resorting to hate, censorship, and violence? What kind of God would want that? Would it make you more right, more holy? This man is one of the highest ranking officials in the Vatican – shouldn’t he be urging Catholics to stay strong in their faith, promote their truth, and try to help others not to believe misinformation distributed by popular culture? Wouldn’t that be the “Christian� thing to do?

Come to think of it, isn’t that what Robert Langdon tries to do? Ask people to consider all the information for themselves, and not believe everything they’ve been told without question?

Personally, I think this Archbishop is a bit of a hater, and the Pope ought to smack him upside the head and tell him to chill-lax. Personally, I don’t think it would demean Jesus at all if he had married and had a child. Personally, I don’t think the details matter. I don’t think what you believe – Orthodox Jew, lapsed Catholic, candle-lovin’ Wiccan, observant Muslim, groovy Venice-Beach-Buddhism, even atheism – if the how of believing makes you a good person, makes you be good to other people. I consider myself a person of faith, and pray in my own way to my own understanding of God; but I know my way is not for everyone. So I consciously and actively try to be understanding and supportive of all religions and all levels of devotion.

So go read The Da Vinci Code. Go read the Bible. Go read the Koran. Go read everything. You don’t have to believe it. But at least maybe you can begin to understand it.

Posted in don’t read this post! | Warning: **Spoilers!** If you haven’t read the book Teresa the Great Rides Again | | | | 511 reads