The Real Lesson of the Da Vinci Code

I found this post still in draft form from last June. The point still holds, so I decided to go ahead and publish it.



There has of course been much talk about the Da Vinci Code- errors, distortions, how to respond, etc. However, I have not seen enough about what I think is the real lesson for the Church in the whole thing. Anyone with a decent awareness of the bible and history can see the distortions, oversimplifications, etc. In dealing with sources Dan Brown would receive a poor grade in an undergraduate class. The real question then is this: “Why then are so many church members caught up, confused and even convinced by the claims of this book?” Why do I regularly hear of people in churches who are swayed by the book?

A recent U.S. News story touched on this just briefly. At the close of the story a Catholic priest who was interviewed for the story said, "We've been given an opportunity to teach our people what we probably should have been doing a better job of teaching them all along," Indeed! This is the point. The only way such a book could gather such a following is for people to be uninformed of the Bible. In one way this book and movie can be a gift to the church to re-awaken us to the importance of teaching in the church. While pastors have pursued programs and entertainment to draw larger crowds we have largely abdicated our God-given responsibility to teach our people. The Great Commission requires us ‘teach them to obey all that I have commanded you’. We will not have done any good if we draw large crowds only to see them pulled away by false teaching. If we will have long term health and true growth, we, the pastors, must hold fast to the task of teaching our people.