the DaVinci Code dopiness
RLP has a great post on why the Church is completely missing the point by coming out against the DaVinci Code phenomenon here.
This silliness has a long history in the Church, and seems to have something to do with a fundamental loss of perspective. I remember that during my college days the riotous Monty Python movie, "Life of Brian" came out. I will never forget the little exchange after Brian wakes up to find a massive crowd of followers outside his bedroom:
Brian: "You are all individuals!"
Crowd: "Yes. We are all individuals!"
Some guy: "No, we're not!"
Crowd: "SHHHHHHHH!!!!"
But I digress. My church, and much of the Church at large, loudly protested that this movie was anti-Christian and picketed it. I ended up crossing my own church's picket line so I could find out what all the hoopla was about - and spent most of the movie rolling around in the aisle.
Mind you, the XXX version of Cinderella had been playing in the very same movie theatre a few weeks earlier, with no protestation from the church or the Church.
What is that about? (I am not advocating our drawing attention to all that other stuff by picketing it, just calling out the completely different response the same church had to these two movies.)
Perhaps it is because we take ourselves a little too seriously. If anything comes out that threatens our precious monopoly on the truth, we react vociferously. Perhaps we should read the prophets to figure out what we should be getting noisy about. They talk about righteousness as revealed by worship of the true God (not idols) and care for the poor and the stranger among us.
Today, the Church is as embroiled in the power politics of the day is it ever was while the Reformation was brewing. As a result, it has largely lost its prophetic voice -- the voice in the wilderness proclaiming, "The Kingdom of God is near!". Instead, we protest pop culture events like DaVinci.
The good news is that God's truth is so much bigger than our perception of it. We cannot own it, and at some level, defending God's truth is absurd, given that we can't even get our arms around it all. Instead of defending God, let's seek Him.
This silliness has a long history in the Church, and seems to have something to do with a fundamental loss of perspective. I remember that during my college days the riotous Monty Python movie, "Life of Brian" came out. I will never forget the little exchange after Brian wakes up to find a massive crowd of followers outside his bedroom:
Brian: "You are all individuals!"
Crowd: "Yes. We are all individuals!"
Some guy: "No, we're not!"
Crowd: "SHHHHHHHH!!!!"
But I digress. My church, and much of the Church at large, loudly protested that this movie was anti-Christian and picketed it. I ended up crossing my own church's picket line so I could find out what all the hoopla was about - and spent most of the movie rolling around in the aisle.
Mind you, the XXX version of Cinderella had been playing in the very same movie theatre a few weeks earlier, with no protestation from the church or the Church.
What is that about? (I am not advocating our drawing attention to all that other stuff by picketing it, just calling out the completely different response the same church had to these two movies.)
Perhaps it is because we take ourselves a little too seriously. If anything comes out that threatens our precious monopoly on the truth, we react vociferously. Perhaps we should read the prophets to figure out what we should be getting noisy about. They talk about righteousness as revealed by worship of the true God (not idols) and care for the poor and the stranger among us.
Today, the Church is as embroiled in the power politics of the day is it ever was while the Reformation was brewing. As a result, it has largely lost its prophetic voice -- the voice in the wilderness proclaiming, "The Kingdom of God is near!". Instead, we protest pop culture events like DaVinci.
The good news is that God's truth is so much bigger than our perception of it. We cannot own it, and at some level, defending God's truth is absurd, given that we can't even get our arms around it all. Instead of defending God, let's seek Him.
posted by Cliff at 9:12 AM
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