Garth George: Unholy row over fiction just a storm in a chalice

The film of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code opens in cinemas throughout New Zealand today and around the world tomorrow. And you can bet that those cinemas will be packed for days, perhaps weeks, to come.

Brown, and all the others who stand to make millions from the book, the movie and all the peripheral paraphernalia that surround it must be thanking their lucky stars for the Christian Church - or parts of it, anyway.

Because churchmen and women worldwide have kicked up such an unholy uproar over Brown's publishing phenomenon that they have provided publicity for the book and the film worth untold millions of dollars.

More than a dozen books, hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and scores of pamphlets have been written to refute Brown's fiction; an endless number of television, DVD and radio programmes have set out to do the same; thousands of pulpits have resounded with denunciations; and type "The Da Vinci Code" into Google and you'll get 35,100,000 responses.

The whole thing is insane. How can you refute fiction, for heaven's sake? The book has no more validity than, for instance, one of Bernard Cornwell's wonderful historical fictions about ancient Britain.

As Dr Tim Cooper, a lecturer in church history in Otago University's department of theology, points out: "There is nothing - and I really do mean nothing - in the book that should unsettle any Christian's confidence in the faith.

"As a work of fiction, as a heart-stopping, mind-stretching thriller, it is very good - brilliant even. But as a work of history it is woeful. It is so far wrong it is almost laughable."

A point, incidentally, which has been given emphasis by the lengths to which Brown has gone to present his fiction as fact. He has failed. A comprehensive poll in the United States revealed last week that only 6 per cent of the people who have read the book believe it.

Brown's stance is merely a cynical manipulation for gain, but then so is much of the claptrap that has been written and spouted in the Church.

As Phil Cooke, a Californian producer, media coach and consultant to faith-based organisations, writes: "I'm not so sure God really needs defending. There are many believers out there who seem to thrive on their ability to defend the faith ...

"God can handle this film and anything else quite well by himself. I'm frequently reminded that although God graciously allows me to take part in his eternal plan, he certainly doesn't need me.

"The truth is, our job isn't to defend the honour of God ... Our job is to reach the world with a message of hope - to tell them the good new of Jesus Christ. Often, spending our time building fortresses to defend the faith just distracts us from our real assignment."

Hear, hear!

There are some Christians, of course, who have taken Brown's doodlings personally. Barbara Nicolosi, an American who trains committed Christians to work in the Hollywood film industry, puts it thus: "This film is based on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge of honour, and I intend to stay far away from it.

"I love Jesus. It makes me physically sick to entertain discussion about the ways in which the defining acts of his life - his passion, resurrection and establishment of the Church - could be a diabolical scam ... It would make me sick to hear salacious lies about anyone I love; how much more my saviour?"

With that view I sympathise, as I did with those offended by the South Park "Bloody Mary" episode, Popetown and Virgin in a Condom. But Ms Nicolosi has the right answer: she doesn't go to see things she finds personally offensive. Similarly offended Christians take note.

One of the silliest diatribes I have read comes from the pen of Holly Meade, whose daily radio programme for Campus Crusade for Christ is heard on more than 700 stations in the US and round the world.

An article she wrote distributed by a Christian news agency began: "The Da Vinci Code book has already rocked the beliefs of Christians and non-believers alike. However, when the world premiere of the movie occurs it could be the launching of the most controversial period in the history of the modern Church."

Did you ever hear such nonsense? I am a Christian and the book and the movie haven't as much as rippled my faith - or that of any of my many Christian friends.

In the timeless words of the Apostles Creed, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

"And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

"I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen."

No fictional thriller is going to change that, no matter how many copies it sells. This whole business is merely a storm in a chalice, and before the year is out will have been largely forgotten.

After all, Jesus himself told us that the very gates of hell would not prevail against his Church. The Dan Browns of this world don't even have a look in.