Groups ready to dispute 'Da Vinci Code'

~ Local church leaders want to make sure people know the book and the upcoming film are fiction.

The release of the feature film based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" is still two months away, but church groups on local, national and international levels are preparing campaigns to dispute the film's controversial claims about Jesus Christ.

Local church leaders aren't attacking "The Da Vinci Code" the way some conservatives lashed out at "Brokeback Mountain" and its portrayal of gay cowboys, encouraging people not to see the movie and talking about the "Hollywood liberal agenda."

Instead, they just want to make sure people know "The Da Vinci Code" is a work of fiction and that its claims about Christ -- claims that defy Christian belief of Christ's deity -- are not supported by the majority of historians and biblical scholars.

"We're saying that, if you want to see the movie, just realize that it's fiction," said Dr. Jim Cogdill with the Cape Baptist Association. "I'm even telling people that, if the movie is based closely on the book, the book is a good read and it's going to be a fun movie."

The Cape Baptist Association, an organization of 31 churches from St. Mary to Advance, is encouraging churches of all denominations to talk with congregations about the upcoming film. The association also has plans to bring in Alan Branch, a theologian from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City and an outspoken critic of Brown's work, to speak at Academic Hall on May 6.

"The Da Vinci Code" stirred up great controversy when it was published in 2003. The plot revolves around a conspiracy by the Catholic Church to hide Christ's marriage to Mary Magdalene and a bloodline that came from the marriage.

Even though "The Da Vinci Code" is fiction, it carries a note at the beginning saying all portrayals of documents and rituals in the story are accurate. Brown has been accused of saying Christ's "holy bloodline" actually did exist and the Catholic Church conspiracy is real.

In advance of the movie release, scheduled for May 19, the controversy has started again. The Russian Orthodox Church has denounced the film, the Christian Council of Korea is attempting to have "The Da Vinci Code" banned from South Korea, and a new Web site sponsored by the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign has been set up to counter the claims in the book and movie.

Bishop John Liebrecht of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese said the church plans to start a series of articles soon in the diocesan newsletter about "The Da Vinci Code." Local parishes will also hold study sessions ahead of the movie's release, he said.

"It's a popular book and very entertaining," Liebrecht said. "But for people who are not up on their history we need to help them understand the things in the book are not history but imagination."

Even though "The Da Vinci Code" implicates the church in some evil deeds, Liebrecht said, the movie isn't the top priority for Catholic clergy.

"We've been around for 2,000 years, and we'll survive the book and the movie," he said.

The Rev. J. Friedel teaches classes on religion at Southeast Missouri State University and heads the Catholic Campus Ministry. He said the book was a popular discussion topic in his classes, and he's sure the movie will be the same.

Friedel said he'll tell his students much the same thing Cogdill and others have said: "Dan Brown is a great novelist, but he also thinks he's an historian and theologian and all kinds of other things. Scholars have not seen this thesis to bear much credibility."

The Rev. Ron Watts, senior pastor at La Croix United Methodist Church, said he'll start a small group study for men on "The Da Vinci Code" soon. He said he's not worried about drawing more attention to the movie -- it will have plenty of that with big names like Tom Hanks and Ron Howard in the credits.

But he does think discussing the ideas in "The Da Vinci Code" can help believers think about an aspect of their faith they often forget -- its origins.

"Normally if I were to offer a class and say we're going to study the historical origins of the Bible, I might have six people come in," Watts said. "Now people are interested in a subject they weren't interested in before just because of the book and the movie."

msanders@semissourian.com

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