CAMP Spirit

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine who pastors a black Baptist church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He shared with me that in his region fundamentalist Christians are preparing a boycott of the forthcoming film The DaVinci Code, based on Dan Brown’s wildly popular novel. I was puzzled, for haven’t most people on the face of the earth already read The DaVinci Code? What difference would the film make? But then, of course, I remembered that fundamentalists don’t read much beyond their divine inerrant King James Bible. The film will of course enter their narrow little cultural horizon alongside the hundreds of manifestations of Chicken Soup for the Soul and the interminable installments of the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye.

This caused me to wonder why conservative Christians are so content with accepting drivel for Christian truth. Sure, The DaVinci Code was a good read; but then again so are the novels of Sue Grafton and James Patterson. However, in no way do I allow Kinsey Millhone or the Women’s Murder Club (the lead characters in these authors’ series, for those who are uninitiated) to impact my core values, as thousands of otherwise critical and intellectual people of faith seem to have done with the Code. Is it some kind of cult? Is there magic in the dialogue that casts a spell on individuals who are otherwise skeptical in accepting religious suggestions?

Now don’t get me wrong: I think that anything that gets people to thinking about religious truths can be worthwhile. What I don’t get is why/how people are acting as though Dan Brown has invented Teflon or a solution to the common cold. After all, the "truths" espoused in the Code have been around for decades, as anyone would know who has studied Christian history or the discoveries at the Dead Sea or Nag Hammadi. Folks have always had access to "alternative" scriptures and stories about "unorthodox" Christian beliefs, as Elaine Pagels exemplified in her (much superior) work The Gnostic Gospels (Random House, 1979). It has always been a dangerous memory within Christianity that Mary Magdalene had a lot more power and credibility than commonly believed. Scholars since the 1960s have speculated whether Jesus was married heterosexually or possibly gay. (See, for example, William Phipps, The Sexuality of Jesus; Pilgrim Press, 1996.)

So what’s the big deal? Is it that we need a wholesome-looking, white, straight, man like Dan Brown to assure us that it’s okay to ask questions or believe things that our churches might consider dangerous or sinful? Is it that the mass media validates what it is acceptable for the masses to believe? Is it that Tom Hanks can make heretical ideas palatable because he’s won two Oscars? I don’t know; just asking. If people are that curious about religion and spirituality, why don’t they look into books like The Other Bible (edited by Willis Barnstone; HarperCollins, 1984) or The Secret Gospel of Mark (Morton Smith; Harper & Row, 1973)? Why don’t they find out what The Gospel of Mary really says? (See, for example, Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle; Polebridge Press, 2003.) Or are we just too lazy and want Hollywood to do our thinking for us?

Am I going to see the film? You bet! (Of course, this will be after the majority has seen it, as I can’t stand the way folks talk at the Movies at Midway as though they are in their living room). But what I won’t do is allow people to manipulate my religious convictions and important beliefs, even if they have hoodwinked me into paying almost $10 for a movie ticket and $6 for popcorn.