Left Behind: Da Vinci Code

The movie adaptation of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code hits theatres next week, and the buzz surrounding it is increasing. I’m reminded of another fiction series that has received a huge response, Left Behind. They have a numer of things in common.
~ They both take theories that are not well known in the mainstream, and popularize them through fiction.
~ They both elicit strong responses. DVC has been referred to as “blasphemy on steroids”, and Anne Lamott referred to Left Behind as “hard-core right-wing paranoid anti-Semitic homophobic misogynistic propaganda —not to put to fine a point on it.”

One of the main differences between DVC and Left Behind is that the theories advanced in DVC are around 2000 years old, while those behind Left Behind are only around 150 years old.
It would be interesting to see the results of a poll on how many people believe what they read in DVC, and how many believe what is in Left Behind.

Barbara Nicolosi, over at Church of the Masses first proposed the idea of an “othercott” on March 16th. The idea is to see another movie, in this case Over the Hedge instead of DVC. Her idea is gaining momentum, with many in the evangelical and catholic church embracing it. Her blog post was reprinted on Christianity Today’s websites and countless other blogs where it has generated much discussion.

I have a couple of problems with Barb’s suggestion. In the first place, it’s hard to take someone seriously who thinks King Kong was given a lot of publicity to try and distract from “our movie”, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She has proven by now, through her blind and unwavering support for Narnia and her deer-in-the-headlights response to Da Vinci Code, that she isn’t really concerned with offering balanced critiques of art, only with broadcasting her opinion and woe be to those who disagree with her.

Secondly, Barb declares that we vote at the theatres with our money, and if we go see it opening week it will encourage and reward the makers of DVC. Many have said that if you are going to see it, just don’t go opening weekend. The problem with that is if you go see it the second week, that will help them keep it in theatres a third week, and so on. If you wait to buy it on DVD, you are “helping to fund their next blasphemous movie” and still rewarding them. The only logical end to that argument is to go hide in your basement until the whole thing blows over.
I have said in the past that the rhetoric and actions she is using and proposing go against many of her other arguments, but I don’t think you’ll find that true. It seems she changes her philosophy as each new movie comes along.

I would suggest setting up a satirical website at www.othercott.com, but there’s already one there. Except I don’t think they mean it as satire. Check out their page on suggestions page for response to the film. Number 5 is Post a pithy message on your church’s road sign. Some of their suggestions are Da Vinci Code – A Code Without a Clue; The Da Vinci Code: Bigotry Goes Mainstream; and Da Vinci Code– Code Book for Slander.

One of the points DVC brings to attention is the fact of how little most people know about the history of Christianity. If people are spurred into studying church history, researching the canonization of scripture, etc., then a good thing will have come out of this controversy. I hope people would do the same with Left Behind.