No, this heading is not a grammatical stuff up. The movie, "Angels and Demons" is coming to the cinemas on the 14th of May. "Angels and Demons" is the prequel to "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown and is sure to promote the same kind of religious hysteria as "The Da Vinci Code" did.But why? Why do Christians (and the Catholic Church in particular) get so upset about these books and movies? Sure, Christians and the Church don't come off too well in them, but for crying out loud... let's toughen up people!!! For a start, both "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code" are great stories - very clever and with lots of twists and heaps of suspense. I've read both books and they are ripping yarns that are well told. I found "Angels and Demons" to be quite the "page turner" and found it hard to put it down at the end of each chapter. Secondly, we need to be excited about any opportunity that comes along that puts spirituality and the Christian faith in front of people and in the minds of people. Do we know enough about our beliefs to happily engage in robust conversations about them? I should certainly hope so. Personally, I am excited about the opportunities to put spirituality back on the agenda of personal conversations, that the release of this movie will provide.
When "The Da Vinci Code" came out, the contraversies around it were in the newspapers and on the TV everyday for weeks. I was at a party one night and a friend of mine asked me what all the fuss was about. She wanted to know why the Christians were so upset about it all. This gave me an opportunity to talk to her at length about how important it is to Christians that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead (The Easter Story); that this was the central, cosmos transforming event in the Christian belief system. "The Da Vinci Code" put forward the idea that Jesus had not died and risen, but prior to dying had made Mary Magdelene pregnant and that teir heirs of Jesus lived on into the present day. This story line was laced with both loose historical references and pure fiction that might have seemed true and real to casual observors. Christians were both affronted by this challenge to their core beliefs and the threat that others would think the movie accurately portrayed factual and actual events, denying them the opportunity to take the Christian message seriously. These were some of the things we talked about that night.
When "The Da Vinci Code" came out, the contraversies around it were in the newspapers and on the TV everyday for weeks. I was at a party one night and a friend of mine asked me what all the fuss was about. She wanted to know why the Christians were so upset about it all. This gave me an opportunity to talk to her at length about how important it is to Christians that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead (The Easter Story); that this was the central, cosmos transforming event in the Christian belief system. "The Da Vinci Code" put forward the idea that Jesus had not died and risen, but prior to dying had made Mary Magdelene pregnant and that teir heirs of Jesus lived on into the present day. This story line was laced with both loose historical references and pure fiction that might have seemed true and real to casual observors. Christians were both affronted by this challenge to their core beliefs and the threat that others would think the movie accurately portrayed factual and actual events, denying them the opportunity to take the Christian message seriously. These were some of the things we talked about that night.It was a great conversation that I didn't start, and it provided the chance for my friend and I to talk about spiritual things. I am really looking forward to "Angels and Demons" coming out soon and equally looking forward for the opportunities it will create to put spirituality and Jesus back on the conversational agenda for awhile. So, keep cool when the movie comes out, resist joining in on the hysteria and enjoy any opportunities that arise as a result...
Shalom!
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