As Code Draws Huge Crowds, Christians Question Film's Spiritual Impact
by Jenni Parker and Chad Groening
May 22, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Despite protests from the Christian community, moviegoers flocked to see the screen adaptation of Dan Brown's controversial novel The Da Vinci Code, the fictional plot of which depicts church conspiracy and cover-up, murder, and mysterious clues about a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The film took in $224 million worldwide over its opening weekend. Reactions to the film have been mixed, even among Christians. One conservative news and entertainment industry watchdog, Michael Chapman of the Media Research Center, is echoing the concerns of many believers who fear The Da Vinci Code will lead many people astray from the true biblical tenets of Christianity. He feels Brown's book and the film based on it are dangerous in that, if a person does not have a solid foundation in the Christian faith, he or she is vulnerable to being misled by the blasphemous assertions of the fictional plot.
Already, Chapman points out, some readers of the novel have been negatively influenced. "If you look at some of the surveys that they've done of people who have read the book, people are walking away and thinking it's true that Jesus did marry Mary Magdalene, that she did have a child," he says. He believes the movie could have the same effect.
"I think that was fully the intention of Dan Brown with the book and also with this movie," the MRC spokesman asserts, "to confuse, because he mixes truth with error. And that's the most dangerous, especially for young people, who only maybe know a little bit about Christianity but also those people who are not solid in the faith and in the Bible and [do not] know what they need to know."
The Da Vinci Code is a dangerous book because it "seeks to undermine and discredit everything that Christianity represents," Chapman adds. And the film based on it, he contends, is just "another tool for anti-Christian forces to damage Christianity and hurt the faith of millions of people and also lead millions of people astray."
Catholic Reaction: 'One of the Most Inane Films I Have Ever Seen'
However, some Christian leaders feel the spiritual impact of The Da Vinci Code book and movie may be less serious than feared. William Donohue, head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, saw The Da Vinci Code last Friday and described it as "one of the most inane films I have ever seen," a cinema narrative with a "slumbering style" that failed to sustain momentum and with "one of the most thoroughly anti-climactic endings ever to grace the screen."
At the showing he attended, Donohue says only three or four people in the audience clapped when the film ended. Three or four others hissed, he notes, while most "just walked out in a zombie-like fashion, eerily mimicking the characters on the screen."
As for the film's much debated anti-Christian content, the Catholic League spokesman says it is a credit to movie director Ron Howard that he "softened the edges" of the anti-Catholic invective in The Da Vinci Code. Specifically, the Catholic leader explains, the conversation about the divinity of Christ and about religious belief in general was portrayed more sensitively in the film than in the book version, with the result that "the film may have lost some of its punch."
Had the movie been a success, Donohue adds, its effect would have been more troubling. "But because it fails to persuade," he asserts, "this is one movie practicing Christians have nothing to worry about."
Barna Survey Shows Code Confirming Preconceived Beliefs
A new nationwide survey conducted by Christian pollster George Barna's research group also seems to suggest that The Da Vinci Code may have fairly limited impact on those exposed to its anti-Christian ideas. The Barna Group study found that, of the 45 million adults who have read the Dan Brown novel, only 5 percent -- that is, about two million of them -- said any of their beliefs or religious perspectives had changed because of the book's content. (See related article)
Many people reading The Da Vinci Code encountered information that confirmed what they already believed, Barna explains. "Few people changed their pre-existing beliefs because of what they read in the novel," he says, "and even fewer people approached the book with a truly open mind regarding the controversial matters in question, and emerged with a new theological perspective."
"The book generates controversy and discussions," the Christian researcher says, "but it has not revolutionized the way that Americans think about Jesus, the Church or the Bible.' If the movie has a similar level of influence on movie-goers as the book has had on adult readers, he notes, about a half-million adults could be expected to change one or more of their religious beliefs based upon the movie's content.
Still, Barna points out, "any book that alters one or more theological views among two million people is not to be dismissed lightly." And the most significant impact of The Da Vinci Code, he warns, could be on young people who see the film, since their belief systems are still being developed and are more susceptible to the influence of new teachings.
