{"id":525,"date":"2006-04-20T16:58:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-20T22:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/churchofthemasses\/2006\/04\/my-dvc-rant\/"},"modified":"2006-04-20T16:58:00","modified_gmt":"2006-04-20T22:58:00","slug":"my-dvc-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/churchofthemasses\/2006\/04\/my-dvc-rant\/","title":{"rendered":"My DVC rant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Needless to say, I am getting lots of calls to do interviews about The Da Vinci Code<\/span><\/span>. I duck as many of them as I can, so glad am I for the existence in the universe of Mark Shea and Amy Welborn! <\/p>\n

Basically, I hate talking about The Da Vinci Code<\/em> because I have a personal relationship with Jesus. I have met Him and He isn\u2019t a proto-feminist goddess-cultic with a weak personality that could have been simply co-opted by power-hungry misogynists. I love Jesus. It makes me physically sick to entertain discussion about the ways in which the defining acts of His life \u2013 His Passion, Resurrection and establishment of the Church \u2013 could be a diabolical scam that He never anticipated not experienced. It would make me sick to hear salacious lies about anyone I love, how much more my Savior?<\/p>\n

Besides that, I don\u2019t think we should encourage people in the terrible sin against the Holy Spirit of speculating that things that are holy are evil, and that things that are evil are holy. Isn\u2019t that what is going on here? How is that not painful for anyone who knows the Lord? <\/p>\n

I have heard several fellow Christians make the claim that DVC<\/span> DVC<\/span> is \u201ca great opportunity for evangelism.\u201d \u2018Hmmm\u2026 Evangelism. I don\u2019t think you know what that word means.\u2019 The climate of evangelism is not consistent with a posture of defiance and cynicism. Is slander an opportunity? Is angry superiority an opportunity? DVC<\/span> represents all the \u201copportunity\u201d that the Roman persecutions offered the early Church. Rah.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s another thing that troubles me about the \u201copportunity for dialogue\u201d stance. The debate is all on hell\u2019s terms. I am somebody who reads about exorcisms. I don\u2019t know why. I just do. And one of the first rules of exorcism is that you never answer the devil\u2019s questions. You don\u2019t debate the devil. You do not give evil the authority to question God. DVC<\/span> represents a debate in which the questions start with Satan\u2019s presumptions. I find it beyond naive to convince myself that the folks who are lapping up DVC are on a \u201csearch for truth.\u201d They\u2019re not. They are on a crusade to validate their own rejection of the authority of Christ and the Church.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a typical DVC<\/span> inspired dialogue\u2026 See if you can find a search for truth in it. <\/p>\n

It usually starts with something like this, \u201cEverybody knows that the Church Fathers were liars. Can you prove the compilation of the Bible wasn\u2019t pure politics?\u201d <\/p>\n

And just when you start saying, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t agree that the Church Fathers were\u2013\u201d the questioner moves on with eyes flashing unnaturally, \u201cWhy is the Church so afraid of women, huh? Why has it suppressed them since the beginning? Yeah? Answer THAT!\u201d<\/p>\n

So, you clear your throat and say, \u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t say that the Church is afr\u2013\u201c<\/p>\n

But they\u2019ve moved on again. \u201cThe fact is, there is no evidence for the Resurrection. Have you ever read the Gospel of Mary Magdalen<\/span>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, no, but\u2013\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cSee you people are all brain-washed.\u201d [exhalation of disgust] \u201cHow so many people could be so stupid is amazing to me\u2026.Where are my birth-control pills?!\u201d<\/p>\n

When you debate with Satan, there is no opportunity for anything but people digging their heels into the sludge of chaos and confusion.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

And I also hate the idea that some of the sheep would be scandalized away from Jesus by this idiotic story. And they will.<\/p>\n

The sheep have been systematically prepared for slaughter by forty years of post-Consiliar insanity. Ineffective and insufficient catechesis and lack-lustre preaching. Liturgical chaos. Too often, the cruel injustice of liberal, intolerant leadership which so often had the added indignity of manifest hypocrisy. <\/p>\n

The flock has been bred as teeming little narcissist lambs who stubbornly consider themselves \u201cspecial\u201d no matter how mediocre their understanding and living out of their life of discipleship. We have a global pasture full of sheep pasturing themselves, with coats shamefully besmirched by loving their sins. They bleat defiance and pride of their filth, and insist that Jesus is indifferent to their degradation and shame. \u201cWho knows, Jesus is probably just like us!\u201d They don\u2019t know, and don\u2019t know that they don\u2019t know, or don\u2019t know, and don\u2019t care that they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

And now The Da Vinci Code<\/em> comes along to sheepish ears that are primed and ready to be told that holiness is impossible. And that is why this damn book is a success. It says to people, \u201cIf Jesus was a sham, then anything is permissible.\u201d (Ref. \u201cYou shall be like gods!\u201d)<\/p>\n

I thought of this when I read Mark Shea\u2019s<\/span><\/a> little DVC<\/span> rant today. He writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the most maddening thing about this book is the thought of somebody losing their faith over this\u2013this!\u2013stupid piece of dimestore erudition.<\/p>\n

If you are going to risk your eternal soul, it should at least be over something noble and romantic and big. If you are bound to damn yourself, then at least let it be over a torrid and star-crossed love affair, or out of tragic hubris that sought know What Man Was Not Meant to Know, or over some insane and violent of country, or out of desire for titanic powers to manipulate nature or some Byronic despair over a cold world\u2019s rejection of a Great Artiste.<\/p>\n

But to lose your soul over this cartoonish, illiterate, dishonest piece of hack drivel\u2026<\/p>\n

It reminds me of Screwtape\u2019s maxim: \u201cTo get the man\u2019s soul and give him nothing in return\u2013that is what really gladdens Our Father\u2019s heart.\u201d \u201c<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

I am perplexed by the Christian leaders going around saying that people are reading The Da Vinci Code<\/span> in a search for truth. Good frickin\u2019 grief. Who was it that said, \u201cThey have Moses and the prophets\u2026?\u201d People searching for truth would not be reaching for enlightenment from a pulp-fiction rack. The other day, I heard a useful Christian idiot (to Sony Pictures, anyway) say that Christians should stop criticizing DVC<\/span> as being a badly written story, because, \u201cLet\u2019s face it, fifty million readers can\u2019t be wrong!\u201d <\/p>\n

Yes. They can. Let\u2019s try this, \u201cHey, let\u2019s face it, sixteen million readers of Hustler magazine can\u2019t be wrong!\u201d Or hey, fifty million Germans who voted for Hitler<\/span> couldn\u2019t be wrong!\u201d <\/p>\n

Yes, they could and they were. <\/p>\n

As I said, I was one of the folks in the pews recently at a DVC event at a local Evangelical church. The funniest part of the night (and scariest\u2026but if you don\u2019t laugh that only leaves screaming as an appropriate response) came after several of the Evangelical panel guys had gone through long speeches about how Christians should welcome DVC<\/span> as an opportunity for dialogue. Then, they opened the floor up for questions and the first women querier did a version of, \u201cI don\u2019t have any problem with the fact that Jesus had sex.\u201d HA! <\/p>\n

Unbelievable! Let\u2019s all march our troops into dialogue. The fact that our troops are completely disarmed for a fight seems to be irrelevent! <\/p>\n

Many of our Christian sheep will be ripe for slaughter from DVC<\/span>. All they will have to go to battle with is the Bible. But DVC <\/span>undermines Biblical authority by saying that the Bible was the product of a purely political process. This debate will shake the faith of many who are not prepared for it.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t go see this stupid movie. Don\u2019t pay money to have the insidious lies of the enemy introduced into your heart and mind. <\/p>\n

Othercott DVC<\/span> on May 19th. Go see Over the Hedge<\/span> instead. And pray for everyone associated who is dancing with the devil through this movie.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Needless to say, I am getting lots of calls to do interviews about The Da Vinci Code. I duck as many of them as I can, so glad am I for the existence in the universe of Mark Shea and Amy Welborn! Basically, I hate talking about The Da Vinci Code because I have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMy DVC rant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Needless to say, I am getting lots of calls to do interviews about The Da Vinci Code. 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