{"id":9631,"date":"2006-05-22T15:57:17","date_gmt":"2006-05-22T22:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/05\/22\/rlp-on-the-da-vinci-code.html"},"modified":"2006-05-22T15:57:17","modified_gmt":"2006-05-22T22:57:17","slug":"rlp_on_the_da_v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/05\/22\/rlp_on_the_da_v.html","title":{"rendered":"RLP on The Da Vinci Code<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Live Preacher weighs in<\/a>, wisely, on the whole kerfuffle.<\/p>\n

First, when will religious groups finally figure out that publicly denouncing a book or a movie is the surest way to guarantee its success? Religious people never seem to understand that the world is filled with people who do the exact opposite of whatever they suggest. Hell, I’m one of those people myself. If I hear that church people hate a movie, I’m in line for tickets on opening day. Has the Church forgotten Salman Rushdie? Would any of us know that name if he hadn\u2019t been condemned by the Muslims? Has the Church forgotten Martin Scorcese\u2019s movie, \u201cThe Last Temptation of Christ?\u201d In that case, the Church in America single-handedly turned a mediocre movie into a blockbuster hit.<\/p>\n

Nice move Church. Perhaps you should have added some basic chess lessons to your seminary curriculum.<\/p>\n

But whatever. If the Church wants to make a lot of money for Dan Brown and Ron Howard, what do I care? Both the book and the movie will be off the radar in a few months. Nothing will have changed. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which I’ll add, if someone’s faith is so weak that reading a popular paperback or seeing a movie is going to crush it and send someone careening away from the church, it’s probably not something that could have been saved (so to speak) anyway.<\/p>\n

Christianity is a major, world-wide religion. It is 2000 years old and is the largest common expression of spirituality in the history of humanity. Does the Christian Church really need to worry about a book and a movie? These things are here today and gone tomorrow, almost literally. The Christian Church has withstood the Roman Empire, medieval Christianity, and the Age of Enlightenment. Somehow the Church even manages to survive its most dangerous challenge – scandal, decadence, and corruption within its ranks. Will Dan Brown now topple us?<\/p>\n

[…] The best and only appropriate response for the Church is to be about the business of the Church. Don’t we have, I don’t know, CHURCH things to be doing? Or even better, human things to be doing? If our love of humanity was as radical as Jesus called it to be, then we would never have to say a word.<\/p>\n

In my mind, every time the Church responds to something like this with angry words, it is a bold indictment of our lack of active love, and therefore lack of relevance in this world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amen, Reverend.<\/p>\n

A lot of church leaders have condemned the movie (and the book), insisting that it expresses disrespect for the church, for God, and for believers. They miss the point that respect is earned<\/em>, not secured in court. It will exist only if you actually are <\/em>respectable. What these folks want is not respect, but obedience, obeisance, and homage — which are very different things altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Live Preacher weighs in, wisely, on the whole kerfuffle. First, when will religious groups finally figure out that publicly denouncing a book or a movie is the surest way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41,27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-movies","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5527,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/26\/lovingway.html","url_meta":{"origin":9631,"position":0},"title":"Lovingway?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Feb-04 7:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"You have to wonder what the pastor of the \"Lovingway\" pentacostal church here in Denver was thinking when he put up that sign. The Rev. Maurice Gordon of Lovingway United...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"Signage","src":"\/blog\/images\/thess.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17353,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/11\/we-call-this-growtivation.html","url_meta":{"origin":9631,"position":1},"title":"“We call this — Growtivation …”","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-May-10 10:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Y'know, whatever sort of church service floats your boat (if you're in the boat-floating church serving frame of mind), go for it.\u00a0 I, former Catholic and current Episcopalian, obviously am into traditional liturgy and \"bells & smells\" and all that jazz.\u00a0 But I realize some folks like something a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38769,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/14\/movie-review-die-another-day-2002.html","url_meta":{"origin":9631,"position":2},"title":"Movie Review: "Die Another Day" (2002)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-Sep-13 11:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing the Bond rewatch ... regretfully, because this his a hot, steaming mess. \u00a0I had forgotten the details, but, even more amusingly \/ ironically, Margie had forgotten altogether that she'd ever seen the movie.New Letterboxd review, including my original blog review (https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/08\/27\/die_another_day.html). A \u2605\u00bd review of Die Another Day (2002)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11381,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/09\/10\/be_careful_whom_you_sign.html","url_meta":{"origin":9631,"position":3},"title":"Be careful whom you sign up with","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 10-Sep-07 8:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"A Chicago-area congregation, formerly of the Episcopal Church, now signed up with the Church of Rwanda, is discovering that international politics make strange bedfellows. 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The conflict between Catholics and (the many variations of) Protestants was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Luther-castle-church.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":129164,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/17\/religious-restrictions-on-hiring-have-limits.html","url_meta":{"origin":9631,"position":5},"title":"Religious restrictions on hiring have limits","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Dec-15 6:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's pretty long-standing law that, while religious institutions have some freedoms when it comes to hiring, those freedoms have strict boundaries. 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