THE DA VINCI CODE DISTRACTION

...For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven...

...Dan: Absolutely all of it...

...Langdon contrasts this worldview with the repressive sexual ethics of the Church, a perspective that is, of course, "a threat to the Catholic power base...

...Despite praise from feminist groups, the irony in all of this stems from the fact that a pagan sexual religious ethic actually demeans women...

...But if there ever was a generation that wanted to believe it could be saved by sex, it is this one-right here, right now in the 21st centuryWest...

...The activities of Christ after his baptism, and especially his miracles, gave indication and assurance to the world of the deity hidden in his flesh...

...Not the Son of God...

...They are taken more by emotions, such as resentment, anger, desire, and the like...

...In an attempt to quell some of the outrage over the claims of the book and film, some have risen to its defense by arguing: "Relax: it's just a work of fiction...

...But there is also something much deeper and more insidious at work here than the mere deleterious influence of pop culture...

...But it remains to be seen which worldview this generation will embrace as its own...

...Further evidence shows that there was precedent from the Essene community in Qumran for celibacy during Jesus' time for spiritually devoted persons...

...22 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY/AUGUST 2006 GREGORY ALAN THORNBURY "Hold on...

...The Church has confessed him as both Lord and God ever since...

...The Son...

...Consider the following exchange between Teabing and the incredulous Sophie Neveu (a thinly veiled name suggestive of the meaning, "new wisdom"): "At this gathering [Nicaea]," Teabing said, "many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon--the date of Easter, the role of bishops, the administration of the sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus...

...Dan Brown seemingly hopes to offer something that "we" orthodox Christians don't...

...Since the days of Isis, sex rites had been considered man's only bridge from earth to heaven...

...The fact is that the early Christian church flatly rejected Gnosticism as wrongheaded...

...Obviously, there are-Robert Langdon is fictional, but all of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies, all of that is historical fact...

...His divinity...

...A conspirator, however, he was not...

...The second claim made by The Da Vinci Code, that "Jesus must have been married," comes from Jewish customs...

...TH ALL OF THOSE PRELIMINARIES out of the ay, one cannot help but think that somehere Dan Brown is laughing about the fastidious responses of an army of conservative Christians dedicated to "debunking" "cracking," or "breaking" his The Da Vinci Code...

...I - ' ~ IJ~WN'S STORY needs'a married Jesus to | ]~ establish a deeper, more sinister point that he _Jk_~ is trying to make with his audience: traditional Christianity is oppressive toward women...

...No one at the gathering considered Jesus Christ to be "mere mortal...

...The social decorum during [Jesus'] time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried...

...Ultimately, even despite Dan Brown's intentions, The Da Vinci Code is not prowomen...

...Brown's entertaining and superbly written novel touches a nerve on all of the above...

...As I have poured over the seemingly countless errors in the book, I was left with the following dilemma: either Dan Brown's self-proclaimed attention to historical detail is self-delusory, or he is engaging in a very sneaky misdirection play...

...The ideas rehearse the same old ancient pagan fertility cult worship that was confronted variously by Moses, Joshua, the prophets, and the apostles in their day...

...The Da Vinci Code taps into some powerful feelings at work in the culture, some of which have merit, and some that do not...

...By the time the reader has thought, "Hey, wait a minute...

...1[- N SUM, THE Da"VINCr CODe is filled with all sorts of |embarrassing-sometimes laugh-out-loud--facJ t . t u a l blunders or historical misrepresentations...

...That may prove to be the most helpful reminder for summer readers and moviegoers everywhere...

...It is not even close...

...It is decidedly anti-women...

...What could be more au courant than that, right...

...For example, the Gospel of Thomas, perhaps the most prominent text in the Nag Hammadi collection (discovered in Egypt in 1945), ends with the following interchange: Simon Peter said to Him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of Life...

...Brothers, we ought to think of Jesus Christ, as we do of God, as 'Judge of the living and the dead.'" (2 Clement 1:1, 2) Justin Martyr (c.lOO-165 A.D...

...As New Testament scholar Darrell Bock And yet, there is the persistent feeling that people still need spirituality, even ancient religious spirituality...

...You're saying Jesus' divinity was the result of a vote...

...As Bock queries, "Why would Jesus issue such a statement, acknowledge [celibacy] as a demanding calling, and not follow it...

...It is the responsible thing to do...

...Perhaps these errata service another agenda, and act as a distraction tactic, if you will...

...The most important thing an author can do is to know his audience...

...People are far more likely to remember the thrill of The Da Vinci Code plot, the sights and sounds of the Ron Howard directed film, and memorable dialogue from their favorite scenes...

...Simply put, he reduces salvation to the act of orgasm...

...He reasoned the matter was something he needed to address...

...homoiousios), but not co-equal with God (homoousios...

...celibacy was condemned," we hear Teabing say in the novel...

...Letter to the Epbesians, i8:2) Polyearp (e.69-155 A.D...

...that Solomon's temple housed both Yahweh and his "powerful female equal," Shekinah...

...But Brown's fictional rollercoaster ride presents ordained clerical representatives of this prelature running around assassinating people...

...This was actually a sticking point with the Pharisees...

...similar to God (Gr...

...Meanwhile, the novel continues to intrigue the hearts of readers with a highly tendentious alternative "truth...

...For Opus Dei, significant resources have had to be expended to restore their good name...

...Despite the fact that the hardcover edition of the novel has sold 50 million copies and that Sony Pictures' movie adaptation quickly became a blockbuster, the central theme of The Da Vinci Code is historically inaccurate...

...That Faith, of course, makes claims on people's lives...

...But in context most scholars take this merely as an indication of spiritual fellowship...

...No substantive hint is given, in either text, that Jesus had a marital or sexual relationship with Mary...

...To Him all things in heaven and on earth are subject...

...That book and others like it stake their claim on two basic strands of "evidence...

...Consider the following interchange: Matt: How much of this is based on reality in terms of things that actually occurred...

...The popularity of The Da Vinci Code shows us that people are open to accepting quite incredible claims...

...A profoundly weird and eccentric fellow, Leonardo may have been...

...He gets many of his ideas from an argument made in a previously published book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail...

...Evangelicals and Roman Catholics have dispatched their best thinkers to respond to the film with the truth...

...The female functions as little more than an instrumental means to the end of male sexual/spiritual enlightenment...

...Some of my favorite howlers include the following: that a Medusa revolver is a "small, concealable" weapon (it's rather a large pistol...

...19:10-12...

...First, it is claimed that references from the so-called In The Da Vinci Code, the "historian" Leigh Teabing asserts that "Christ himself made the claim" that he was married...

...The Church supposedly covered up this relationship for almost 2,000 years and apparently remains desperate to do so...

...But historical inaccuracies or difficulties seem never to faze Dan Brown...

...For some groups, in particular, the stakes are very high...

...Where did Dan Brown get this theory...

...Da Vinci protagonist Professor Robert Langdon describes the matter bluntly as he reveals the meaning of this so-called religion of the "sacred feminine": "Physical union with the female" he says, is "the sole means through which man could become complete and ultimately achieve gnosis-knowledge of the divine...

...And yet, there is the persistent feeling that people still need spirituality, even ancient religious spirituality...

...For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord with God's plan...

...What is more, Jesus likened the call of the disciple to that of becoming a eunuch whose very existence entailed a life of celibacy (Matt...

...My dear," Teabing declared, "until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet.., a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless...

...Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea...

...Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons, for instance, condemned such Gnostic documents in the late second century in his treatise Against Heresies...

...Those claims are rooted in the historical fact that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, was crucified, died, and was buried...

...In an interview with NBC Today host Matt Lauer, Brown proudly asserted that while his work is a novel, it is grounded in historical fact...

...Consider the evidence from just a small selection of the Apostolic and Ante-Nicene Church Fathers from the first and second centuries, who wrote long before the council ever occurred: Ignatius of Antioch (e.35-e.llO ,i.D...

...He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead...

...I knowyou did a lot of research for the book...

...Fragment in Anastasius of Sinai's The Guide 13) While it is true that there were dissenting voices about the person and nature of Jesus (e.g., the Gnostics), theywere decidedly in the minority...

...What is more, the bit about Leonardo da Vinci being the head of this specific secret organization, which vigorously opposed the Roman Catholic JULY/AUGUST 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 23 T H E DA VINCI CODE D I STRACT I O N Church and its beliefs, finds no support in the historicai record...

...In other words, whilst the modern dayheroes of Christianity are out there "proving Dan Brown wrong" with their presentations of fact versus fiction, their efforts, culturally speaking, are being met with a collective yawn...

...By contrast, it was the Hebrew-Christian revelation-and particularly the ministry of Jesus Christ--that made women's equality a possibility in Western civilization...

...He relentlessly churns out charge after baseless charge...

...The "pro-feminine Gnostic gospels" theory, however, simply does not stand up under scrutiny...

...Many readers of The Da Vinci Code naively accept the book's claims at face value...

...Could it be that conservative Christians, including the author of this very article, have been duped to venture out upon a mission with little or no reward...

...24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY/AUGUST 2006 GREGORY ALAN THORNBURY By communing with a woman.., man could achieve a climactic instant when his mind totally went blank and he could see God...

...That structure is actually situated, as the historian Sharan Newman notes in her recent book, The Real History Behind The Da Vinci Code, "in the middle of a shopping mall" in the Louvre...

...Perhaps the biggest whopper of them all relates to the Priory of Sion, the secret organization founded in 1099 that purportedly has guarded the secret that the Holy Grail was Mary Magdelene...

...As Newman wryly observes: As for the idea that anyone would elect Leonardo the head of any group, especially one supposedly as secret and important as the PrioryofSion, I just can't see it...

...While people may be open to faith, it remains to be seen whether or not they will be open to the Faith...

...Considering themselves to be urbane and sophisticated, they have been duped by a cleverly written hoax...

...This claim is utterly preposterous...

...The problem with this claim is that there is no reliable historical evidence behind it...

...But then again, when do heretics admit that what they believe is, in fact, heresy...

...For example, one feels badly for members of Opus Dei, a real-life organization that has helped revitalize the faith of large numbers of Roman Catholic laity...

...While it is true that men who held the rabbinic office were married, Jesus himself never claimed to be a rabbi...

...Brown's characters have moved on to another incredible assertion with breathtaking speed...

...The Church will surely outlast the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune...

...The real Priory of Sion, however, was founded in the mid-1950s, and published a newsletter that, in Newman's words, "spent most of its space complaining about local politics and the lack of proper governmental services...

...The final tally was 318 in favor of the creed, to 2 opposed...

...Elaine Pagels, a Princeton University religion professor and oft-quoted expert on the Gnostic Gospels, has been quick to point out that these people were simply a different variety of Christian who did not consider themselves heretics...

...Clement of Rome (b.unknown-96 A.D...

...But it is important to remember that, for his own part, Dan Brown has not been saying that...

...and that La Pyramide Inversed is the proposed holy resting place of Mary Magdelene...

...Sex as religion...

...Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too maybecome aliving spirit resembling you males...

...First Apology of Justin 63) Melito of Sardis (b.unknown-180 n.D...

...Right," Teabing said...

...Here's one potential reason why...

...Similarly, in the Gospel of Mary 17:10-18:21, JULY/AUGUST 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 21 TH E DA VINCI CODE D I ST RACT I O N the primary focus is on a passage in which Peter disputes whether or not Jesus had given a special revelation to Mary...

...Facts just are not that important to them...

...I talked to one pastor who said that he realized on a recent plane ride that six out of the eight passengers around him were reading a copy of The Da Vinci Code...

...Gregory Alan Thornbury is a senior fellow at the Kairos Journal JULY/AUGUST 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 2S...

...That unwavering belief explains why so many Christians want to respond to something as seemingly insignificant as a popular novel and film...

...From the beginning of the Church's history, the received teaching directly from the New Testament writers was that God was a Trinity of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...

...In The Da Vinci Code, the "historian" Leigh Teabing asserts that "Christ himself made the claim" that he was married...

...As part of this conspiracy, unscrupulous men have attacked the Gnostic gospels, which supposedly offer an alternative perspective on early Christian history that is tantamount to some kind of ancient version of feminism...

...A mortal...

...In the case of Americans and Europeans, they are postmoderns...

...I don't follow...

...These texts represent the "Lost Christianities" and "Lost Scriptures" about which the public has been hearing so much lately (as witnessed by the hubbub over the recent release of the "Gospel of Judas...

...These include the sense that religious leaders have betrayed the public trust and have not been honest with us, and the impulse to question or abandon traditional mores...

...The man would have spent six months designing the meeting room, with digressions to the properties of wood and the best way to plaster a wall and maybe do some dissections of termites, and then would have lost interest and moved onto something else...

...The notion that there has been some cabal by the Church to quash the so-called "truth" about the "sacred feminine" pervades the book...

...Gnostic Gospels"--the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary--demonstrate that Jesus favored Mary Magdalene and was even seen kissing her...

...Time will tell...

...The Epistle of Polycarp 2...

...who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God...

...My guess is the latter...

...This stuff is nothing new...

...For example, in the GospelofPhilip 63:33-36, there is an obscure fragment indicating that Jesus kissed Mary...

...One thing, however, was certain even in this assertion...

...Not very affirming of the "sacred feminine," now is it...

...He rose again in the body on the third day and ascended into heaven, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead...

...How convenient for a culture determined to normalize pornography and perpetuate the "hookup culture...

...It is unlikely that the Gnostics, who loathed the body, would have meant that something sexual was involved...

...In the meantime, they may unwittingly also fall prey to what may be a more insidious agenda...

...While His disciples called Him rabbi, the sense of the word is simply "teacher," as Luke's Gospel points out...

...I~RHA'~S NO SLhNDER is greater in The Da Vinci |-J" Code than Teabing's assertion that orthodox Christianity, with its belief in a divine Jesus, was a scheme cooked up by Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in the early fourth century in a crass attempt at political deal-making and power consolidation...

...It disbanded in the i980s...

...For you have believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ...

...Elsewhere, pastors of evangelical churches have had to scramble to get up-to-speed on a cultural conversation everybody seems to be in on except them...

...Even with this qualification, the vote at the Council of Nicaea was a landslide in favor of Jesus' divinity...

...That thesis, now widely known, asserts that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and sired a child...

...points out, "As far as the Jewish leaders were concerned, Jesus had no recognized official role in Judaism...

...The early Church deemed such texts historically unreliable and heretical partly because they were written so long after the actual events in the first century (Mary dating from the second century andPhilip dating from the third...

...Being God and likewise perfect man, he gave positive indications of his two natures: of his deity, by the miracles during the three years following after his baptism, of his humanity, in the thirty years which came before his baptism, during which, by reason of his condition according to the flesh, he concealed the signs of his deity, although he was the true God existing before the ages...

...A relatively close vote at that," Teabing added...

...Given the scandalous material in The Da Vinci Code, it is predictable that Christians from Nome to Rome would respond to the accusations...

...Secret knowledge (gnosis) was, after all, a key Gnostic theme...

...But even supposing Mary and Philip were trustworthy (which they are not), there is still no evidence in them to suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married...

...T HE A~WER IS NO...

...As for the Council of Nicaea, it was called in 325 by Constantine because a certain young priest named Arius had been gaining popular support for his view that Jesus was created by God...

...Keeping up with the sheer number of mistakes, fallacies, and ad hominems is mentally exhausting...

...Although 28 bishops came prepared to support Arius at the beginning of the meeting, they were almost all won over by the arguments of orthodox stalwarts like Athanasius who contended that Jesus was "the Word of God, God of God, light of light, life of life, the only begotten Son, firstborn of all creation, begotten of the Father before all ages, by whom all things were made...