The Da Vinci Code: What can Christians Learn from it?

When Dan Brown's book was first released, most of us yawned and thought, "Another one of those." We've seen many books that "bash" Christianity on the market and of course snippets about Madonna's latest publicity stunts.

Publicity is a "band wagon," whether you take a stand for or against any Christian issue. The need for thought provoking entertainment that "pushes the envelope" of morality is far greater than the supply.

So what can Roman Catholics and other Christians learn or gain from all this? Would any other religion put up with this? In fact, this kind of entertainment might cause serious violence, rioting, and death, if it were pointed in other directions of religion or philosophy.

Let's objectively look at Dan Brown's book and the recent movie. The movie and the book are a mixture of fact and fiction, so a reader who has not read history, the Bible, or the Gnostic Gospels would be very confused. This has occurred before when people, who do not read, let Hollywood explain reality to them.

Why the confusion? Simply put, how many people are really reading anything? Pat yourself on the back, for the fact, that you do read. The national and global literacy rates are poor, no matter which government statistics are skewed to tell you otherwise. We live at a time, when a person who can read a warning sign is intellectually gifted.

Beside the "for or against" issues that surround the book and movie; The Da Vinci Code has created something that Dan Brown did not count on. It encourages all of us to read more and do some research. Much of our history is "blood thirsty." Genocide, slavery, warfare, inquisitions, pogroms, and injustice fill the pages of our history books and our Holy Scriptures.

Dan Brown wanted fame and he has received it. However, Christianity will benefit from this controversy "in the long run." For the first time, many people are reading and searching for factual information about Miriam of Magdala, Templars, Crusades, Inquisitions, Cathars, Gnostics, and the formulation of the early Roman Catholic Church. Is this a bad thing?

Only if we deny the truth, are research of our religion and the origins of Christianity a bad thing. When we deny the truth, then all of our time spent reading and researching is for nothing. It is time for governments and religious orders to reform themselves. No one should be allowed to violate laws due to a social position. "Cover ups" of past crimes take credibility away from government officials and religious leaders.

Lastly, through out history, women have been persecuted more than any other group. This is a common thread that still continues today. No government or religion can exist without the help of women, but women have to form a "united front." Many successful families are held together by a balance of female and male qualities. It is time for "The Old Boys" to share power.

© Copyright 2006 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Information and Articles: http://www.mastersmba.com

Providing Information on various topics such as The Da Vinci Code: What can Christians Learn from it?, please browse our other Articles for more informative resources, we house information on every topic imaginable so regardless of your needs you can be assured to find the answer here. If you wish to reprint this on your own website, simply click the "Web Version" in the right menu, and you are presented with a pre-formatted document to use.

A lot of the information is written by the Master Article team, and published exclusively on the MastersMBA.com website, and we do our best to research all information to ensure it's as accurate as possible. However at times we also publish documents given to us by other sources, we do examine these documents to ensure they are as accurate and correct as possible however at times they discuss highly specialized fields making it hard to authenticate the validity of every fact in the document. These are written by specialists in their respective fields, and we do trust their integrity and judgment however it's always a good idea when doing any research to consult a number of sources and form your own conclusion based on a number of view points. The Da Vinci Code: What can Christians Learn from it?