Sony Pictures is the company behind the “Da Vinci Code” movie, which along with the book has been heavily criticized for presenting a mythology about Christ and the Church as fact. So how does Sony deal with all the criticisms? They set up a web site and ask critics to contribute essays.
The site, thedavincichallenge.com, will post essays by about 45 Christian writers, scholars and leaders of evangelical organizations who will pick apart the book’s theological and historical claims about Christianity.
At first blush it sounds like a very fair and open-minded thing to do, except we have to ask the question, “What is Sony’s motivation?” First and foremost, they want to sell tickets and what better way to increase ticket sales than to convince people who would otherwise picket and boycott the movie—a la “The Last Temptation of Christ”—to instead come to the movie and examine it for its flaws.
In fact, Sony appears to have convinced one of these critics to encourage people to see the movie.
Dr. Mouw, who contributed an essay on, “Why Christians Ought to See the Movie,” said: “It’s going to be water cooler conversation, so Christians need to take a deep breath, buy the book and shell out the money for the movie. Then we need to educate Christians about what all this means. We need to help them answer someone who says, ‘So how do you know Jesus didn’t get married?’”
I don’t need to see the movie to answer that question. And thankfully people like Carl Olson and Sandra Misel and Amy Welborn have done the dirty work of reading the book and outlining why it’s a load of hooey.
I’d rather not play into Sony’s hands and reward them for making a movie that attacks my Church and my God. Too bad these 45 Evangelical writers didn’t see they were being played.
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