The Da Vinci Code

From The Washington Times:

Area churches are preparing to counter unorthodox claims about Jesus Christ in the movie "The Da Vinci Code," which opens in theaters later this month.

"'The Da Vinci Code' kind of gave a focus that there's a lot [of misinformation] about Jesus Christ and Christianity out there, and perhaps it's time to rebut it," said Monsignor Francis J. Maniscalco, a spokesman for the District-based U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "If people see [the movie], they should go prepared."

I wish them luck.

Of course one of the greatest errors in the book and movie is that Christian Gnosticism taught that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and produced a child. Gnostics believed that Spirit was pure and good and that Matter was corrupt and evil. Gnostics did not believe that having children was a good thing because it just imprisoned more pure spirit in evil matter. The goal of the Gnostic was to gain the secret knowledge that would allow him to escape the material hell and rejoin the higher beings in the realm of pure spirit.

Gnostics were divided on their opinion of the nature of Christ. One group thought that he had no material existence at all. They taught that his “body” was just an illusion. They said that he cast no shadow and when he walked he left no footprints. The other group taught that the man Jesus was just some hapless goober who was minding his business in his carpenter shop one day when the Christ Spirit descended upon him and used him like a hand puppet. Then when he was finished with it he abandoned it to the Jewish leaders and the Romans to crucify.

The Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter takes this view. Peter is supposedly shown a vision of the crucifixion in which he sees Jesus dying on the cross. He also sees a man sitting in a tree pointing at the dying Jesus and laughing at him. Peter is told that the one he saw in the tree was the true Christ, who had abandoned his human meat puppet to his fate.

The Da Vinci Code is not only poor theology and poor history it is even poor heresy. The proper response of the Church is to take advantage of the attention created by the movie and use it to educate people.