Thank You, Dan Brown
By Lee Strobel
7.13.06
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Rolling Stone put it best: “Da Vinci is a dud.” Director Ron Howard managed to take one of the biggest-selling thrillers of all time and create a slow-moving, mind-numbing adaptation. Domestic ticket sales plummeted 88 percent in the first month, though the movie has done better overseas.
In the end, the error-ridden novel itself will continue to be a much bigger headache for Christianity than the film. Unfortunately, Christians will be setting the historical record straight for a long time. Still, we owe author Dan Brown some gratitude. Yes, he deserves the criticism he got for maliciously maligning Christianity, and yet he inadvertently did a few things right.
Here’s a partial list of things for which we should be thankful:
• Thank you, Dan Brown, for bringing apologetics back into the local church.
Because of the falsehoods and misrepresentations about Christianity in The Da Vinci Code, pastors all around the country were compelled to give sermons defending the historic evidence for the faith. Suddenly, pastors found themselves preaching on the reliability of the Gospels, church history, and doctrine – topics that, unfortunately, normally get short shrift in many pulpits.
Interestingly, most pastors discovered that both Christians and spiritual seekers are fascinated by apologetics (a term that comes from a Greek word for defending the faith). They sincerely want to know whether historic Christianity is built on mythology and legend, as Brown claims, or on a strong factual foundation that can withstand sober scrutiny.
In the end, I’m sure that the faith of many people was restored by the evidence that supports Christian beliefs. And I’m hoping that pastors will continue to offer clear and compelling reasons why Christianity ultimately makes sense.
• Thank you, Dan Brown, for reminding churches that they need to do a better job of grounding new Christians in their faith.
Brown’s allegations are so blatantly ridiculous that any Christian should have been able to refute most of them off the top of their head. Yet many Christians found themselves struggling with their own faith instead.
The early church had an antidote for this. During Christianity’s first four centuries, new believers went through an intensive orientation to the faith, often lasting as long as three years. During that time, they were thoroughly educated on what Christians believe and why. That way, the roots of their faith became so deep and strong that they couldn’t be threatened by heretical teaching.
In contrast, when I taught a new believer’s class at a major church many years ago, I spent only four weeks grounding new Christians in the basics of growing in their faith.
The real solution is probably in the middle. But the lesson is clear: churches need to rethink how they can better equip new believers. Otherwise, they’ll be vulnerable again when the next Dan Brown comes along.
• Thank you, Dan Brown, for highlighting the fact that Christians need to go on the offensive with the internet.
When historian Paul Maier went to scholarly books to investigate the Priory of Sion, the group that supposedly kept the secret of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene for centuries, he couldn’t find anything. The reason: the history of the Priory is a sham, based on forged documents.
But when he used an internet search engine, Maier found thousands upon thousands of references to the Priory – many of them full of the same kind of bizarre allegations as Brown was propagating.
Unfortunately, there are few reputable editors on the internet, and so all kinds of ridiculous allegations against Christianity are flourishing there. I’m thankful for Christians who use the net to get out the gospel, but we also need to do a better job of refuting the allegations that are circulating, unchecked, and which are being believed by naive readers.
• Thank you, Dan Brown, for pointing out the need more Christian novelists and film-makers as missionaries to a new generation.
My daughter Alison is reaching people for Christ. But she isn’t writing apologetics books like her dad; instead, she’s writing novels that winsomely and realistically portray Christianity in a way that will appeal to her generation. (Incidentally, her latest novel, Violet Between, just came out.)
Meanwhile, in Hollywood, Christian screenwriters like Barbara Nicolosi are helping Christians break into films in order to communicate Christian values in new and creative ways.
We need to view these kinds of efforts – and the efforts of those on the internet – as missionary ventures to a new America. Churches should be encouraging and praying for Christians to enter into the cultural battle by presenting Christianity in fresh forms that will be relevant and powerful to postmodern minds.
Indeed, the very best response to a novel like The Da Vinci Code is another novel that’s equally clever, equally engaging, and equally persuasive as Brown’s work – and yet which points readers toward the real Jesus who can change their lives and eternities.
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Not only were the reviews of The Da Vinci Code bad, but Tom Hanks’ hair also was a disaster – at least, according to the poll in our last newsletter. A whopping 86% of you had negative reactions to it! Here’s the breakdown on how you evaluated it:
| Tom Hank's hair in The Da Vinci Code movie is...? | |
| Distractingly bad - like a Harvard prof. | 35.4% |
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| Pretty bad | 50.6% |
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| Never noticed | 6.3% |
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| I kind of liked it | 5.1% |
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| Terrific - like a Harvard prof. | 2.5% |
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