Robert's Blog

i really wasn’t going to post anything else concerning the da vinci code because i’m a little tired of i. yet i now feel like i have to because every where i turned i hear believers shaking in their shoessaying that the book and movie are an “amazing attack from satan” (their words – not mine). if our faith is really so weak that a poor work of fiction can destroy it then maybe it should be destroyed.

in the midst of this doom and gloom over how fictional writing is going to destroy our non-fiction faith it has been refreshing to hear some voices saying something a little more insightful and asking what the popularity of this book may have to say to us believers about how we have operated. what if CHRISTian’s have operated out of stances of power and have manipulated people? What if that’s what we are doing now when we try to seize political power? Is that why the da vinci code is so popular – because it talks of a church that is guarding it’s power and willing to do anything to maintain it? Is the book popular because that’s is how believers are viewed? those are the questions that concern me most.

here’s the brian mclaren interview that was in sojomail that you have probably read – if you haven’t you should.

An interview by Lisa Ann Cockrel

With The Da Vinci Code poised to go from bestseller list to the big screen on May 19, pastor and writer (and Sojourners board member) Brian McLaren talks about why he thinks there’s truth in the controversial book’s fiction.

What do you think the popularity of The Da Vinci Code reveals about pop culture attitudes toward Christianity and the church?

Brian McLaren: I think a lot of people have read the book, not just as a popular page-turner but also as an experience in shared frustration with status-quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone organized Christian religion. We need to ask ourselves why the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown’s book is more interesting, attractive, and intriguing to these people than the standard vision of Jesus they hear about in church. Why would so many people be disappointed to find that Brown’s version of Jesus has been largely discredited as fanciful and inaccurate, leaving only the church’s conventional version? Is it possible that, even though Brown’s fictional version misleads in many ways, it at least serves to open up the possibility that the church’s conventional version of Jesus may not do him justice?

So you think The Da Vinci Code taps into dissatisfaction with Jesus as we know him?

McLaren: For all the flaws of Brown’s book, I think what he’s doing is suggesting that the dominant religious institutions have created their own caricature of Jesus. And I think people have a sense that that’s true. It’s my honest feeling that anyone trying to share their faith in America today has to realize that the Religious Right has polluted the air. The name “Jesus” and the word “Christianity” are associated with something judgmental, hostile, hypocritical, angry, negative, defensive, anti-homosexual, etc. Many of our churches, even though they feel they represent the truth, actually are upholding something that’s distorted and false.

I also think that the whole issue of male domination is huge and that Brown’s suggestion that the real Jesus was not as misogynist or anti-woman as the Christian religion often has been is very attractive. Brown’s book is about exposing hypocrisy and cover-up in organized religion, and it is exposing organized religion’s grasping for power. Again, there’s something in that that people resonate with in the age of pedophilia scandals, televangelists, and religious political alliances. As a follower of Jesus I resonate with their concerns as well.

Do you think the book contains any significantly detrimental distortions of the Christian faith?

McLaren: The book is fiction and it’s filled with a lot of fiction about a lot of things that a lot of people have already debunked. But frankly, I don’t think it has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels. And in a certain way, what the Left Behind novels do, the way they twist scripture toward a certain theological and political end, I think Brown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends. But at the end of the day, the difference is I don’t think Brown really cares that much about theology. He just wanted to write a page-turner and he was very successful at that.

Many Christians are also reading this book and it’s rocking their preconceived notions – or lack of preconceived notions – about Christ’s life and the early years of the church. So many people don’t know how we got the canon, for example. Should this book be a clarion call to the church to say, “Hey, we need to have a body of believers who are much more literate in church history.” Is that something the church needs to be thinking about more strategically?

McLaren: Yes! You’re exactly right. One of the problems is that the average Christian in the average church who listens to the average Christian broadcasting has such an oversimplified understanding of both the Bible and of church history – it would be deeply disturbing for them to really learn about church history. I think the disturbing would do them good. But a lot of times education is disturbing for people. And so if The Da Vinci Code causes people to ask questions and Christians have to dig deeper, that’s a great thing, a great opportunity for growth. And it does show a weakness in the church giving either no understanding of church history or a very stilted, one-sided, sugarcoated version.

On the other hand, it’s important for me to say I don’t think anyone can learn good church history from Brown. There’s been a lot of debunking of what he calls facts. But again, the guy’s writing fiction so nobody should be surprised about that. The sad thing is there’s an awful lot of us who claim to be telling objective truth and we actually have our own propaganda and our own versions of history as well.

Let me mention one other thing about Brown’s book that I think is appealing to people. The church goes through a pendulum swing at times from overemphasizing the deity of Christ to overemphasizing the humanity of Christ. So a book like Brown’s that overemphasizes the humanity of Christ can be a mirror to us saying that we might be underemphasizing the humanity of Christ.

In light of The Da Vinci Code movie that is soon to be released, how do you hope churches will engage this story?

McLaren: I would like to see churches teach their people how to have intelligent dialogue that doesn’t degenerate into argument. We have to teach people that the Holy Spirit works in the middle of conversation. We see it time and time again – Jesus enters into dialogue with people; Paul and Peter and the apostles enter into dialogue with people. We tend to think that the Holy Spirit can only work in the middle of a monologue where we are doing the speaking.

So if our churches can encourage people to, if you see someone reading the book or you know someone who’s gone to the movie, say, “What do you think about Jesus and what do you think about this or that,” and to ask questions instead of getting into arguments, that would be wonderful. The more we can keep conversations open and going the more chances we give the Holy Spirit to work. But too often people want to get into an argument right away. And, you know, Jesus has handled 2,000 years of questions, skepticism, and attacks, and he’s gonna come through just fine. So we don’t have to be worried.

Ultimately, The Da Vinci Code is telling us important things about the image of Jesus that is being portrayed by the dominant Christian voices. [Readers] don’t find that satisfactory, genuine, or authentic, so they’re looking for something that seems more real and authentic.

Lisa Ann Cockrel is associate editor at Today’s Christian Woman. link

the power went out at church this morning for the early worship service. that wasn’t really much of a problem (actually it was pretty cool). it was a nice reminder of how little is actually necessary for us to worship GOD (basically just faith and other people there – for congregational worship). however, i did find out something in our church that is much easier with power … using the restroom.

the restrooms in our church are located on the inside walls of the building and thus do not have any windows. therefore, they get very dark when there is no power for the lights. i walked in and experienced the darkness. i quickly realized that i could use my cell phone as a flash light. this worked perfectly until i had to place the phone down (for reasons that i will not explain here). when i placed the phone down it immediately decided that it didn’t like where i had placed it and quickly went out in search of a better spot on the floor. apparently my phone can see in the dark better than i because its light went when the phone hit the floor. for obvious reasons the thought of crawling around on the floor was not very appealing to me so i decided to search for the phone by moving my feet around. my feet had over ideas such as playing soccer because that is what my right foot did with the phone. i heard the phone skid across the floor and started to search again. eventually i found my phone and it was a very thankful moment.

tomorrow i think i will ask for emergency lighting to be placed in the restrooms.

i presently weight more than i have ever weighted in my life. i tip the scales right now at 199 pounds. weight is usually not a very important thing for me. i’m not real concerned with being skinny. i usually eat what i like and exercise when i feel like it. weight just isn’t that big of a deal for me, but buying clothes is. actually not buying clothes is a big deal to me. i hate buying clothes. i enjoy being slightly (and sometimes abundantly) out of style. i can’t stand the thought of wasting money on clothes that will only be in fashion for a little while. it also seems to me that clothes feel better the longer you wear them. usually i wear my clothes until they fall apart and then i get whatever is on sale.

about four weeks ago my weight became an issue because i was having a hard time fitting into my pants. i usually weight between 185 and 195 pounds. four weeks ago i tipped the scales at 211 pounds and my pants were showing and i was feeling it. i knew something had to give so i started exercising again (i have to admit that i haven’t really exercised since hurricane katrina) and eating lunch out less. in the past four weeks i have dropped 12 pounds and my pants fit better again (though still not perfect).

tonight i discovered that i have a choice to make. you see the pennington company is doing medical research on slightly overweight people and 211 pounds at my height is the minimum to be in their study. if you are a part of their study they will help you lose weight, give your free medical treatment, and pay you $2500 at the end of the 16 week study. so now i have to figure out if i should gain the weight back (and buy some new pants) or continue on my path to 185 pounds. 🙂

since pam and i have finally landscaped our front yard (though the north side of the house still needs to be completed) i am now at a point where i get to buy a garden gnome. i love garden gnome. i think they are cheesy and that’s basically the reason that i love them. now i need to make sure you know that i’m not a big fan of villages of garden gnomes. you won’t find gnomes swinging, or riding, or gathering in visible groups in my dream yeard. you see it’s really just the thought of a hidden gnome within the garden that i like.i think it’s funny.

so after convincing pam that i would hide him well i have finally bought my own garden gnome. the photo above is my gnome. he is from the same style family as the gnome i used two years ago as a part of a message series i did at the youth ministry’s worship service. he should be here in a week.

now i have to come up with a name for him and a good spot in the garden.

i was in a conversation a few days ago in which the upcoming da vinci code movie was mentioned. i’m looking forward to the movie because i figure some good discussion will come of it. i personally find it hilarious that dan brown has somehow been turned into some type of gnostic prophet. just look at his past books. he has written thriller after thriller. that’s what he does … he writes quick read thrillers like tom clancy or john grisham. it’s just so happens that his schtick is the whole knights of the templar thing. jon stewart pointed out on crossfire that we should never confuse his daily show with hard hitting news because it’s supposed to be a comedy (if you haven’t seen the video here it is). i think the same thing should be remembered about dan brown. HE’S A THRILLER AUTHOR!

anyway back to my conversation with these pastors. when the discussion swapped to the da vinci code movie one of the pastors said “that book is a strong attack from satan on the chruch.” it was at this point that i blurted out “then our enemy is an idiot because it’s not a very good book.” i read the da vinci code and personally found it pretty predictable. one of the other pastors then said “you and i may not agree with the book but it is an excellent work of fiction and a powerful story that will be flowed. i should know because i love good fiction every now and then.”

this statement was what blew me away. not the part about the da vinci code being powerful. it’s not. everybody talked about it when it first came out and then it died away (just like all quick reads do) and the same will happen with the movie. in my opinion it won’t have many lasting thoughts. afterall we don’t base our legal system on john grisham or our defense strategy off tom clancy why would we base our faith off dan brown? the statement that blew me away was that this pastor consider the da vinci code an “excellent work of fiction.” he then went on to mention other works of fiction that he enjoyed reading and they were all from the same genre. most of the pastors i know don’t read near enough fiction and they definitely don’t read anything worth while. there is fiction and then there is good fiction (also known as literature). some books change the way you think and challenge society. books like “to kill a mockingbird,” “catcher in the rye,” “a lesson before dying,” “crime and punishment.” and other books are quick reads that are full of cliche’s and simple plots like “the da vinci code.” some works of fiction should be read because they are full of more truth than some of the non-fiction books that pastors read. works such as “the lord of the flies,” “the grapes of wrath,” “the scarlet letter.” other books don’t teach people anything … books like “the da vinci code.”

i’m not sure why it somehow became noble for pastor’s to say “i don’t read fiction.” yet, i’m convinced if more pastors read good fiction then we would see “the da vinci dode” movie for what it is … a summer blockbuster that will be forgotten within 5 years rather than being convinced that it is the greatest attack on faith in CHRIST ever.

i haven’t blogged on this blog in quite sometime. it’s partially because i’ve been more excited about photography (i finally was able to get a nikon d50) and partially because i simply haven’t felt like blogging about ministry.

anyway that has been changing over the past few weeks and i finally decided it was time to post something. over the next three weeks i will be speaking at our mid-week worship service about living a life of simplicity. i meet each week with a group whose desire is to make each week’s worship service something experiential and special. while we were talking about the message series which i was calling “the simple way” (in an ode to some friends in philadelphia) one of the people within the group said “is that supposed to be making fun of the paris hilton/nicole richie show ‘the simple life’?” once we heard it everything was settled. we had to make a mock “the simple life” trailer. we decided to do one for each week that was focused on the point of each week’s message.

so here’s this weeks video dealing with the need within a simple lifestyle to be able to say “no” to things, even some things that are good.