pulpit vs. fiction

"The Da Vinci Code" drew large crowds to movie theaters on Friday and Saturday. This morning, preachers all over the world had the opportunity for rebuttal. At my church, Fr. Ragan Schriver's homily was about "The Da Vinci Code." He concluded by saying that the best way to "protest" the movie would be to demonstrate our Christian beliefs by the way we lead our own lives.

After Mass, Fr. Ragan told us he spotted several film flubs that only a theologian or historian would notice. I can't remember all of them. One involved the timeline of events surrounding the Council of Nicaea and another had to do with whether something was originally written in Aramaic or another language.

WVLT-TV bought the movie tickets for Fr. Ragan and some other local religious leaders. The clergymen were interviewed after they saw the film on Friday. (The video is available online.) WBIR-TV interviewed Fr. Ragan too. WATE-TV interviewed a different priest, Fr. Vann Johnston.

If you have about 30 minutes and an appreciation for parody, you might enjoy "The Norman Rockwell Code." The online film starts with a similar murder and then veers off in a completely different direction. I didn't count but it may have more references to "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Splash" than it does to Dan Brown's novel.