I should have known better than to mention The Da Vinci Code in my last blog. I've already received email explaining to me why Dan Brown's tale is a groundbreaking treatise on various topics that threaten my closed-minded Catholic mindset.
As a recovered militant atheist, I can assure all that I'm not exactly scandalized by suggestions that Jesus was married. That's ridiculously tame compared to what I used to spout about all things Christian.
I mention The Da Vinci Code as fodder for the boobeoisie because that's what it is; an incredibly lame book made into a movie that may or may not bee equally bad. I tried - I mean really tried - to read the book. But I've read much better prose from my freshman students. Dan Brown makes John Grisham look like James Joyce. For an example of how stilted and corny this book is, read Dave Barry's hilarious parody.
I can't find any way that Da Vinci is any more scandalous than 10,000 other books and movies that trash Christian beliefs, this one just happens to be remarkably stupid, and therefore, is much more popular than most. I've had people with advanced degrees tell me that "this book relly makes you think..." It's all I can do to keep from laughing.
There are lots of interesting theories about Jesus (most of them are wrong, but they're interesting) that can be found in the pages of books written by the likes of Elaine Pagels and John Dominic Crossan and the whole "historical Jesus" crowd, but for goodness sake, if one finds that sort of thing interesting, why must we be forced to endure a thousand hours of talk about a book that could have been written by a 9th-grade wannabe novelist?
