LITTLETON, Colo. — Evangelical churches across the nation are launching an aggressive effort to save souls by talking about a fictional murder mystery that many regard as blasphemous.
Pastors are setting out doughnuts and sandwiches and inviting non-Christians to come discuss "The Da Vinci Code" bestseller. They're creating hip marketing campaigns to draw nonbelievers to sermons about the thriller. They're even giving away free iPods loaded with their commentary on the novel.
The goal is to instill trust in the Bible and faith in Jesus' divinity -- principles that many Christian leaders believe are threatened by "The Da Vinci Code," which opens in movie theaters May 19 as a film starring Tom Hanks.
'Da Vinci Code' outreach: An article in Thursday's Section A about churches responding to the movie "The Da Vinci Code" misspelled the name of a New Testament scholar. He is Darrell L. Bock, not Brock.
A poll by Outreach Inc., a church marketing firm, found 68% of its customers, mostly Protestant churches, planned to respond to "The Da Vinci Code" with some form of evangelism.
The Catholic response has been ambivalent. Some Catholic groups and a few Vatican officials have urged the faithful to shun Dan Brown's book and the movie, directed by Ron Howard. But priests expect that many Catholics will see the movie anyway. So hundreds of parishes have set up study groups to pick apart the film's historical and theological claims.
"The Da Vinci Code," which has sold 40 million copies, opens with the murder of a curator at the Louvre Museum. A professor of religious symbology called in to consult discovers clues hidden in the art of Leonardo da Vinci. Racing to unravel the puzzles, he learns that Christianity is built on falsehood: Jesus was not divine; he left an heir by his wife, Mary Magdalene; and the Bible as we know it was pieced together by a 4th century Roman emperor intent on suppressing the role of women in the Catholic Church.
If those claims are true, "the Christian faith is a sham," according to a Catholic website that offers priests tips on how to respond to the movie.
Though angry, Christian leaders say they have nothing to gain by organizing pickets outside movie theaters. That would make them look closed-minded and defensive, when what they really need to counter the power of the film is "a very positive, wholesome, winsome" response, said Josh McDowell, a Christian writer and evangelist in Richardson, Texas.
Besides, "it's probably going to be an awesome movie," said Garry Poole, a pastor at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago.
- Westminster Abbey nixes 'Da Vinci Code' Jun 01, 2005
- The plot thickened, and so did the crowds of tourists May 14, 2006
- Cashing in on the `Code' May 21, 2006
