Heart Soul and Might

Great thoughts on singleness here by Andreas Kostenberger at Biblical Foundations. Here is an excerpt:

“30 and Single? It’s Your Own Fault”—at least according to a recent controversial book, Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness, by Debbie Maken. The author got serious about getting married at age 28, signed up with a Christian web agency, and shortly thereafter entered marital bliss. Maken’s contention, however, that women who are in their late 20s or in their 30s and still unmarried have got only themselves to blame for lack of effort has created quite a stir among those very women who plead “not guilty” and question Maken’s categorical stance (everyone should do what she did, with the same results), not to mention her theology of singleness.

What does the Bible say about singleness? In my book God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation, published by the same publisher as Maken’s book, I devote an entire chapter, Chapter 9 entitled “Undivided Devotion to the Lord: The Divine Gift of Singleness,” to this question. The first part of the chapter features a biblical theology of singleness in the Old Testament and New Testament plus a treatment of singleness in the early church. This is followed by a discussion of issues related to singleness, such as singleness and ministry, cohabitation and premarital sex, courtship and dating, and biblical teaching on singleness addressed to particular groups.

HT: Biblical Foundations

There is an interesting and I believe very important discussion going on at Together For the Gospel blog regarding the “debate” around faithfulness and relevance in the Church. Beginning with:

Mark Dever’s “Assumptions and Pursuits” here, followed by:

Ligon Duncan: Relevance, Customer Needs and Faithfulness

Al Mohler: The Cutting Edge

C.J. Mahaney: Cross-Centered Relevance 

Al Mohler: Two Kinds of Relevance 

Given the “Church Growth Phenomenon” of the last twenty years and the continued growth of large and mega churches - many of whom claim the “seeker-sensitive” model of ministry - this is a crucial discussion. Relevance is important… but at what cost?

In Dever’s “Assumptions and Pursuits” he says the following which clearly states the problem:

…having been in an unusual (even for me) number of meetings of pastors in the last few months, and reading everything from Rob Bell’s Velvet Jesus to John MacArthur’s Fool’s Gold (I think the latter volume is the better), I’ve been giving a lot of thought to colloquiums, cooperation, alliances, being together and denominations.  What is it that we pastors are grouping around?  Here’ my brief summary.

I think the most basic practical division among evangelical pastors today may be between those who pursue faithfulness and assume relevance and those who pursue relevance and assume faithfulness.

Imagine a spectrum running between those two alternatives; on its edges are positions most all of us would clearly recognize as wrong.  So on the faithfulness side would be a Greek Orthodox like use of untranslated Greek language in the service.  We might believe that the physical fact of proximity to God’s Word or hearing the inspired language (even if we don’t understand it) might have an almost magical force.  By that I mean, a power unrelated to our comprehension of the words.  No concern about irrelevance if the content is correct.  On the other hand we might find those who want to relate to the world precisely, with no distinct life or message.  Those for whom Paul’s  example in I Cor. 9:19-23 is the explanation for what amounts to the vanishing of the church as any distinct society.

The middle of the spectrum is where each of us intends to be–the right balance, the perfect combination of utter faithfulness to the Gospel and piercing relevance in its presentation.  And I suspect that most of us imagine we’re not too far from there, or else we would alter our location!

The following is from a sermon John Piper preached almost 25 years ago. (Click here for the whole sermon) Keep in mind, Piper is against the consumption of alcohol… but he’s against something else far more adamantly…

I want to hate what God hates and love what God loves. And this I know beyond the shadow of a doubt: God hates legalism as much as he hates alcoholism. If any of you still wonders why I go on supporting this amendment, after hearing all the tragic stories about lives ruined through alcohol, the reason is that when I go home at night and close my eyes and let eternity rise in my mind I see ten million more people in hell because of legalism than because of alcoholism. And I think that is a literal understatement. Satan is so sly. “He disguises himself as an angel of light,” the apostle says in 2 Corinthians 11:14. He keeps his deadliest diseases most sanitary. He clothes his captains in religious garments and houses his weapons in temples. O don’t you want to see his plots uncovered? I want Bethlehem to be a place Satan fears. I want him to be like the emperor in “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” And we will be the babes (not in thinking! 1 Cor. 14:20) who say, “Look, he thinks he is clothed in white, but he is naked and ugly.”

Listen as I uncover one of his plots. Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn’t look like one.

• Alcoholism makes men fail; legalism helps them succeed in the world.

• Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle; legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one.

• Alcoholism destroys moral resolve; legalism gives it strength.

• Alcoholics don’t feel welcome in church; legalists love to hear their morality extolled in church.

Therefore, what we need in this church is not front end regulations to try to keep ourselves pure. We need to preach and pray and believe that “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither teetotalism nor social drinking, neither legalism nor alcoholism is of any avail with God, but only a new creation (a new heart)” (Gal. 6:15; 5:6). The enemy is sending against us every day the Sherman tank of the flesh with its cannons of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. If we try to defend ourselves or our church with peashooter regulations we will be defeated even in our apparent success. The only defense is to “be rooted and built up in Christ and established in faith” (Col. 2:6); “Strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy” (Col. 1:11); “holding fast to the Head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together … grows with a growth that is from God” (Col. 2:19). From God! From God! And not from ourselves.

HT: Between Two Worlds

That was the question he asked.

It launched us into a very interesting 15 minute discussion of truth, life, faith, scripture, Jesus, moral absolutes, God, relativism… and then we got off the plane and I’ll never see him again. But, hopefully he won’t soon forget our conversation.

I flew with my two boys up to Chicago to drop them off with their grandparents (my parents) as Heidi and I embark on a little adventure this next week to JH Ranch in northern California. Cheap flights on Southwest make this kind of thing possible. I passed them off to my parents and got on the next flight back to Nashville… (they are awesome by the way!)

But on the flight to Chicago, I sat by a nice, distinguished looking older man (we’ll call him “Joe”) who endured the short flight next to me and the two active little rascals (ages 3.5 and 2) I had with me. They kept me busy the entire flight as you can imagine, and so aside from our brief introduction, Joe and I didn’t talk much. I was juggling sippy cups, complimentary bags of dry roasted peanuts and one red-headed two-year old who would much rather have been in the cockpit with all the knobs and buttons.

With 15 minutes left in the flight, Joe asked me what I do and I told him I’m a pastor in a church. I asked him the same question, and he told me he’s in the wine retail business. His next question was “So, what do you think about The Da Vinci Code?” I guess the pastor part gave him the open door…and I took it. I told him I enjoyed the book and with the exception of the terrible historical inaccuracies and heretical blasphemies on God, it was an engaging and intriguing book. But I did tell him I thought the movie was greatly disappointing. (I didn’t yet know his perspective…)

He disagreed on the inaccuracies and blasphemies, questioning how we can know what is true or not, and told me he believed many of the “facts” presented in The Da Vinci Code. This launched us into a pretty honest discussion on our views of truth, the Bible and who Jesus is. I asked him if he believed what the Bible said, and he said “a lot of it.” My response was that he needed to believe either The Da Vinci Code or the Bible - because they hold to two completely opposing sets of truth… And you can’t believe both the Jesus of The Da Vinci Code and the Jesus of the Bible. They’re diametrically opposed.

The reason for this post is to encourage us to be prepared for conversations like these. The only way I could engage him in this conversation was because I had both read the book and seen the movie, read Exploring the Da Vinci Code, and researched the answers to the questions the book and movie raise. 1 Timothy 4:1-5 asks us to be ready and preach the Word… I was able to eventually bring it to the most important point of Joe’s eternal security and the fact that his decision as to which truth to follow would determine what happens to him for eternity. I didn’t get the impression that he got the big picture, but the seeds were planted and the Holy Spirit can now do His work.

We need to engage culture. We need to be prepared. This book and movie are opening up conversations all over the globe and the opportunities to share the true Gospel are everywhere. One of the most important questions we need to be ready to answer is: “What do you think about The Da Vinci Code?”

I went by myself to our local theatre last night to see The Da Vinci Code and see for myself if it really lived up to all of its terrible ratings, and… in that respect I was not disappointed. It was pretty bad. I thought the book was very engaging and with all of the twists and turns with anagrams, codes and things to decipher, it kept my attention. Of course, I was offended by the outrageously heretical and blasphemous claims of Jesus having a relationship with Mary Magdalene and fathering her daughter, the historical revisions concerning Constantine and the development of the Biblical canon… but as far as murder mystery books go, I knew it had all the makings of a blockbuster when I read it a few years ago. Click here for my post on the Da Vinci Code’s “perfect storm.”

But the movie was nothing like the book. There was little character development, hardly any intrigue and I thought some pretty poor directing choices - not to mention nothing really spectacular of any of the acting… even our beloved Tom Hanks.

To do the book justice, Ron Howard really needed to make about a 5-hour movie… which of course, you can’t get away with no matter the content. But Ron didn’t really even do all he could have with the 2 hours and 29 minutes I graciously gave him.

And that’s why I was pleasantly pleased when I left the theatre. I came away from reading the book thinking… this could do some damage to some people’s faith because of it’s claim to fact and truth. I came away from the movie thinking… this isn’t going to do much damage to Christianity because it is so obviously FICTION, and not really good fiction at that. In fact, the opportunities the producers have to really inflict damage on Christianity really fall miserably short. So short, that I think they look pretty foolish. They even took the obvious pot-shots at the Catholic polity in the Vatican and didn’t create anywhere near the controversy that the book did.

All that to say… as fan of good films, I was sorely disappointed. But as a lover of God and truth, I was elated. Yes, this film will raise questions in many people… But if someone’s faith is weak enough to be swayed by this poor piece of art, their faith was on thin ice to begin with. This poor excuse for a blockbuster film was a snoozer. And the only damage it did to me was steal $8.50 from my wallet I could have used at Starbucks this week.

It doesn’t look very good for The Da Vinci Code: The Movie… Not the opening weekend it was hoping for. Here are some reviews from a movie cite I go to often, RottenTomatoes.com. The movie only has a 21% “fresh” rating… which is pretty terrible…

Here are a couple of the more interesting reviews:

  “You know a movie’s a dud when even its self-flagellating albino killer monk isn’t any fun. “

– John Beifuss, COMMERCIAL APPEAL (MEMPHIS, TN)

  “Too measured to be lively, too skittish to be provocative, too dramatically slack to be more than a ploddingly literal book-on-film.”

– Peter Canavese, GROUCHO REVIEWS

I was too bleary-eyed the other night to continue typing… so, I’ll finish where I left off in my update on the Hollywood Connect meeting. The three others in attendance at the think-tank roundtable were:

Kim Guenther - Kim is from Atlanta and seems to have a ton of irons in the fire in a number areas. A singer, dancer and actor, she is involved with the creative team for  “Art Within” - an organization that develops and commissions talented screenwriters and play wrights who have promise in the secular arts industry. I believe this is how she became connected with Hollywood Connect and Michele Suh. She also owns an “interior botanical” company called “Plants Forever” - I don’t know much about this company, but I know she owns some nurseries and it sounds pretty interesting!

Barry Landis - Barry was a record label exec for over 20 years in the Word and Warner Brothers family and in the last 18 months has transitioned into more of a free-lance and consulting role with a number of companies. He sees this new season as one of networking with Christian influencers all over the country to the change the world. Barry worked with “Roaring Lambs” author Bob Briner prior to his death, and in honor of Briner is developing the Briner Institute which will influence and inspire Christians to excel and make a difference in culture to advance God’s glory. (the Roaring Lambs philosophy) I first heard Barry speak a couple years ago at the ReCreate Conference and just listening to him, it’s not hard to tell he’s a mover and a shaker…

Larry Moschell - Larry was in attendance for Byron Spradlin of A.C.T. - Artists in Christian Testimony. A.C.T. is basically a mission board for artist missionaries. Their vision is to equip and send out arts missionaries. Michele Suh with Hollywood Connect is one of their “missionaries” and receives some financial support. You can give to A.C.T. - a 501(C)3 non-profit - and earmark funds for a specific artist or general purposes, and receive a tax deduction. It sounds like a great organization for the advancement of the Arts for God’s glory!

One of the things we talked about was developing “Artistic Entrepreneurial Connectors” - relationships and gatherings which would create creative synergy and collaboration and enable artists and leaders to take advantage of resources, people, time, space, creativity, energy, etc. in a way that wouldn’t be possible without collaboration. This is why artists and leaders from across the country would even take the time to get together like this. Everyone has a busy schedule with more than enough on their plates to handle without another meeting. But, the great thing about a connection like this is that greater creativity is available as we pool resources and ideas and think beyond our borders out to the country and the world. And the cool thing is… That’s how God thinks, too!

One of the practical ways that this kind of collaboration is so beneficial was seen as I mentioned my need to book speakers for our upcoming Fall and Spring Artist Symposium Series at Fellowship. Both Kathleen Cooke and Michele Suh have promised to utilize their networks and influence in Los Angeles to help bring some great speakers to Nashville for the symposium series. I love how God works!

As we near the release of The Da Vinci Code movie, I’ll be posting a few more of the more agregious errors, fabrications and fallacies in the book authored by Dan Brown.

One of the most blatant errors involves the clandestine organization Priory of Sion, supposedly existing since the 11th century, charged with guarding the secret about the descendents of Jesus. Much of the intrigue in The Da Vinci Code involves the operation of this secret organization as it protects the information around the bloodline of Christ purported to be carried forward following his relationship with Mary Magdalene. Dan Brown begins his novel by stating that information concerning the Priory of Sion is FACT. However, the following is a conversation between Lee Strobel, author of Exploring the Da Vinci Code, and well-respected historian and professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, Dr. Paul Meier.

“The book makes the claim that this information about the Priory is contained in secret documents that were discovered in the National French Library,” I [Strobel] said. “Would you not concede that those documents do exist?”

Clearly I had struck a nerve. “The documents exist - but they are all fraudulent!” Maier exclaimed. “On the first page of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown lists two items as ‘FACT’: Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion. Now, this is his method. He will offer a little truth - maybe 15 to 20 percent - and the rest is falsehood. But people will think it’s all true because they know that part of it is true. The claim in The Da Vinci Code is that the Priory was founded in 1099 AD in Jerusalem. Well, the fact of the matter is that it was founded in 1956, in Paris, by a crook and forger named Pierre Plantard, who planted secret documents in the Bibiotheque Nationale in Paris.”

Exploring the Da Vinci Code, Lee Strobel and Gary Poole, pp. 18-19.

So… the documents are real… but they’re PHONY! There goes the intrigue. The central premise on which The Da Vinci Code is written is false. I wonder if Dan Brown ever dreamed that his theory and his book would receive this much attention… Because his attention to detail certainly doesn’t match. His fiction is based on FICTION, not fact. And from a historian’s perspective, it’s laughable.

I just read a great book called Exploring the Da Vinci Code by Lee Strobel and Garry Poole - a very short book and easy read - and they methodically and clearly take apart the many errors found in this piece of fiction that claims to be historically accurate.

One of the many claims of the book is this one, coming from one of the characters, Sir Leigh Teabing:

“Many scholars claim that the early church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking his human message, shrouding it in an inpenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power.”

Strobel and Poole interviewed many scholars in preparation for this book, and for a response to the book’s questions of Jesus’ deity, they talked with renowned New Testament scholar Dr. Mark Strauss, a professor at Bethel Theological Seminary in San Diego for over 12 years. He has numerous degrees and many publications to his credit. His response to this quote from Teabing is this:

“That’s an extraordinary statement of revisionist history… In fact, when I was reading The Da Vinci Code, I was quite enjoying it as a fascinating murder mystery. Each chapter leaves you hanging and you can’t put it down. But when I got to the chapter on Jesus’ deity, suddenly it spoiled the whole book for me. Because what we have in that chapter is two supposed historical experts suddenly spouting absolute historical nonsense - stuff that any historian could tell you is pure gibberish…

…the idea that Constantine at the Council of Nicea made Jesus into a deity from a mere mortal prophet is ridiculous. The church had been declaring Jesus’ deity for more than two hundred and fifty years. In fact, to determine when the church is speaking about Jesus’ deity, simply go to the New Testament. More than two hundred and fifty years earlier, we get statement after statement that, in fact, affirm Jesus’ deity in the New Testament documents themselves.”

Lee Strobel and Gary Poole, Exploring the Da Vinci Code , pp. 80-81.

There are many errant claims and historical mistakes in this book, but re-writing history to fit the author’s agenda regarding Christ is one of the most agregious. To refute Dan Brown’s claims, here are some highly respected people from history who considered Jesus to be divine long before the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325.

• Ignatius: “God Himself was manifested in human form.” (AD 105)
• Clement: “It is fitting that you should think of Jesus Christ as of God” (AD 150)
• Justing Martyr: “Being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God”; “Both God and Lord of hosts”; “The Father of the universe has a Son. And He… is even God” (AD 160)
• Irenaeus: “Our LOrd, and God, and Savior, and King”; “He is God, for the name Emmanuel indicates this” (AD 180)
• Origen: “No one should be offended that the Savior is also God” (AD 225)

James Garlow and Peter Jones in Cracking Da Vinci’s Code

This excerpt from Reid Monaghan’s blog Power of Change (read the whole post here):

On May 19, 2006 the movie based upon Dan Brown’s fictional work, The Da Vinci Code. The trailer for the film contains the following opening:

Such are the lofty claims of this story. An ancient conspiracy, guarded by intrigue and murder, if revealed to the world would change the very fabric of society. Just exactly what could be such a secret? The Christian faith, the belief of billions on planet earth, is based on a well guarded fabrication that is revealed when a man seeks the truth in renaissance artwork and medieval legends. The book has garnered a huge following and the film will no doubt be a blockbuster success. Ron Howard is directing and Tom Hanks plays the lead role. The production values and cinematic excellence will be high and the story very compelling. From the spending some time on the film’s web site today, this project is being undertaken with the highest of quality. It will move people. For those uninitiated with the details of history or the debates about the historical Jesus the story of the Da Vinci Code can be confusing. A fictional work passing for history can be a great fog for people in our day. Many actually “learn” more from films today that responsible history. We must serve our neighbors in such a time as this. This film is a fantastic opportunity for those who follow the biblical Jesus, the Jesus of history, to grow in our understanding of our own faith, its roots, and to share the true account of Jesus with those with whom we live, work and play. I see the following benefits to the conversation which will be had around the film’s release.

• First, the film is a great opportunity to help one mature in our understanding of the historical roots of our faith. So many are completely ignorant of biblical history and the circumstances of early Christianity. It is a great time to study these issues greatly.

• Second, the film will cause “cultural Christians” and young people to struggle with what they believe and why. This will afford great opportunity for crisis and clarification. Which by God’s grace can result in deeper commitment to truth. We will need to love and teach in this context.

• Third, the film will be a great opportunity, in my opinion, for evangelism – sharing about the Biblical Jesus – not the Jesus of the Davinci Code, but the living Jesus who saves sinners.

HT: Power of Change

Friend and fellow blogger Reid Monaghan (Power of Change) taught the first part in a two-part series today on The Da Vinci Code where he laid the foundation for why it’s culturally important to understand what is behind the phenomenon of the DVC. The point is not to get sucked into the myth and the heresies behind this fictitious book, but to understand why it is taking culture by storm and be able to defend truth in light of the heretical and blasphemous claims made in the book and film.

I read The Da Vinci code almost three years ago, and knew when I read it that this book could do serious damage to some people’s fragile belief systems if it became more well-known than it had even at that time. And now, here we are with the movie release coming up May 19 - and unbelievable “buzz” surrounding this movie starring America’s beloved Tom Hanks and directed by another American “hero”, Ron Howard. This movie is sure to hit BIG at the box office.

So what is Da Vinci Code’s “perfect storm” all about? The “perfect storm” refers to the storm that developed off the northeast coast of the U.S. in 1991 where a cold front combined with a low pressure system and remnants of Hurricane Grace to create a scenario perfect for the development of a massive and destructive storm. It was such an amazing storm that a book was written and a movie was eventually produced.

Reid presented the case for a cultural “perfect storm” where a number of factors combine to create the scenario where this book has sold over 50 million copies and now is being produced into a high-budget Hollywood blockbuster. Here are the elements of the cultural perfect storm that are contributing to this Da Vinci Code phenomenon:

1. Discussion around the “Lost Gospels” - There has been a lot of interest in recent years around writings that supposedly call into question the validity of our current Scripture and present a different view of history and the life of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary Magdalene (among others) and most recently the Gospel of Judas are a few of those. Most of these writings have been found to have been written as late as the 200’s and 300’s - many, many years after the rest of the Canon of Scripture - and LONG after Mary and Judas had died. Yet, many people are holding these writings to the same level of Scripture. And Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown capitalizes on this in the book, bringing up many fringe writings while also calling into question the authority of Scripture.

2. Conspiracy Theories - There is all kind of interest in conspiracy theories in the world today - alien abductions, government involvement in assassinations, UFOs, etc, etc. Culture is fascinated by a good conspiracy theory, which is clearly exploited in DVC.

3. Orders, Art and Architecture - The Knights Templar, the Priory of Scion, Opus Dei… These secretive, mysterious orders - often dating back to medieval times and before - easily draw many people in to their intrigue. The mystery behind their practices and rituals is a lure into a world we know not of - and Dan Brown is aware of this curiosity of human nature. Add to the picture interest in the world of great art and beautiful architecture and you have the recipe for the success of DVC. People are intrigued to know there might be something behind the coy smile of the Mona Lisa and possible connections to the Louvre in France and other great architectural marvels.

4. The “Vatican Boogeyman” - Many people want reason to believe their fears that the Catholic Church is controlled by greed for money, power and influence to the point that it will do anything to perpetuate its belief system - even if the belief system is based on deceit and false information. Dan Brown capitalizes on this and picks on the Catholic Church, setting it up as a dominant predator that will seek to save face no matter the cost.

5. Goddess Worship and Neo-Paganism - There has been much interest in recent years in the Divine Feminine, the role and position of women in society and the worship of goddesses. Interest in witchcraft has risen sharply in recent years and Brown picks up on these issues with the interest in Mary Magdalene and the centrality of the book’s key female character, Sophie - a supposed descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene…

6. Pick a Fight with Jesus - Over 2.1 billion people in the world consider themselves “Christian” in some form - with belief in the person of Jesus Christ being the central focus. Brown calls all known information about Jesus into question and gets at the core belief system of the largest religious order on the planet. If Brown wanted to generate interest in his fast-paced, intriguing murder mystery, he got it from all directions by targeting the core, fundamental beliefs of those who consider themselves Christians (whether protestant or Catholic) - primarily the beliefs of the divine authority of Scripture and the life, death and resurrection of Christ…

All of these six factors (and maybe some others as well) have combined for such a time as this in the course of human history to create the perfect storm scenario where - as Brown touches on all of them in unique and creative ways - they create a stir and buzz that will be hard for the world to not take notice.

The terrible thing is that the validity and authority of Scripture are being questioned, the legitimacy of Christ’s integrity and character is being attacked and almost all of the book’s content that supports these concerns is being upheld as “fact” when in reality, a lot of it either isn’t true or wasn’t well researched.

The great thing about this is that this perfect cultural storm is getting the whole world talking about Jesus! Being aware of the issues in this book and movie will create many opportunities for dialogue over the coming weeks and months. Dialogue that presents the gospel and sees lives being changed. But, we need to know our own faith well and how it interfaces with The Da Vinci Code in order to engage culture in this unique season of opportunity. We can’t stick our heads in the sand and either not respond, or protest in ignorance when God may well be (and most likely IS) planning on using even this for the advancement of His glory. How do I know that? Because that’s just how He operates and has proven time and again that what man intends for evil, God intends for good.

Do you have any other ideas on “pefect storm” factors that might not have been mentioned? If so, drop me a line and we can continue the dialogue.

I’m not advocating seeing the movie (although I will) - but I am advocating that we know enough about the issues raised - in the book and the movie - that we can get into the cultural world without being threatened, and present the one, true Gospel. This book and movie are an open door… We all need to decide how the Spirit is leading us to walk through it into the possibility of changed lives and people giving their lives to the advancement of the Gospel and uplifting the glory of God.

Could it be that this is part of God’s divine plan? Could God Himself have devised the pieces that would come together to create this perfect cultural storm? Because of what I believe about God, my answer is YES.

Between Two Worlds had this post in response to The DiVinci Code:

Brian Godawa–screenwriter for To End All Wars and author of Hollywood Worldviews–passed along this email from an unnamed Hollywood screenwriter. I think it’s an intriguing way to respond to the release of The Da Vinci Code.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAY 19TH?

May 19th is the date the Da Vinci Code movie opens. A movie based on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge of honor.

What can we as Christians do in response to the release of this movie? I’m going to offer you the usual choices — and a new one.

Here are the usual suspects:

A) We can ignore the movie.

The problem with this option: The box office is a ballot box. The only people whose votes are counted are those who buy tickets. And the ballot box closes on the Sunday of opening weekend. If you stay home, you have lost your chance to make your vote heard.

You have thrown your vote away, and from Hollywood’s point of view, you don’t count. By staying home, you do nothing to shape the decision-making process regarding what movies will make it to the big screen.

B) We can protest.

The problem with this option: It doesn’t work. Any publicity is good publicity. Protests not only fuel the box office, they make all Christians look like idiots. And again, protests and boycotts do nothing to help shape the decisions being made right now about what movies Hollywood will make in the next few years. (Or they convince Hollywood to make *more* movies that will provoke Christians to protest, which will drive the box office up.)

C) We can discuss the movie.

We can be rational and be ready with study guides and workshops and point-by-point refutations of the lies promulgated by the movie.

The problem with this option: No one’s listening. They think they know what we’re going to say already.

We’ll lose most of these discussions anyway, no matter how prepared we are, because the power of story always trumps the power of facts (why do you think Jesus taught in parables?!). And once again: rational discussion of history does nothing to affect Hollywood’s choices regarding what movies to make.

But there’s a fourth choice.

On May 19th, you should go to the movies. Just go to another movie.

Save the date now. May 19th, or May 20th. No later than Sunday, May 21st — that’s the day the ballot box closes. You’ll get a vote, the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid down on a box office window on opening weekend.

Use your vote. Don’t throw it away. Vote for a movie other than DVC. If enough people do it, the powers that be will notice. They won’t have a choice.

The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the DreamWorks animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun, and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends. In fact, let’s all go see it.

Let’s rock the box office in a way no one expects — without protests, without boycotts, without arguments, without rancor. Let’s show up at the box office ballot box and cast our votes. And buy some popcorn, too.

May 19th. Mark your calendars now: Over the Hedge’s opening weekend. Buy a ticket.

And spread the word. Forward this e-mail to all the Christians in your address book. Post it on your blogs. Talk about it to your churches. And let’s all go to the movies.
HT: Between Two Worlds 4/9/06 12:28 PM JT

Mark Driscoll (The Resurgence, Mars Hill Church) engages with Chuck Colson here regarding Christianity and the culture war. It’s an interesting interchange stemming from a lunch conversation Driscoll had with Colson, and Driscoll’s follow-up blog post.

Here is Driscoll’s original post from a few weeks ago.

Below is Driscoll’s introduction to Colson’s response:

A few weeks ago I wrote about a luncheon I attended where I met with Chuck Colson. I concluded with some questions that Colson’s speech brought up regarding a Christian approach to cultural engagement. I prefaced my questions with the following, “Colson’s comments raise interesting missiological questions about the role of the gospel in the culture. An aging generation of evangelicals assumes that America is essentially founded upon Christianity and that the role of the church is to defend Christian morality through mainly conservative and Republican political involvement and by fighting against such things as abortion and gay marriage. Younger emerging type Christians are increasingly answering these questions differently than previous generations, leading to a growing rift among American Christians regarding the proper role of a Christian in their culture.”

Colson was kind enough to take the time to read the blog and answer those questions. I am sincerely grateful and would like to personally thank him. He also gave me permission to post his answers, which are below with the original questions.

Read the rest here.