mad about fiction

There are a lot of people talking about a certain artist named Leonardo Da Vinci these days. Few however are talking about his amazing artwork. The focus is something that he had nothing to do with … namely The Da Vinci Code, the best-selling book by author Dan Brown. Many people are intensely interested in this work of fiction because of all the true facts of which it speaks (wait … it’s fiction right?). I have seen, heard, and read many people who are seeking to disprove what Dan Brown speaks about in his book. Among those speaking toward this book are journalists, literary critics, historians, and theologians.

There has been countless hours dedicated toward Brown’s claims in his fictitious work that claim among other things that Jesus was married, that Constantine and the Church manipulated history to convince people of Jesus’ Deity, and that Da Vinci was in fact a woman (okay the last one I made up, he did say that Da Vinci was the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion). As professors, scholars and average citizens have wrestled over the contents of this novel there is one thing that has confused me. Why if this is not true do people get so irate when proving that it is not true? Why are some so dogmatically opposed to this book? (wait … it’s fiction right?)

I have seen and read several things that have really been of interest to me because I was intrigued to say the least by Brown’s book. As I have done so, there have been several who in an attempt to prove Brown’s fiction untrue they do so in an angry tone with clenched fists. I just thought that maybe we could all just say, “It’s fiction.” That way we would all know that it is not true, but in today’s world we can take nothing for granted. Maybe fiction is the new non-fiction like pink is the new black.

I came across one book in particular that went into great detail defending Brown’s claims about the Bible, Jesus, and the History of the Church. I truly appreciated the tone of the author. Beyond that however, I began to discuss what I read with other people who were angrily thrilled that the “Anti-Da Vinci Code” book was written to disprove that “liar and heretic” (just a few of the names that I have heard Dan Brown called). Why are people upset? (There were no parenting books written when Anakin became Darth Vader and cut off Luke’s hand).

I guess I ask this question more of the Christian community because we serve a God who doesn’t defend himself. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even try to prove that he exists. He wastes no time in the Bible telling us simply that he is, “In the beginning God …” In the ancient world in which that was written all creation myths began with the cosmic battle and birth of the gods. The God of the Bible just was, and he never seeks to defend himself. The Bible also never lays out its own “proof texts” claiming to be all that it says it is. It just is. Yet we spend a lot of time attacking those say that what we believe is not real.

I suppose we ought to just live like Jesus told us to. Loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. I think that if we truly were people who lived like that then we would not have to defend ourselves. Rather than say “This is what we believe!” We could say nothing and just keep living. There will always be those who want to believe something different … our job is not to silence critics, it is to love them. And by the way, The Da Vinci Code … it is fiction.