‘Da Vinci’ prompts search for truth

“Seek the truth.”

That’s what the ubiquitous posters advise. Plastered on buses, bus stops and billboards as well as the walls ? inside and out ? of movie theaters, they announce the May 19 release of the cinematic version of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, “The Da Vinci Code.”

See the movie, the posters suggest, and therein you’ll find the truth.

Bruce Garner, senior pastor of Central Baptist Church in Huntington Beach, hopes those who read the book or see the movie might then make an effort to examine the truth about Brown’s hotly debated rendering of Christianity.

The imminent arrival of the film has poured new fuel on the fire of the controversy sparked three years ago by the book. Unless you’ve been in quarantine for thepast 36 months, you’re not likely to have missed it.

To tackle some of what he considers to be the most vital issues raised by the author, Garner has prepared a three-part series called “Unlocking the Da Vinci Code.” He will present the program, which is open to anyone looking to further explore the book’s highly contested statements of fact, at 10:30 a.m. on May 21, May 28 and June 4.

One point on which he and Brown agree, Garner says, is “these are enormously important ideas.” He found the story to be “a well-crafted thriller written by a skillful novelist” but flawed by historical errors and inventions.

How Brown could have done without them, though, I don’t know, since his tale of intrigue relies on knocking the knees out from under the legs of orthodox Christian history and doctrine. In a world where fiction remains fiction, that wouldn’t necessarily cause a contention.

But Brown has chosen to obscure the line between fiction and fact. In a page preceding the prologue to his high-stakes mystery thriller, the author declares: “FACT: All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

A story-telling device at best ? and a deliberate ruse at worst ? it’s duped many readers into accepting Brown’s fictions as fact ? which he and others encourage.

Matt Lauer, co-host of NBC’s “Today Show,” asked Brown, “How much of this is based on reality in terms of things that actually occurred?” Brown replied, “Absolutely all of it.” While even a modicum of fact-checking begins to prove otherwise, much of what continues to be published and broadcast about the novel still lends historical credence to it.

Given Brown’s claims, summed up when one of his story’s characters, historian Sir Leigh Teabing, says, “Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false,” it’s little wonder Christians are standing to refute them. Books, websites, DVDs, lectures and debates have cropped up to counter Brown’s errors and misrepresentations concerning well-established facts.

Many Christian organizations have asked Sony and producer Ron Howard to attach a disclaimer to the film to make it clear it’s a work of fiction. Howard has shrugged off the request, saying, “[The Da Vinci Code] is a work of fiction, and at its heart, it’s a thriller, not a religious tract.”

Maybe so. But as it is, even some presumably smart people don’t seem to get that.

In a commentary published this month by the Los Angeles Times, Susan Jacoby, author of “Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism,” scoffs at Christians for their objections to “The Da Vinci Code.” Then she repeats several of Brown’s erroneous assertions, including the notion that “Jesus’ divinity was not taken for granted in the early Christian era” but was instead “first proclaimed at the Council of Nicea” in A.D. 325.

Sound evidence for that is as hard to find as a unicorn. Brown reaches for the Dead Sea Scrolls for support, but anyone who bothers to check will find they make no mention at all of Jesus.

This weekend, as the two-and-a-half-hour movie opens in theaters everywhere, many Christian leaders like Garner will publicly scrutinize the facts as presented by Brown in “The Da Vinci Code.”

Some of the facts are mundane: Brown numbers the panes of glass in the Louvre Pyramid at 666, “the number of the beast” mentioned in Revelation 13:18, while the museum puts the number of panes at 673. Other facts, such as what transpired at the Council of Nicea and the reliability of the four Gospels of the New Testament, are more central to the Christian faith.

“Important claims about Jesus are now being made,” Garner says. “The argument that ‘We’re just writing fiction here, so we don’t have to disclaim anything’ seems like an effort to have it both ways. It seems like they are saying, ‘We want you to know we did serious historical research before printing this novel and making the movie. But if you dispute any of the facts, don’t worry about it. Remember, it’s just an exciting fictitious story.’”

Still, Garner sees this as an opportunity. In “Unlocking the Da Vinci Code,” he will talk about how history sheds light on the topics Brown has raised; about whether the Bible itself is reliable; about the biblical view of women, sexuality and marriage; about whether Jesus is the son of God or was merely a man.

“If the Bible is reliable and truthful,” he says, “it can bear any investigation. If Jesus is who he claimed to be, he can withstand any scrutiny. Jesus said he was the way, the truth and the life. He cannot only answer our toughest questions, he invites them.”

As the tagline to “The X-Files” said, “The truth is out there.” It’s up to us to seek it.