Fear of fiction?

To the editor:

To those who protest “The DaVinci Code” movie, please don’t react to what others have told you before you see it. We have read the book. Now we have seen the movie. Both are clearly fiction. So why the fear? Frightened that a fictional work will destroy your faith? Ours is stronger than that. Upset that the movie attacks the church? It’s stronger too. Jesus married to Mary Magdalene is heresy? Hardly.

It’s illogical to assume that Jesus could not perform His miracles if He was married. It is logical to assume that as a standard of his time, Jesus might have been married. But that does not deny His divinity. To my knowledge there is not a clear statement in the accepted gospels one way or the other.

We saw no direct attacks on the Catholic Church. It suggests that like any large institution there are those who would subvert its power for their own. One character claims that revealing the secret of the code would break down the power of the church. But, remember, it’s fiction!

Importantly, Tom Hanks’ character tells the heroine, “It all depends on what you believe,” that a person with the answer to the mystery could choose to strengthen faith.

The book and, by extension, the movie are full of fictional fallacies.

Go see the movie. It’s well done. Be intrigued by its premise. Enjoy it as a good piece of cinema, not a denial of faith. Quit tilting at windmills.

Keith and Barbara Wood,

Lawrence