'SEEK THE TRUTH'
cough cough

Well, that's the tagline for the upcoming movie version of the The Da Vinci Code (no, really, it is). Some Christians are seeing the movie's release as a teachable moment:

Instead of planning boycotts or staging protests, many Christians are looking to use the film as a tool for evangelism—and there's an increasing number of books, DVDs and study guides on the market to help them do it. Campus Crusade for Christ, an interdenominational network of campus ministries, created a 20-page magazine disputing the movie's claims and professing Christian beliefs. The organization is printing more than a million copies, which will be given free to unbelievers and can be bought at cost by Christians. Outreach, a provider of church evangelism tools, is selling dozens of items, from bulk direct-mail postcards—"Got Questions?" one reads, showing a picture of the Mona Lisa with a milk mustache—to bookings with New Testament scholars.

Well, I don't disagree with that, although using the movie as an opportunity to teach and actually 'embracing' it are two entirely different things. I will--and have--used the Code as a foil to express certain truths, but I will do my best to avoid giving Dan Brown, Tom Hanks and Ron Howard any of my money.

This new attitude, according to Newsweek, seems to indicate that Christians have grown and matured in their reaction:

This is an unusual response from a community that has, in the past, reacted defensively to movies that were demeaning to the faith. Mike Licona, director of Apologetics at the North American Mission Board, was at the forefront of boycott efforts against "The Last Temptation of Christ" in 1988. "I think it was a mistake," he says. "It created the impression that we weren't interested in truth or critical discussion." This time around, he's encouraging Christians to take unbelievers to the movie.

Why would I want to take someone to see The Da Vinci Code, much less The Last Temptation of Christ? I guess I've got more growing to do.