Speaking in Code...

A year ago, before she left her job to be a full-time mother, my wife was at a trade show in Dallas. She was at dinner with some clients. She mentioned that her husband (me) was a part-time pastor at our church.

So this woman next to her says, "Have you read The DaVinci Code?"

To which my wife says, "Actually, no. But I've heard a little bit about it."

At this point, the book had been out for a few months. My wife hadn't read the book, didn't know what the book said, or even a vague sense of the general plot.

The woman leans over to her and says, "Well, I just want you to consider it. Just consider it."

Nicole looked at her. "Consider...reading it?" she asked.

"No," the lady continued. "Just keep an open-mind while reading it. Just...consider it. Just consider it."

She kept saying that - "Just consider it" - which started to irritate my wife. When she got back, we were on a hike and she was re-telling the story to me.

"Consider what? What am I supposed to consider."

Now, before I go much further, I have to admit that I haven't read more than 10 pages of the novel. But I've read enough about it to sort of know the general plot - which, as I understand it, is basically the plot of "National Treasure". But what my wife was supposed to consider was Brown's theory that the story of Jesus Christ was made up by a bunch of guys who wanted political power at the Council of Nicea in 325. The real Jesus was just a guy who said some cool things, then married Mary Magdelene, and had a bunch of kids who went to France and became kings and knights.

So, in one fell swoop, Brown attacks the legitimacy of Western and Christian history. Which is no small tower to topple.

Here's why it bothers me. Because people believe it.

Yesterday in my AP English class, I had a student, a bright girl who is a star on the basketball team, who said something that bothered me. I was talking about the purpose of literature, and how it's never written so that students can later study it. It's written because the author has something burning in his or her heart that needs to be told. A story. A theme. An idea. Authors want to say something about their world. And that's why they write. And literature works best when we come away feeling as though we've learned something about our world.

To which this girl said, "That's the way I felt when I read The DaVinci Code."

Now, I don't know what she meant by that. But my sinking feeling is that she felt as though she were reading real history. Real history that finally made sense to her.

How do you deal with that, as a devoted follower of Christ?

I ask because the question is only getting stronger. Ron Howard is making a movie of the book, set for release next summer. It stars Tom Hanks. And folks are going to be asking and wondering.

What to do? I welcome any suggestions.