THE DA VINCI CODE

Here’s the skinny: The Beloved Disciple of John’s Gospel was really not John but Mary Magdalene, who was more than just the beloved disciple but Jesus’ wife as well. Mary was not a reformed and forgiven prostitute. That is simply the invention of the male-dominatedchurch to suppress both Mary’s place and Jesus’ intention to give women power and authority. Furthermore, Jesus was not the Son of God, and thus not divine. Rather Jesus’ divinity was the invention of Emperor Constantine.

All of these truths and many, many more were discovered in documents found hidden in a cave and are now buried beneath a structure under the Louvre Museum in Paris . Read those documents and one will discover why Opus Dei, a powerful and conservative cult supporting the Vatican , would go to any length and pay any price to find and destroy those documents. To get the whole story read Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code.

Here’s the truth: it’s a novel that contains many facts but even more errors purporting to be facts. Yet the further truth is that many, many people are reading this book and believing it is factual because Brown asserts on Page One that “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents {my emphasis}, and secret rituals are accurate.”

Make a statement of fact and then facts can become distorted and used for one’s own purposes whether the facts are correct or not. We’re still looking for those weapons of mass destruction whose basis in fact (remember the show-and-tell the Secretary of State put on for the United Nations?) was the justification for the war in Iraq . Millions of people are reading the Left Behind series believing it to be an accurate description of the end times, because the writers purport to know what those times will be like and when they will occur. Jesus himself, by the way, said he had no idea about any of it.

It is quite easy to bend the truth to have our way, let alone convince others that we have it right. If we read it in the paper or a magazine, see it on television or on the Internet, then it must be true. If it is spoken by one in authority, whatever the authority, it must be true. These people would not lie, would they? Wave the flag or wave the Bible and the truth becomes even more easily distorted.

Herman Goering, interviewed during the Nuremberg Trials: "Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it’s the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

This is not to pick on anyone, even Dan Brown. The book is a wonderful and fascinating read. This is merely a reminder that truth is fragile and it must not be tampered with lightly or at all and certainly not bent or distorted to support one’s personal agenda no matter what the agenda, even a noble one.    WJP