The Da Vinci Code - Early Church History Inaccuracies

Hi folks--an article here from Slate about some of the ways The Da Vinci Code stretches the truth in order to develop a compelling conspiracy...

Here's a quote about those recently re-popularized Gnostics:

Curiously, The Da Vinci Code presents the so-called Gnostics, who regarded other Christians as lesser beings than they and were in turn treated as heretics, as the heroic defenders of a thoroughly human Jesus. But actually the historic Gnostics and the gospels often linked with their circles did not emphasize Jesus' human nature at all—quite the opposite. Typically, Gnostic Christians portrayed Christ as a heavenly being who came down to earth to awaken them from their spiritual slumber by disclosing their own divine inner nature. Regarding the physical world as a source of delusion and place of confinement, Gnostics were deeply negative about bodily existence, including their own.

Bible-bloggin

Slate's got a new feature--a guy who's reading through the Bible and blogging about it as he goes. He thinks of himself as an "ignoramus," but it seems to me like he's reasonably smart. Here's the first installment on Creation to the Flood in Genesis. The impetus for starting this project? A particularly racy passage in Genesis 34 about the rape of Dinah.

An interesting quote:

The Lord—not so good at follow-through. In Chapter 2, He is clear as He can be: He commands man not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad: "for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die." No wiggle room there. You shall die. But then when Eve and Adam eat the fruit of the tree a few verses later, do they die? Nope. God punishes Eve with "most severe … pangs in childbearing" and curses Adam by making the soil barren. Any parent knows you have to follow through on your threats, or your children will take advantage of you. God makes a vow He can't keep—or if He did, He would undo all his good work. So, He settles instead for a half-hearted punishment that just encourages His children to misbehave again. Is it any surprise that we sin again? And again? And again? All the way down to the present day. You can call this "original sin," but maybe it's just lax parenting.

God as a softhearted parent. This might not be such a bad description of how things work. After all, people aren't always punished for doing wrong, and they aren't always rewarded for doing right.

My theory on the Garden of Eden is that for us to be able to make a choice about whether or not we love God, we have to also be able to choose not to love God. This moment in the garden is the beginning of our free will, and it's also the beginning of our ability to freely love God, not as dependents who are forced to act a certain way, but as free people. But maybe that reading is too American--all this talk about individual freedom and will.

To all the Attorneys
and future attorneys reading this blog...

I have some news for you--that J.D. may be a waste of time. A guy in my office today was trying to figure out which administrative assistant I was to give me a change of address. The receptionist pointed in the direction of my desk, and then Bob says, "Oh, is she the one that always wears suits and looks like a lawyer?"

Oh yeah.

And you know buying the suits is way less expensive than 3 years of tuition. :)

The Contemporary Service Comes to an End

Friends,

As some of you may know, I've been a part of a monthly contemporary worship service at United Evangelical UCC in the Canton neighborhood of downtown Baltimore. If any of you were planning to go on Saturday, the service has been cancelled for the near future. Thank you to everyone who came to hear me preach. I really enjoyed having you there.

And if you're the praying type, please keep United in your prayers. I think this is a good move for them--it will free up some energy for the church to move in exciting new directions, but it's still always hard to let go of something that has meaning for the people involved.

If you're wishing you could've come to hear me, you'll have your chance in late June and early July -- check out my upcoming preaching gigs at the links on the right.

Blessings,

Amy