A Pagan's perspective on The Da Vinci Code

The most interesting thing about this article in an Australian newspaper is that a Pagan was asked to join the "panel of religious experts."

The most serious problem according to the panel - a theologian, Catholic film critic, Opus Dei priest and a pagan - is that the basic premise is incoherent. The quest is to find the descendants of Jesus, but because the film portrays him as human, not divine, it simply doesn't matter.

"All you are left with is the bones of Mary Magdalene . . . Big deal! I didn't understand the significance at all," said pagan Caroline Tully. "If Christ's not supernatural, what's the point of being a descendant?"

Thanks to a rattlesnake bite, I spent two days last week in a Catholic hospital in Tucson, where the only religious TV channel was the Catholic channel.

I watched one program where a serious-minded Jesuit worked through all the canonical arguments against the movie's premise. He was an intelligent man--most Jesuits are--and his scriptural arguments were sound. But it also was clear that his postition kept him from answering the "elephant in the living room" question: Why is the story so appealing? Why are people drawn to the element of the divine feminine in the story? He wouldn't touch that part.