Reacting to the blasphemous premise of the blockbuster movie The Da Vinci Code (that Jesus Christ married and had children with Mary Magdalene), Christians around the world held angry protests. American embassies were torched in Toronto and London, and 12 people died in a stampede in New York. In Hollywood, Christians seeking to settle old scores dragged the movie’s director out of a cocktail party, tarring and feathering him.
Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, pronounced a fatwa on Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. Williams said Brown had “offended the sensibilities of the Christians.” The pope, asked to quell the violence, simply shrugged and muttered something about “yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.” Billy Graham, reached at his mountain retreat, said, “This was a deliberate provocation of Christian people, and turning the other cheek only goes so far.”
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?