TDVC and Faith

Carl Olson writes I saw TDVC and I almost lost my faith... for the Insight Scoop blog. Of course he's being cheeky. The idea that this movie might cause people to lose their faith is a source of humour for some.

At a family gathering last night one of the wife's cousins was triumphantly announcing that, while she preferred the book, the movie was enjoyable and her faith was intact. There was a big smile and the mischievous hint that the idea of TDVC weakening "faith" was silly. Could something like this book and film weaken someone's faith? Is there some defect in someone's faith who would be put into a crisis by this kind of thing?

Paul spends some time dealing with the relationship between those who are strong and wise in the faith and those who are,conversely, weak and ignorant. His conclusion is:

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of us please his neighbour for his good, to edify him. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me.”
Romans 15:1-3 (RSV)

The abysmal ignorance of history, the unreflective and almost solipsistic relativism ("It's all relative unless I say so") and the highly selective skepticism that I see in our culture don't fill me with confidence that every person of "faith" is going to come away from all this rubbish with their faith untroubled. Which, in turn, makes me think that care for those weak in the faith should be a concern of those who are strong. Just as those who knew that meats from sacrificed animals were not really forbidden were told by Paul to avoid them for the sake of the weak (Romans 14; 1 Cor 8-9):

“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law — though not being myself under the law — that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law — not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ — that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
(1Cor 9:19-23 RSV)

And what about those who do not know Jesus is the first place? How does one share the Good News (as mandated by Christ) with people so confused about what we can and cannot really know about Jesus? This may be the worst effect of this series of otherwise silly books (Holy Blood, Holy Grail and so on). Jesus says that Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35); Dan Brown and others say that the four Gospels were arbitrarily chosen in the Fourth Century. How can one take Sacred Scripture seriously (as Jesus clearly did) if it is the result of ancient politics?

So It seems to me that our mandate in dealing with these kinds of controversies is the one announced by Our Lord for Himself:

“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
(Luke 4:18-19 NAS95S)