the skinny on dan brown

At Sugarcreek Free Methodist Church, we've been in a weekend message series about The Da Vinci Code. We've been looking at some of the claims the book makes, comaring them to Biblical teaching as well as historical records. It's been very interesting and fun. I'm giving the next talk (May 20, 21). It's about the Bible.

In researching material for this weekend's message, I listened to an hour-long interview with the author of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, yesterday. He's an interesting guy. Very thoughtful...a deep thinker as you might imagine. Here are a couple interesting things I learned about him.

He claims to be a Christian...although he never spoke of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or life change or anything along those lines. He says he grew up with a dad who was a math teacher and a mom who was a church organist. He says he always felt conflicted when it comes to science vs. the Bible because of this interesting dynamic in his life. He comments that as a young boy, trying to decide which way to believe, he chose to land on the side of science rather than biblical teaching because it just made more sense to him. He also says that as he's grown and learned, he's decided that science and religion actually compliment each other and should be viewed as partners in a person's faith.

He reinforced the fact that the book is a novel. He thinks religious leaders have made way too much out of all of this (although I'm sure he welcomes it--it helped him sell over 50 million books). He says he doesn't pay much attention to the press and has not looked at a single book that "refutes" or "rebuts" his book.

I also found this very interesting: here's a guy who just got paid $6 million for the movie rights to Da Vinci, he's sold over 50 million copies of the book...in other words, he could live anywhere, do anything, etc...and he chooses to live in New Hampshire...and he says he's in front of his keyboard by 4 a.m. each day (he feels like if he's not there by then he misses the most productive part of his day)...and he's working on the sequel to The Da Vinci Code. You've got to admire/respect that kind of dedication.

He keeps an hourglass on his desk and takes a break every half hour to do push-ups, sit-ups, and hang upside down (he says it helps the blood get to his head and helps him with new ideas--a fresh perspective).

He claims to write an average of ten pages for every one page that actually makes it into a book.
He's thrilled with the way the movie turned out. He says it reminds him of what the whole movie theater experience used to be about--he says that when he was a kid, movies took him to places he'd never been, they challenged him, they moved him, they scared him, they inspired him...he says this movie is just like that.

He thinks its great that the book has generated so much talk about faith and has caused people to investigate the claims of Christianity and the Bible. Of course, it helped him sell a whole bunch of books. But I got the impression that he's sincere when he says this.

The movie opens this Friday. And, yes, I plan to go see it. I've read the book. It was interesting, and fun. I expect the movie to be the same. The key for me is that I approached the book as it ought to be approached--as fiction. If one approaches it otherwise, it certain could confuse a person. That's why we've done the message series at SFMC--to help people understand the real truth. If your small group is interested in studying The Da Vinci Code, shoot me an email. We've got some cool DVD curriculum that I'm sure your group would enjoy.