Da Vinci Code Benign Or Evil?

How about a couple contrasting opinions about The Da Vinci Code.

In this corner.

A few pundits are arguing that Christians should read the bestselling book The Da Vinci Code and see the movie to "engage the culture" and as a tool for evangelism.

By that argument, we should encourage people to read other popular, but infamous, works: Chinese dictator Mao Zedong's Little Red Book, or The Communist Manifesto. Or, why not Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, or The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic diatribe popular in Muslim circles?

And now for something completely different.

From the furor over The Da Vinci Code, you'd think World War III was about to erupt. Dan Brown's blockbuster - first the book, now the movie opening today - has ignited a fight among many Christians over whether it should be shunned as blasphemy or used as a starting point to win converts.

Let's take a deep breath here. This is a work of fiction. Why not treat it like other popular novels of historical fiction, such as The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel or Lincoln by Gore Vidal?

BTW on the subject of Mao Zedong. It wouldn't hurt to read him.

If the U.S. monopoly capitalist groups persist in pushing their policies of aggression and war, the day is bound to come when they will be hanged by the people of the whole world. The same fate awaits the accomplices of the United States.

Apparently Bushco has read Mao. Unfortunately they bought into the wrong parts.

Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun, it is necessary to take up the gun.