Wednesday, May 24, 2006

DA VINCI CODE - THESE KENYAN CLERGY AND KNEE JERK REACTIONS

Its interesting...The Da Vinci Code argument that is.

I am a bit concerned by the stand that the Kenyan Clergy took today on the Da Vinci Code. No, l am not agreeing with Dan Brown's book or Ron Howard's movie take on the issue. In fact, l am totally out there trying to get people to go the opposite direction as far as belief is concerned.Lets start here..the clergys' knee jerk reaction to this movie.This is a typical reaction to this movie from these clergy quarters. The clergy waited until the movie got here and then reacted.

By now, dear Kenyans, we all know we are a global village - that cannot escape your mind. Surely some clergy must have watched the reaction this movie was eliciting from the other parts of the world and predicted the same would happen here.

A number of Clergy in the US and Parts of Canada took advantage and actually addressed the contentious issues brought up in the movie.My advice? Allow your members to watch this movie. Surely, like someone said, you cannot ignore a book that has sold more than 40million copies. Neither can you stop a movie that opened in over 124,000 movie theatres around the world.There goes the global village again.

Instead, this is what l think the church should do. Research about the issues raised in the movie and allow the discussion to take place in the church.If you are too lazy to do your homework then visit Lee strobel's site and get information on it. Lee Strobel is a Christian apologetic who is a Yale educated lawyer, in case you are wondering. Lee and others make the Da Vinci Code's contentious issues so easy to comprehend. They have done their homework and have proof.

The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction.Even the agnostic documents that the author Dan Brown quotes from don't agree with what he says. It is basically 10% truth and the rest? Well you guessed it..90% fiction.The Outreach magazine points out that 7 out of 10 churches in the US are either planning to address or are addressing the contentious issues brought up in this movie.This is what the clergy in Kenya should do.

There have been claims that most Christians in Kenya are a centimetre deep in their knowledge of the Bible. Meaning? A great percentage of Christians in Kenya get swept, worried and even shaken by everything.They are not grounded in the Bible and if challenged, they would actually come up short. Right now our clergy is experiencing the chicken little state where 'the sky is falling on our heads' because of a fiction movie. What does that tell their Church members? If the father of the house hollas about something without first understanding it, the children will obviously go out and check out whatever it is that is eliciting that adverse reaction.

Trust me clergy. Do your homework. Get it right the first time so that no matter what gets thrown at you or your members no one will be experiencing knee jerk reactions.

To quote Mike Licona the director of the Apologetics Evangelism, "Christianity does stand under scrutiny." So stop with the annoying knee jerk reaction.