I'm so freaking sick of the Da Vinci Code!!!!!

I have had my copy of The Da Vinci Code sitting on my shelf for well over two years. It remains there unread in hopes that I can read it without people asking "Well? What did you think?" My desire is to get by without having to discuss whether or not I thought elements of the book were in fact true or not, and with the upcoming movie it'll be years before that happens. The real surprise for many involved in the Da Vinci Code Cult (DVCC?) is that I plan to sit down and read it at face value, with the presumption that it is, by and large, a piece of fiction.

Now before you click the "comment" button explaining how Dan Brown himself stands by many of the ideas printed in the book, citing Holy Blood, Holy Grail... I'm well aware, but I have to ask at what point this book reached the second-coming-of-jesus level that it seems to have. I exaggerate you say?

A New York Times article, found here, talks about "those millions of people worldwide who devoured the book and made it, some claim, the most successful book in history after the Bible."
I've gotta stop here and repeat a that last piece just so it sinks in...
"the most successful book in history after the Bible."

Who ARE these people? Where do they live? And can we please sit down over coffee and talk about this???
I'm not offended in defense of the Bible here, but I question how seriously people take a novel, yes a NOVEL. I'm reluctant to make comparisons to the Harry Potter phenomenon, but it's not far off.

Equally exasperating are the groups in direct opposition of the book. They're coming from a different angle, but guilty of the same crime, taking a piece of literature way more seriously than necessary. See the same article as list above for more details on this.

Apparently groups in opposition to the book are lobbying Sony Films to omit or "soften" parts of the story for its film adaptation. Which begs the question, at what point did disagreeing factions become taboo? Christianity itself is a mess of disagreement and denominational splits. So why does one group have the right to come out and ask another to "soften" their statements?

The Da Vinci Code has a strong following of people searching for the historical Jesus, which studies archeological evidence as much as it studies scripture, so what's the problem with a fictional book (all together now everyone FICTIONAL) telling a story about this study? To me this is akin to an atheist asking Mel Gibson to soften the idea of Jesus being the son of god, since, y'know, atheists don't believe in a god.

Believe me when I say, I'm not in opposition of people finding important pieces of their faith in unusual places, even fictional books, I find it all the time, and as I will often touch on here at Discord/Harmony, it's a very important and life giving aspect of my spirituality to use non scriptural art as a way of understanding god, but loosely based spirituality, or even theology in a fiction book is no replacement for studied scholarship. Nor is it deserving of the frighteningly large cult following that it has accrued.

In the end this is not at all unlike the opposition of the aforementioned child wizard series when it first came out. I was working at a bookstore when the boom hit, and, much like The Da Vinci Code, a series of books, both favorable and not, came out dissecting what this series means to the religious community.

My favorite title: What's A Christian To Do With Harry Potter?

The answer: Just read it, nothing more.