Most objectionable is the film's premise that Jesus was married to Mary of Magdalene and had a child, and that the Roman Catholic Church is mean to the point of murder in covering it up.
Although it's a product of Hollywood - where truth is actually illegal - various Christian churches feel that the film will undermine the faith of some believers.
Considering the number of people in America still willing to believe in Bigfoot, there is some merit to the concern. Human beings have a hard time agreeing on what happened yesterday, never mind what happened 2,000 years ago.
But if Christian churches really believe a Hollywood movie poses a serious threat to their adherents, it's a threat largely of their own making. Unvarnished truth is not a priority for religion.
Murder, political intrigue, bloody reprisals, torture, secret dealings - the Catholic Church hasn't exactly behaved itself throughout history. Neither have other Christian faiths. And our checkered pasts often come back to haunt us on the big screen or even in the news.
The LDS Church recently announced that it is deeply troubled by the news media's failure to clearly distinguish between the compound-building, law-flouting and girl-marrying people we once were and the compound-building, law-flouting, girl-marrying loons in Texas today.
And maybe there's a bit of jealousy on the part of churches when it comes to Hollywood's impact. Tinseltown can bang out a movie about nothing that will have people rocked back on their heels for years to come.
Meanwhile, churches claiming to possess killer scripts - the greatest story ever told? - manage to transform it into something that puts people to sleep every Sunday.
True, Hollywood plays fast and loose with the facts. But churches often play them far too close to their vestments. It's the difference between telling the wrong story and not telling the whole story.
Whether it's an individual or a powerful organization, truth usually matters only to the extent that it can be favorably correlated. Then it's sometimes a choice between having your faith threatened or your intelligence insulted.
I've seen a few church-produced/endorsed films whose adherence to unvarnished truth went no further than something happened that possibly involved carbon-based life forms.
''The Da Vinci Code'' is probably no more punishing to Christian faith than actual past Christian behavior. Hollywood may capitalize on certain unsavory elements of religion, but it rarely comes up with these ideas on its own.
Religion doesn't need Hollywood to threaten the faithful. Churches were doing a good job of that long before the invention of the motion picture camera.
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Contact Robert Kirby at kirby@sltrib.com or 801-257-8719. Send comments on this column to religioneditor@ sltrib.com.

