Da Vinci Code movie and religion

I saw the Da Vinci Code for the first time, having never been exposed to the story. Walking away from the movie, I was upset.

I was largely raised without religion. My parents came from Methodist and Baptist branches of Christianity, but my last regular visit to church and Bible school was at 5 years old. My best friend well before I was a teenager and to this day is Jewish. I have also known atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, Bahai, and more through my days at the university, and I have felt a part of each of this groups at different points in time. I know religion through people, not institution or books - and feel akin to people.

I have learned a lot about religion over the past year, especially Islam. Dar al Islam was a two-week program in New Mexico I entered before departing for Pakistan. It taught me more history, culture, art, and practice inside Islam than I ever knew of Christianity (despite my name). Pakistan taught me more, even though I commonly felt the insulated "bubble" of Islamabad, the capital. A three-week journey to a friend in Tarim, Yemen was likely the culmination of my formal education about Islam.

In all of these travels and all of these times, I remained faced with my own opinions of religion, which have made me upset with all the fervor and excitement surrounding the religious implications of the Da Vinci Code.

I think religion is a culmination of history, culture, and ritual. More importantly, I think religion's purpose is harmony - one form of which may be unity. I get upset when the former components of religion outshadow its purpose.

While I appreciate the action genre of the movie, The Da Vinci Code's esteem comes from intricate storylines around religion: Opus Dei, Knights Templar, Priory of Sion, Holy Grail, bloodline or mortality of Jesus, etc. It's all exciting, but it's an opportunist use of religion - which worldwide seems to be more about peace, harmony, and living a good life.

I guess I expected too much from this movie, which I thought would give me insights into religion. Next time, I also think I'll read the book instead.