I’ve heard, here and there, of folks planning to picket The Da Vinci Code.

Ron Howard says "Thanks!"

A protest serves no purpose but to help the protesters feel as if they are doing something, and to build PR for the film – and exactly the kind of PR that the filmmakers want, in which a conflict is immediately established and visually concretized in the public’s mind: between beleagured artists combatting censorship and fanatical yahoos.

Not, in my opinion, time well spent. It’s not that it leaves a damaging perception – it’s that it truly accomplishes nothing – or is counterproductive. No one will be discouraged from seeing the film. Some will become even more interested as a result.

There is a lot going on – a lot of positive action being taken by churches. Just do a news search for "Da Vinci Code" and "response" and you’ll turn up news items about seminars and sermons series being presented in churches of all types across the country. My feeling is that the "Othercott" technique just might bear some fruit – but we won’t know that for a couple of weeks.

It’s not the worst thing in the world, of course, and it is totally well-meaning. But you’ll have to work pretty hard to convince me that standing in front a movie theater with signs proclaiming "Blasphemy" is going to a)prompt anyone to change their mind, turn around and go to another film or b) encourage people to explore the truth of Christianity in any deeper way.