‘Da Vinci’ spurs healthy discussion

In 1956, the movie “Baby Doll” came out amid much controversy. Carroll Baker played 19-year-old Baby Doll. She’d been married for two years to an older husband, played by Karl Malden. He lusted after her, but he kept his hands off, because he made a vow to Baby Doll’s father that he wouldn’t touch her until she turned 20.

The plot, which involved betrayal, seduction and another man, of course, would seem tame by today’s standards, though the film’s poster hints at the source of the controversy. Baby Doll lies seductively in what looks like an oversize crib, and she’s sucking her thumb.

The movie was condemned by the Catholic Church’s Legion of Decency. Adults raised as Catholics between the 1930s and the 1960s – the Legion’s reign of power – remember the ratings system well. Most movies were rated either “unobjectionable” or “objectionable,” but the so-called “C” movies were condemned. It was a sin if you saw them. Venial or mortal? I can’t remember.

My husband remembers sitting in the pew in his Sioux City, Iowa, parish while the priest read a letter from the bishop. It mandated that parishioners boycott for six months the Hollywood Theater where “Baby Doll” was being shown.

I’ve been reminiscing about the “Baby Doll” controversy this week, as I watch “The Da Vinci Code” controversy unfold. I wasn’t going to write about it, because I didn’t have much to add to the discussion, except the “Baby Doll” footnote from cinema and church history.

Oh, and this brief point: I’m glad this controversy isn’t Catholic-centric. People from other Christian faith traditions, especially evangelicals, are chiming in, too.

But then I received an e-mail from Faith Media Democracy, a Seattle group that sent journalists a list of “progressive” church sources to interview. The group was concerned that conservative, evangelical types would hog all the publicity in “The Da Vinci Code” controversy.

The Rev. Rich Lang was on the source list. The former pastor at Central United Methodist Church in Spokane pioneered outreach programs to those living in poverty downtown. Lang was never shy about speaking out on controversial topics. He always opened up my mind. He’s now pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Ballard, Wash.

I called him and asked: Why all the hubbub over a movie?

One of Lang’s theories: The fictional book and movie tap into the “suppression of the feminine” that characterizes, in reality, almost all religious traditions. “The Da Vinci Code” explores the cover-up of women’s strong roles in the early church.

“If you look around at our churches, it is the women who run our churches,” Lang said. “They organize, they teach, they get things done. But often, the church isn’t shaped around the feminine. Even United Methodism, which has women bishops and women pastors, is still organized around a patriarchal model.”

Lang hopes discussions about the suppression of the feminine, spurred on by the book and movie, will allow “a positive shot in the arm for women to reclaim their power, their right to be equal partners in the church.”

Our discussion sent me back to “Baby Doll.” The movie depicted a woman overtly using her sexuality to gain power over the men in her life, something fairly radical in the buttoned-up 1950s. In the 50 years since then, the struggle for women has been how to use – overtly – their brains and educations in churches, workplaces, communities and in politics.

“The Da Vinci Code” could be a box-office dud, but no matter. A fictional piece of work has led people into discussions about modern-day realities. That gets an unobjectionable rating in my book, every time.