One word on the Da Vinci Code

With the general release of the Da Vinci Code this week, it's important to keep one word in mind: "entertainment."

Churches have asked their flocks to avoid the film, preachers have planned sermons around the publicity, talk shows have flogged the subject to death; now it's time for viewers to make the decision: to go or not to go.

If Tom Hanks' new hairdo isn't enough to get you into the theater, perhaps Ron Howard's direction or the story in the best-selling book will be.

If you don't know the basic secret to the plot, we won't ruin it for you here. Suffice it to say, it would, if it were true, shake the tenets of Christianity to the core.

While Hanks and others are quick to emphasize the fact that the movie is just entertainment, it is easy to see how some could be confused, especially in light of the success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ."

At the very least, all the Da Vinci Code hype should cause the faithful to take another look at what they believe and why they believe it.

And imagine the reaction if a similar movie were made about certain other faiths in the world.