The movie Angels & Demons is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code and is based on the novel  about conspiracy in the Catholic Church by Dan Brown. The launch of this movie has reopened interest in The Da Vinci Code and the issues of Faith and Feminism that the original film and book unleashed.  

The forerunner generated a huge storm of criticism with its premise that Jesus impregnated Mary Magdalene and that church officials tried to keep their bloodline a secret.  The Vatican has taken a hostile but somewhat more measured response against Angels & Demons.

Why do you think the Catholic Church and other theologians were upset by The Da Vinci Code?

I believe that despite the fact that the Da Vinci Code is fiction, it is based on themes and characters with which we are all familiar. But the issues of inequality this book and film have raised are real. You don’t have to look far  to find our stories of women being relegated to second class status within many faith communities.

Is it true that Jesus has living blood descendents and that he married Mary Magdalene, or any other claims in the Da Vinci Code?

Like the Da Vinci Code author and the filmmakers, I believe that both the book and film are fictional. There are scholarly debates about many of the issues raised in the film, debates that will surely continue. What is most important is that this film provides us with an opportunity for an important conversation in our country: What is it about the relationship of women and the church today that makes a mere fictional novel so popular and so controversial? What deep need for answers to these questions has this phenomenon tapped into? I think that women are realizing that they have been denied access to a full spiritual life because of the inequalities ingrained in so many religions.

Women have long been pillars of their faith communities – Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim. Yet, some of our greatest faith traditions are not living up to their full potential because women are not considered equal partners in their respective faith traditions.

The injustices of any religious institution do not negate the values of love and justice at their core. Human institutions will always be flawed reflections of the values they hope to embody. But cutting ourselves off from our birthright to a spiritual home only enlarges the problem. Far too many women find themselves spiritually deprived because they feel unwelcome or less than equal within their own faith.