I watched a tape yesterday of ABC's "Da Vinci Code" special, and I have to say, I was suprised at how thin it was. Under Peter Jennings, ABC did a special called "The Search for Jesus" a few years ago, and it was horribly biased, featuring only one conservative scholar amongst a sea of liberals as they "debunked" Jesus' life, work, and miracles. It was, to say the least, a formidable piece of propaganda. Having thus seen ABC's potential to put together a concerted attack on Christianity, I find it difficult to regard this new program as anything more than innocuous.

In case you are not familiar with the best-selling book The Da Vinci Code and haven't seen ABC's special, the essential idea is this: throughout history, there has been a "secret society" operating at the fringes of the Church which believes that Jesus Christ was actually married to Mary Magdelene and even had a child by her. Leonardo Da Vinci is perhaps the most famous alleged member of this society.

The evidence for the claim that Jesus had been married, as presented on ABC, was almost comically lacking. Elizabeth Vargas, the program's correspondent, at one point said something like "While we weren't able to uncover any proof of a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdelene, we didn't find any evidence that it wasn't true, either. So it can't be proved either way." In other words, because Vargas failed to prove the negative (that Jesus wasn't married), we have to concede that it might be true.

Other claims that Vargas failed to disprove:

* That Jesus loved bowling

* That He played the electric guitar

* That He was a Rams season-ticket holder

You can play the "no evidence against" game all night.

They were so desperate for "evidence," that at one point they interviewed an English guy simply because his last name was "Sinclair," which derives from "St. Clair," which belongs to a family that was said to once be prominent in the society that believes Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene. I'm telling the truth, folks--it was that specious.

Even Vargas, at the end of the program, admitted they had proved nothing beyond the fact that Mary Magdelene had an important relationship with Jesus--a fact which is evident to anyone who simply bothers to read the New Testament. The program was simply nothing more than a one-hour infomercial for Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code. ABC ought to get a cut of his book royalties.