Not that I’m particularly concerned that the readers of the New York Times op-ed page will be upset about Russ Douthat spoiling the endings of two major books turned movies, but hot dang, what a wanky thing to do. And for what it’s worth, Dan Brown was a teach at my high school. I knew him as such, though it was at that time that he authored Digital Fortress. The idea that he’s setting himself up as a prophet akin to Jesus, as Douthat postulates, is simply absurd.

I know it must be scary for a young conservative like Douthat to see religious stories become massively successful pop culture items, but I wish Douthat reveled in the irony and not the fear he clearly instead responds with. Religion is popular culture. That Dan Brown found a way to cast a mostly secular, fictional spin on it is no more remarkable than the authors of the Left Behind series of books and video games casting a successful fundamentalist fictional take on religion in the modern age.