Jesus Decoded

Reuters: Bishops post Web site disputing "Da Vinci Code"---

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops took aim at "The Da Vinci Code" on Friday, launching a Web site that disputes central points of the best-selling novel.

The site, http://www.jesusdecoded.com, denies one point on which the novel turns, saying the New Testament "does not offer any support for speculation about Jesus' being married or having a child."

The novel by Dan Brown centres on the idea that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, they had children who survived and married into a line of French kings, that the lineage continues today and a secret society based in France aims to restore the lineage to the thrones of Europe.

The bishops' group said in a statement that the Web site "presents authentic Catholic teaching about Jesus and the origins of Christianity and corrects misinformation that appears in current popular media."

The site disavows the book's notion that the Leonardo Da Vinci work "The Last Supper" shows Mary Magdalene bending towards Jesus.

"What this novel does to Leonardo's Last Supper, it does to Christianity as such," according to the site's introduction. "It asks people to consider equivalent to the mainstream Christian tradition quite a few odd claims.

"Some are merely distortions of hypotheses advanced by serious scholars who do serious research. Others, however, are inaccurate or false."

In a section on the art mentioned in the novel, an art historian wrote: "Along with trashing Christianity, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is a veritable museum of errors where Renaissance art is concerned."

I'm glad to see the Bishops doing this very important thing. How many ignorant people would see this film and take it's representation of Christianity, and the Catholic Church, as fact?

Visit the site here. Go to it.