I do not understand why the DaVinci Code is so contraversial as well, despite the objections made by Mr. Steve Bergeron.

If you have faith in Jesus Christ, then no matter what anyone says, it should not affect your beliefs. Also, even if Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, how would that affect his divinity?

I would like to analyse the objections made by Mr. Bergeron one-by-one.

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* He claims that Jesus was not God, He was only man.

This "fact" is not a fact, but rather a theological debate. Jesus did take the form of a man, but remained divine. The book never says that Jesus is not "God," just not God incarnated as a man. There is a big difference. The movie claims that the family still has divine power, passed down through the bloodline. So if Jesus is not divine, as you claim the movie/book states, then how has this power been passed down? Like I said, it is a theological debate, which depends on your point of view.

* He claims that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, who is to be worshipped as a goddess.

Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene is not that far-fetched. However, the fact that she should be worshipped as a goddess does not appear in any text. That is a fictional statement by Dan Brown. However, I would say that the Virgin Mary replaced the ancient concept as the earth mother goddess when Christianity was converting the early pagans. Look around South Louisiana and you will see that there are far more statues of the Virgin Mary than Jesus Christ himself. This is not wrong nor is it against Catholic beliefs in any way, but it is a continuation of ancient pagan traditions that trickled down into Christianity over the centuries. We know from the Christian faith that neither the Virgin Mary or Mary Magdalene are worshipped as a goddess; therefore, this is definitely an outrageous claim which is obviously false.

* He claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a daughter who subsequently gave rise to a family that is still present in Europe.

It is possible, but not proven. But this is probably another fictious statement, you are correct. However, how does that attack Christianity?

* He claims that Jesus was deified by Constantine in the 4th century. Before that time, He was thought to be just a man.

At the First Council of Nicea in 325, they debated the Holy Trinity, or Jesus as God the son. There was no issue that Jesus was divinely inspiried, rather it was his relationship with God the Father that was in question. Saint Nicholas, who we call Santa Claus here in the United States, was one of the presenters at this meeting. Arius believed that Jesus was not the son of God, but rather a prophet of God. Outraged by this blasphemy, Saint Nicholas punched Arius in the nose, and he was arrested by Constantine's guards. The point of this story was that there was a minority of ancient Christians who believed that Jesus was not God, but rather a divine prophet, more like Buddha. After the Council of Nicea, a sect of Christianity, known as Nestorian Christianity, continued to believe that Jesus was a divinely inspired man, not God. This fact of the book is false, but it has some legitimacy to it.

* He claims that the Gospels were edited to support later claims of Christians.

The Gospels were edited and re-edited over the years, by common people, political dignitaries, and the early Church. The reason Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke were accepted over the other 30 were because they contained less "errors" than the others. The early Christians wrote the Gospels, not the disciples they are attributed to. When King James ordered the translation of the Latin Bible into English, many of the translations were politically motivated.

The reason the Catholic Church believes you need a priest to tell you what the Bible says is because of these editions and revisions to the Bible. Priests study religion their entire lives, just like a college professor of English may study poetry. The same way we need a teacher to tell us what a poem says, we need a Priest to tell us what the Bible says. By having scholars explain the text to us, we avoid errors attributed to mistranslations and editing. This system is very admirable of the Catholic Church because it standardizes Christianity and keeps it valid. If you let common people interpret the Bible themselves, they make all kinds of outrageous claims.

* He claims that in the original Gospels, Mary Magdalene, not Peter, was directed to lead the Church.

If you read the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Mary claims that Jesus told her to lead the church, and she explains some teachings he told her. Ironically, these teachings are very close to the Buddhist Eightfold Path. But other Gospels do contradict these statements. The Gospel of Thomas claims that Jesus did not want to establish a Church at all. The question of the legitimacy of these Gospels comes into play, hence the reason they were rejected.

* He claims that there is an ancient, secret society called the Priory of Sion that still worships Mary Magdalene and is trying to keep the faith alive.

You are mistaken here. The Priory of Sion protects the bloodline of Jesus in the DaVinci Code. It does not worship Mary Magdalene, but rather they respect her. It says they protected her casket for centuries. If she was in a casket, she was dead. Who would worship a dead woman? Also, the Priory of Sion was a temporary sect of Christian monks that existed for a little while during the middle-ages. There is no evidence to support that they were protecting the "Holy Grail."

* He claims that the Catholic Church has been fighting for centuries to suppress all this information and has frequently turned to murder to do so.

There are many autrocities committed by the medival Catholic Church in the name of God, such as the Crusades, anti-Semetism, and the Spanish Inquisition, but none of that has to do with protecting the bloodline of Jesus. Many free-thinking women were killed during the "witch hunts," but that was to protect the patriarchal establishment, not necessarily the power of the Church. This part of the book is false on unsubstanciated claims.

The DaVinci Code makes many unsubstanciated claims. Thus, it is fiction. As educated Americans, we should know these false claims and not let them interfere with our faith. No one's belief in Jesus Christ as God should cause them strif because of an obviously fictional story.

Jarred James Breaux, New Iberia