If You Believe

I took the weekend to read this novel. I know I'm a Johnny come lately. I just never got around to it. Mr. Brown has brought the streets of Paris, Rome and London tothe reader vividly. He leaves no small detail out.I've always been interested in history and puzzles so this book was perfect. I found it to be a very good story...I was really into the book and found that I could not put it down. I had to know what new clue would be waiting for the main characters Langdon and Neveu. I had to know what Silas would do to them to get those clues and who was the Teacher.I love plot twist and turns and this book had many. I knew the Roman Catholic Church was upset over this book. However, I never really knew why. Honestly, I did not. I am not Catholic so I figured, it must be something within that religion, something about the Opus Dei. I vaguely remembered seeing something on television about them. I was happily turning pages. Almost midway through the book a character named Leigh Teabing was introduced. He and Langdon were colleagues and they found themselves having to explain what the Holy Grail was. I will not not go into the details, I don't want to spoil it for anyone that has not read it. I will say that I now understand why the Roman Catholic Church is upset. I can understand how any Christian based faith would be upset about this book. Although, (God is not through with me yet), I was raised in the Baptist church. I do consider myself spiritual and I believe in the God,Jesus Christ and the Bible.After reading this characters explanation of the what the Holy Grail is, I lost the zeal I had for this novel. Funny thing faith, anything that challenges our personal beliefs has to be wrong.That is exactly what I felt, that I was wrong for reading this novel. I tried to dismiss that feeling by telling myself that it's just a historically based book of fiction. I consider myself open minded,and an author myself. I know how far ones imagination can carry them. I am a strong believer that you can not argue any points you know nothing about. You may try but you will only be made to look foolish so I finished the book. My criminal justice professor told us to never ask a question you do not know the answer to, the result could be devastating. I understand that you may take from this novel anything that you want. But trust that my answer will always be... MY GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!