Amy in the Atlanta Journal Constitution

From Words to live by:



"In Decatur, stay-at-home mother Lisa Cronic also has been studying 'Purpose' with her church group. But she is also one of the millions who have been unable to put down 'The Da Vinci Code.' As part of that novel, Brown writes that the Christian church suppressed goddess worship and that we are no longer in touch with the 'sacred feminine,' a message that has appealed to many female readers.



'I think a lot of women don't want to think that religion is just male-dominated,' Cronic said. 'Women are so rarely even discussed. You have the Virgin Mary or the whore Mary Magdalene. It makes you want to grab on to someone and say, 'How valid is this?' '



So many people have been intrigued by 'Da Vinci,' or confused by it, that an entire counter-'Da Vinci' industry has sprung up to discuss -- and more often rebut --its version of history. At least six new books aim to debunk Brown's presentation, with titles such as 'De-coding Da Vinci' and 'Cracking Da Vinci's Code.'



'It has this veneer of sophistication and intellectualism, and it makes people feel smart about art and history, even though it's just as superficial as the next work of pulp fiction,' said Amy Welborn, author of 'De-coding Da Vinci.'"