The e-mail was entitled, "Bigot:"

You would probably be in the forefront of the religeous zealots brigade, it’s just as well that burning at the stake has been abolished, or you would be standing with your matches right now. Lighten up, the Catholic way is not the only way, nor necessarily the right way. I come

from a society that has spent 500 years throwing off the Catholic yoke, why? because of their tunnel vision, bigotry, greed, absolutism, and lies. I, and millions like me, are happy to read a novel like the Da Vinci code, and the more vitriolic your scorn of this book, the more people will wonder why it has hit a raw nerve, perhaps it shakes your confidence? Maybe you see some truth in it.

I do not mean to be rude, but you are in the minority, open your eyes, see what the rest of the world thinks about your faith.

I am not a fool, nor vindictive, nor on a crusade, unlike you.

Just as in any religion, there are different levels of Da Vinci Code faithful:

• Those who believe every assertion made in the novel is true. These people come to my talks clutching copies of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, one of Brown’s main sources for the novel. They stand in front of reproductions of Leonardo’s Last Supper and solemnly point out the presence of Mary Magdalene.

• Those who are startled by the claims of the novel, suspicious because they’ve never heard them before, but at the same time accepting of the possibility. These folks usually lack any background in history and suspect that there’s no way to know the truth anyway.

• Finally, there are those who really don’t care about the exact content of The Da Vinci Code, but are glad that it subverts Christianity, and so “believe” in the project in general, and heartily approve of it.