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Westminster Abbey slams Brown's 'Da Vinci Code'

Westminster Abbey has criticized churches that opened their doors to the filming of The Da Vinci Code last year by denouncing the thriller as "nonsense" that should be exposed by Christians.

The abbey barred the filmmakers from its premises in June, saying in a brief statement that the bestselling Dan Brown novel on which the film was based was "theologically unsound." The book's central themes --that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child, and that Christianity is a sexist conspiracy to keep women from positions of power -- have been debunked by cardinals and historians.

Nicholas Sagovsky, Westminster Abbey's canon theologian, argues that numerous errors in the book undermine its author's claims to have based it on solid research.