I read 'Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'. Can't say if it is factual but the Holy Grail is not the cup but the blood line of Jesus - the Merovingians. If true it sets up a situation not unlike the Shiites and Sunnis. The Shiites follow Hussein Ali, a nephew of Mohammed. The Merovingians being of the blood of Jesus would have authority over the church thus the enmity. According to the Authors the Merovongians are founders of the Templars who went to Jerusalem and found the Temple treasures and thus becames rich. The King of France sought to destroy the Templars and put de Molay, the leader, to death by fire tied to a stake. The rest escaped to Scotland thus the Scottish Rites. The Scottish Masons are the remnants of the French Templars.
The Quest for the Holy Grail, according to some authorities, actually pre-dates Christianity. Read Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance and Frazier's The Golden Bough. (The latter book, by the way, was partly the inspiration for T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland.)
Actually having a descendant of Jesus rule would be bad as it would combine temporal and spiritual powers into one i.e. there is no separation of church and state. According to the Authors, the British Royal Family through the Plantagenet wing are related to the Merovingians,
Assuming evidence of a man on which the jesus myth was built, and assuming further evidence that this man did, in reality, marry and have offspring, there is one question in particular that seems blatantly obvious.
Who cares?
If you are a believer no amount of facts or evidence is going to persuade you. The bible is true and that's that.
If you are not a believer then the the man the putative Mr.Christ was based on would be just another jewish rabbi espousing views common to the times.
Big deal.
That may be true, Dr. S, but the theme of the thread is not about whether or not the New Testament is true or even whether Jesus is a historical person or a figure of Jewish mythology. The theme, as stated by material girl, is a discussion of the reason that the Roman Catholic Church has its collective knickers in a twist about a book and a movie which -- for most of us -- is nothing more than harmless entertainment.
