Golden Compass

Local church groups are sending out the message below.

There will be a new children's movie out in December called "The Golden Compass". The movie has been described as "atheism for kids" and is based on the first book of a trilogy entitled "His Dark Materials" that was written by Phillip Pullman. Pullman is a militant atheist and secular humanist who despises C. S. Lewis and the "Chronicles of Narnia". His motivation for writing this trilogy was specifically to counteract Lewis' symbolisms of Christ that are portrayed in the Narnia series.

Clearly, Pullman 's main objective is to bash Christianity and promote atheism. Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that "my books are about killing God." He has even stated that he wants to "kill God in the minds of children". It has been said of Pullman that he is "the writer the atheists would be praying for, if atheists prayed."

While "The Golden Compass" movie itself may seem mild and innocent, the books are a much different story. In the trilogy, a young streetwise girl becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle to ultimately defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God. Another character, an ex-nun, describes Christianity as "a very powerful and convincing mistake." In the final book, characters representing Adam and Eve eventually kill God, who at times is called YAHWEH. Each book in the trilogy gets progressively worse regarding Pullman 's hatred of Jesus Christ.

"The Golden Compass" is set to premier on December 7, during the Christmas season (and staring Nicole Kidman), and is being heavily advertised. Promoters hope that unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the movie, that they will enjoy the movie, and then the children will want the books for Christmas.

Comments

  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Good lord. Something else for people to get all up in arms for over nothing. Anyone remember when Harry Potter was originally released and everyone cried, "Witchcraft! Godlessness! Evil!"

    I personally think that if people don't like a movie's message, they shouldn't go see the dang movie. People forget that this is just a movie - a work of fiction - some people may want to read more into it (oh no! they're trying to convince our children there's no G-d!), or you can choose to accept it as a fantasy film...just like all those other movies that have a fantastical element which seems to clash with our understanding of G-d.

    Just my opinion, nothing else.
  • I agree - everyone has a choice.
  • I must be incredibly naive. I didn't see any symbolism to Christianity in the Chronicles of Narnia film. I'm sure someone can point them out, but I took it at face value: a movie with some good special effects about a family's journey into a fantasy world.
  • Well, the "four sons of Adam and four daughters of Eve" prophesy is a nod to the Bible generally, but that whole (innocent) Aslan sacrificing himself to save the ("sinner") Edmund and then being resurrected from the dead certainly seemed influenced by Christian themes. Aslan even points out, after his resurrection that according to "the Deep Magic" (which sounds a lot like prophesy), "when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards." The books (which I read long before seeing any of the film versions) may make it a little more obvious, especially when you take into account things from other books in the series. Personally, I have no problem with an author's religion or personal beliefs influencing his or her work; and I don't think it's particularly uncommon.


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