By now, I assume you've heard about the rather bitter controversy between the Catholic League and the release of the feature film The Golden Compass, based on the works of English author Phillip Pullman, specifically the first book of a fantasy trilogy for children called His Dark Materials. (I've also seen it as The Dark Materials.) Apparently, not much ruckus erupted with the publishing of the books, but when the movie, starring Nichole Kidman, no less, came out around Christmas time, it was Whoa Mama!
The Catholic League put out a 23-page booklet, downloadable on the internet, entitled "The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked," in which they delve rather deeply into what this controversy is all about. One bottom line is published under Notice to the Readers:
"The film is being sold as an innocent children's fantasy, but in reality there is nothing innocent about it; the movie is based on a book that was written to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity."
Another fear of the Catholic League and others is that the film, which is being billed as child-friendly, would be watched by gullible children and their gullible parents, and this would lead them to buy and read His Dark Materials trilogy and all its supposed indoctrination; this would in turn encourage young children to embrace a more-than-healthy doubt in God, Christ, the Bible, the Holy Trinity, etc. In fact, the triology is apparently written (I say "apparently" because I haven't read any of this trilogy except for excerpts) so that the first book, The Golden Compass, is relatively tame on the theology-bashing, the second book The Subtle Knife is more blatant in its attacks, and the third book The Amber Spyglass is "the most overtly atheistic and anti-Christian of them all," according to the Catholic League publication. If in fact the books are written to shape and recruit young children to atheism, this sounds like a rather clever scam.
Let me say, as a fiction writer wannabe, that I believe that anything has the right to be written about. Truly, the sanctions and censorships brought down on the heads of authors by various governments and organized religions and theocracies have done much damage historically, and we need to embrace freedom of expression for what it is, a God-given ideal. Having said that, I also believe mightily in full disclosure, and it is highly questionable whether the marketing campaigns and the production of The Golden Compass, and for that matter the author Pullman, have been honest in their true agenda.
We'll dig in much deeper into this subject in tomorrow's post.
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