Catholic Exchange

The Golden Compass Sparks Protest

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Catholic League

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Catholic League president Bill Donohue discussed the league's reaction to the upcoming movie, The Golden Compass:

"New Line Cinema and Scholastic Entertainment have paired to produce The Golden Compass, a children's fantasy that is based on the first book of a trilogy by militant English atheist Philip Pullman. The trilogy, His Dark Materials, was written to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism. The target audience is children and adolescents. Each book becomes progressively more aggressive in its denigration of Christianity and promotion of atheism: The Subtle Knife is more provocative than The Golden Compass and The Amber Spyglass is the most in-your-face assault on Christian sensibilities of the three volumes.

"Atheism for kids. That is what Philip Pullman sells. It is his hope that The Golden Compass, which stars Nicole Kidman and opens December 7, will entice parents to buy his trilogy as a Christmas gift. It is our hope that the film fails to meet box office expectations and that his books attract few buyers. We are doing much more than hoping — we are conducting a nationwide two-month protest of Pullman's work and the film. To that end, we have prepared a booklet, The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked, that tears the mask off the movie.

"It is not our position that the movie will strike Christian parents as troubling. Then why the protest? Even though the film is based on the least offensive of the three books, and even though it is clear that the producers are watering down the most despicable elements — so as to make money and not anger Christians — the fact remains that the movie is bait for the books. To be specific, if unsuspecting Christian parents take their children to see the movie, they may very well find it engaging and then buy Pullman's books for Christmas. That's the problem.

"We are fighting a deceitful stealth campaign on the part of the film's producers. Our goal is to educate Christians so that they know exactly what the film's pernicious agenda really is."

Comments

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    I read these books about 3 yrs ago…while the 'Harry Potter' debate was in full swing. 

    The first one was simply enthralling. 

    Pullman has to be one of the best fantasy writers I have ever read. The main characters are endearing, He pulls you in his worlds completely with vivid and emotionally descriptive prose. The books are real page turners. It broke my heart that someone with that kind of talent could be so thoroughly evil.

    These books are 'Turkish delight' in every sense. The first two pull you in, and the last one sucks you up. Honestly…I read the last one(Amber Spyglass), not because I WANTED to…but because I had to…I had to see exactly where Pullman was going, and when I finished I took the books back to the library and immediately went home and pulled my tattered old Narnia collection out just to get the nasty spiritual taste out of my mouth.

    I remember putting the last book down and literally shuddering. I then proceeded to forbid my children from ever reading them. And anyone who brought Potter up to me after that got a derisive laugh. Potter is nothing…no one will loose their faith with Potter except those who have no faith to begin with. The Pullman books will. In fact, Pullman targets the more sensitive, intellectual and spiritual child deliberately.

    Pullman's books are diabolical in every sense of that word.

    If I hadn't already been a devout Christian with a pretty thorough classical background in theology, those books would have had me  spitting Christianity out with a gag.

    And the movie is dangerous because up until now, the Pullman books were over shadowed by the Potter books, and the other fantasy works like Eregorn and Artemus fowl, TOLKIAN  of course were overshadowing them.

    Now, these will be thrust on the front of shelves and kids will read them. 

    mindy

  2. Guest Avatar
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    To imagine such anger in a person…to carry that around all the time and to profit from it…Cry

  3. Guest Avatar
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    If his intelligence and talent were channelled properly, imagine all the good he could accomplish.

  4. Guest Avatar
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    Hmmm….  I should know what the plot is for all three books (so I can discuss intelligently), but I'd really rather not read something that is described the way it is by this commentator.  Can anyone point me to a thorough plot summary?

  5. Guest Avatar
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    Bill, you're a great American!

  6. Guest Avatar
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    "Each book becomes progressively more aggressive in its denigration of Christianity and promotion of atheism"

    Here is the summary. Sometimes a warning to some people is just an enticement.

  7. Guest Avatar
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    Amazon has an adequate summery. But what is more telling are the user reviews. And the users are right, who say that Pullmans writing is superb.

    To call him a 'literary genius' would be fair enough.

    http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Compass-Dark-Materials-Book/dp/0345413350

    The only thing I can think of to counteract these books is for people in the catholic community to read it and someone with the right scholarly credentials can do a point by point study of the heresies(gnosticism,dualism,Manichaeismn) mixed with some cool quantum physics through out the novels…and make sure it gets on the Library Dynex list so Christians can insist the books go on the shelves next to the Pullman books.

     

    Oh…and we can pray for Pullmans conversion.

    Wink

    mindy

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