Consumer Alert on “The Golden Compass”
Posted by libertyminnie on October 7, 2007
“The Golden Compass” is a new movie based on the book of the same name by noted atheist Philip Pullman. Pullman says that his goal for the book trilogy is to teach atheism to children. He says that the trilogy is about the death of God.
The hardcore atheist stuff has mostly been pulled out of the movie, but the ‘evil’ force is still called the ‘Magisterium‘. This is the name, in the Catholic church, for the teachings of the church. And the movie is not being promoted openly either as atheist or as anti-Catholic material.
Imagine that some anti-Semites decided to make ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion‘ into a movie. Let’s say they took out some of the most obvious references to Judaism, but once in a while called the bad guys ‘rabbis’. And let’s say they wanted to market this crud to kids, and admitted that they wanted to promote anti-Semitism to kids.
That’s what this is like.
If you are a Catholic or other Christian, or if you don’t care for religious hatreds, you probably will regret throwing away money on this movie or the books. Liberty Minnie bought ‘The Golden Compass’ some time ago, but she found it so boring that she never got to the hate bits.
There are a few good fantasy authors out there who don’t write anti-Catholic bigotry— some of them even ARE Catholics or other sorts of Christians. There are LOADS of good fantasy writers who don’t write anti-Catholic bigotry on purpose— it crops up just because they think that way and don’t know how to keep it from showing.
That being the case, people who like a good story have no reason to waste their time on Philip Pullman’s hate sermons.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THOSE NOT PAYING ATTENTION: Liberty Minnie and others are not saying that the books or the movie should be banned, or the author punished for ‘hate speech’. Let the people who approve of hate enjoy their ‘The Golden Compass’ and their ‘Mein Kampf’. Just don’t con US into buying this hateful stuff by lying about the content.
If you want a GOOD movie, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian‘ is coming out next year. It’s based on a book by a Christian author, C. S. Lewis, who was an atheist from boyhood to age 33 and was able to write positive characters who were atheists or non-Christians. To get the word out about this book, post a link to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499448/. (That will help this link rise higher in popularity lists, like Technorati.
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OTHER BLOGGING ON THIS ISSUE:
A dangerous film for our children — from Cause of our Joy
The Golden Compass — Agenda Unmasked — from Te Deum laudamus
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the golden compass
StruttinWolf said
Thanks for the info!
wickle said
Thanks for the heads-up. I saw the trailer and a poster, and thought that it looked impressive. But you never can tell, so I thought I’d do some looking. It looks like I’ll just keep on looking …
cladiothecrowing said
wow wow wow, it seems that not only do you know nothing about atheism but nothing about anti-Semitism. Anti-Semites believe that Jews are an inferior race and are plotting to take over the world. They also believe in your little fairy tale about the Jews choosing to execute a terrorist of the state(Jesus). Atheists just think you nutty and should not lie to childeren and stupid people. Thats all, and there is no reason to hate a movie based on the beliefs of the author of the book its based on. Hate it because its not a good movie. The chronicals of narnia WAS A BAD MOVIE!!!! Bad dialog,pacing, and the worst CG of the year.
libertyminnie said
Corrections for Cladiothecrowing
“you know nothing about atheism” — you have no evidence for this assertion. Liberty Minnie was an atheist at one time and was a non-Christian for many, many years before being convinced by the evidence to return to Christianity.
“Anti-Semites believe Jews are an inferior race….” – no, the term ‘anti-Semite’ refers hatred or bias against Jews, and includes the ‘new anti-Semitism’ that has become so well known lately, except, evidently, to you.
“the Jews choosing to execute a terrorist of the state (Jesus).” This is anti-Semitic, Cladio, and by rights I should have deleted your comment for this on principle. It is a historical fact that Jesus was executed after a Roman trial— the Jews and the Herods were not permitted to execute. Jesus was never charged with terrorism, and in fact rather than killing others to further his goals as terrorists do, he chose to die for the sake of others. Study your history!
“Atheists just think you are nutty….” — Some atheists may think anyone who doesn’t agree with their doctrine is ‘nutty’ or stupid, but rational atheists tend to be more fact-based and understand that vast numbers of intelligent people have religious beliefs.
“Thats all, and….” — It should be ‘That’s all’, and if that was all why did you continue? You might also learn to spell ‘children’.
“there is no reason to hate a movie based on the beliefs….” — And yet you hate ‘Narnia’— written by an ex-atheist turned Christian. How many Christian movies do you like? Name 3! And if you had read my post you would no that hating the movie ‘The Golden Compass’ was not even mentioned. The post was simply giving out information about Philip Pullman and his intentions for the book series, which the movie-makers wanted to keep hidden from the public.
“Hate is because its not a good movie.” — That should be ‘it’s’, Cladio. And why in the world hate a movie for being bad? There are a lot of badly written books and faulty movies that are still enjoyable. Since ‘The Golden Compass’ is not out yet, most of us don’t know if it is good or bad. I may end up loving it myself, once it comes out on TV where people at my income level can see it. After all, this blog is named after a line from a book I enjoy written by an author hostile to Christianity, cats and Republicans.
littletoe said
There is a new movie coming out on October 26th called “Bella”. Go see that instead and get all your friends to go too. It saw the preview and really enjoyed it. Here is a url to the trailer: http://www.bellathemovie.com. (Sorry, can’t figure out how to make the link in the combox.)
stardragon said
Huh. Interesting info. I heard about “The Golden Compass” somewhere out in cyberspace and saw the book series at Borders, and it really looked interesting. Other than that, I haven’t really done any research on it. This brings to mind the huge controversy over “The Da Vinci Code”, which was BLATANTLY anti-Christian. “The Golden Compass” seems to be a bit more subtle than that. C.S. Lewis was indeed an atheist for many years, yet he wrote some of the most beloved books ever, which proves (in my mind) that an author’s beliefs don’t determine the content of their work. That’s not to say that author’s intent is pointless (again pointing out “The Da Vinci Code”), but this is kind of a different point. Way to correct comment #3; it annoys me when people who go off half-cocked and honestly have no idea what they’re talking about. Thanks for the heads-up!
ghei said
I found The Golden Compass to be almost as vomit-inducing as J.K. Rowling’s never-ending Harry Potter. I agree with Pullman on some issues; it is very unfortunate that his work puts me to sleep.
The Chronicles of Narnia were pretty decent fiction. I read the whole series when I was 9 or 10. However, I tried to watch the movie and couldn’t make it through.
cwl501 said
Shocking suggestion: read the book and/or see the movie for yourself, and decide if it’s something you might want your children see. Golly, you might even be able to generalize that procedure and use it for other books and movies.
For the record, Pullman objected specifically to what he perceived as thinly veiled Christian allegory and propaganda in the Narnia books. In that respect, of course, Pullman’s books are no better; they really do recount the death of God. In my opinion, the first two are enormously well-written (the third is something of a turd), but the upcoming movie looks fairly flat and lifeless (much as the Chronicles of Narnia film was). My own belief is that children are smarter and better able to handle this than we think–they are not going to be swayed away from their own or their parent’s belief by a fantasy novel or two (or 20 or 30) in elementary school. They’ll enjoy the good parts and be untroubled by the rest. I read the Narnia books as a child repeatedly and never realized that they were a Christian allegory until I was in high school. Although I’m an atheist, I’ve read them to my 5 year-old son with great enjoyment (except for the Last Battle, which is heavy handed, moralistic and plodding) and without worries that I’m poisoning his mind. He’s a good kid, the books are not “morally perilous,” and he can make his own decisions.
libertyminnie said
Reply to Cwl501
“read the book and/or see the movie for yourself…
first, I am under no obligation to read Philip Pullman’s books before I am permitted to mention that Philip Pullman was an atheist, any more than I have to read Mein Kampf to the bitter end in order to mention the fact that Hitler didn’t like Jews. Philip Pullman’s beliefs are not exactly something he’s trying to keep secret. Second, I own the first book and in spite of several attempts to read in (including one before I was a Christian) it was too dull to go on with. As for seeing the movie, are you willing to buy me the ticket? Low income people rarely see a movie when it first comes out.
“decide if it’s something you want your children to see…” Wow! I have children now! Up until your comment I only had cats…. And you may be pleased to know I let even the youngest kittens watch Torchwood.
“Golly, you might even be willing to generalize that procedure and use it for other books and movies.” Sarcasm! I’m impressed! I notice you don’t offer any evidence for my presumed reading habits. Since I have been reading since age four, reading grown-up books since about age 9 (starting with ‘The 900 Days’ an account of the siege of Leningrad) and have read books in English, German, Esperanto, French and Spanish, I’m more amused by your implications than anything.
“I read the Narnia books as a child repeatedly and never realized that they were a Christian allegory until I was in high school.” Really? How could you get through the first book without saying, ‘oh, yeah, Aslan is Jesus’? Or were you simply ignorant about Christianity? I hope you’ve corrected that situation. Back when I was a non-Christian I was urging like-minded people to read the Bible, Mere Christianity, and other Christian works just for the cultural literacy factor. Unfortunately, ignorance is easier….
I do thank you, however, for admitting I am right and that the Pullman books are about the death of God. It would have been nice, however, if you had read the post enough to have noted what it was really all about— the bigotry factor. There is a difference between an atheist message and an anti-Christian hate message or an anti-Semitic message. Jews have a right to complain about Mein Kampf, Protocols of the Elders of Zion and The Turner Diaries for their hate messages (and they don’t have to buy and read the books first in order to object). In the same way Christians have the right to warn one another about hate messages.