Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

The Golden Compass is based on the first book in Philip Pullman's series His Dark Materials. A lot of Christian evangeliticals have demanded boycotts of this movie, yada yada yada, saying the film is anti-religious...mostly because the author, Pullman, is a fairly ardent atheist himself.

So, I thought I'd share some thoughts with you about it, but I have yet to either see the movie or read the books myself. Instead, I came across a pretty good summary of it written up by Skatje Myers who publishes the Lacrimae Rerum blog. Here goes:

The trilogy has the Church as the antagonist. Not religious belief in general. If any “message” may be derived, it’s that powerful religious organisation who is above the law and morally degraded (murder is no problem for them) is bad. By being against these books for only religious reasons, you’re basically saying that the Church in the series is acceptable and it’s wrong to condemn such a thing.

God isn’t even in the books. It’s the first angel falsely claiming that he created everything. False gods are bad, right? So shouldn’t it be a good thing that they took him down? Pullman left the question of if there’s a Creator wide open. I don’t think any of the people squawking about the trilogy even bothered to read it.

Keep in mind that this is a fictional story which takes place in a fictional world where a fictional church is trying to kill a fictional girl. Kids can separate reality from the fantasy they read in a book (unless the fantasy in a book is supported by the majority of people around them, it seems). It’s why they don’t climb into wardrobes looking for Narnia or ask why they don’t see any hobbits around.

And when your beliefs feel threatened by a fictional book? That’s just pathetic.

Once again, it appears that the fundies are criticizing something they don't even understand. Par for the course. Now since I haven't read the books or seen the movie, I'd ask if Abby (who has read the series) could confirm if Skatje's summary is on target or not.

Speaking of movies...if you liked The Princess Bride, check out Stardust (just saw it last night). Great movie if you like that genre.

Geoff said 27 minutes later

I think one of the other obvious proponents of the hatred for this movie by Christians is the release date of the movie, Christmas. Note though that the movie did change the name "The Church" to "The Magesterium"...which no young child is likely going to reference to their [parent's] respective faith.

I think it is funny though that it isn't OK to have a purported anti-religion movie, The Golden Compass, but they have no qualms (of course) with releasing Narnia featuring a militant version of Jesus.
Abby said about 7 hours later

Actually, the Church IS called the Magesterium in the books- or at least in my copy.

But let's see... yup, that seems to be correct, though. God does not make any appearance in the book, though he is mentioned and described by other characters. And yup, the characters in the book don't know WHO the actualy Creator was, or if there ever was one. The only thing mentioned was that God wasn't the creator. In short, I don't see anything wrong with the summary. =)
GJ said 1 day later

Yeah, Narnia was written by the well-known Christian apologetic C.S. Lewis, but again, I don't have a problem with them either--after all, it is a work of fiction. If someone wants to put Bible allegories in their work of fiction, that's fine. If they want to instead write about the assault on the universal human church, that's fine too. People have got to be worried about real issues, not imagined ones like they find in the Golden Compass and the Harry Potter series.
Geoff said 1 day later

BTW, thanks guys for the Birthday Card...I always have a good laugh!
GJ said 2 days later

Glad to see you got it! Thanks to Mom and Dad for passing it on, as I forgot to give it to you when we arrived.
Geoff said 2 days later

No biggy, wii had more important things to tend to...