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In response to the coming release of Hollywood’s, “The Golden Compass,” my friend and FriendlyChristian author Jason (The Magnificent Frog) asks an interesting question:
Do you think that religion should dictate how people choose to entertain themselves? Does the act of banning a book or movie actually attract more attention to it?
There have been news reports of Phillip Pullman’s books being removed from libraries and schools because of the anti-religious sentiments expressed by the author.
Looking a bit further into this, Snopes.com, our Internet source of confirming/denying Internet rumors reports this:
It is written by Phillip Pullman, a proud Atheist who belongs to secular humanist societies. He hates C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of the Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movies has been dumbed down to fool kids and their parents in the hope that they will buy his trilogy where in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as they please.
Read the rest of the article here.
FriendlyChristian audience: the floor is yours!
Popularity: 84% [?]
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Newsweek is running a piece on this in their current issue. They interviewed Pullman and he is rightfully outraged by that blinky, twitchy old creep Bill Donohue’s comments.
You know, it’s a point of view. He’s not the only person on the planet who’s anti-organized-religion, nor is he the only person on the planet who’s anti-Catholic Church. Instead of scolding and finger-pointing and banning and general hysteria, Christian and Catholic organizations would do better to take a long, hard look at why people feel this way and what responsibility they play in alienating people. Doesn’t come from the air, you know…
Also, Bill Donohue is a walking advertisement for everything wrong with organized religion. He’s a loon, pure and simple.
I don’t know if you’ve read the books but the criticisms contains are initially anti-religious as the fictional church is overly authoritarian. There is certainly a message within the trilogy that there is no God or that God is either absent or indifferent to humanity. Of course from my point of view these are perfectly reasonable charges.
Pullman’s own words on the matter are:
I love a good story which is why I read them and why I passed them to my children to read.
By banning the books the people responsible are labelling them as “forbidden” or “risque” which is practically inviting curious individuals to read them.
If religion is to have a place in the modern world then it must be able to stand up to it’s critics. Crying foul and telling the world that reading fiction is wrong just makes them look daft.
I know nothing about Mr. Donohue, but he does seem to be leading the charge. To me, this looks like another “who’s the most righteous” contest. Mr. Donohue wins because he can muster righteous indignation about a book and movie. I think that’s counterproductive to his cause since, as Hover points out, all of this fuss is likely to make people curious.
If Mr. Donohue has something to prove, I’d suggest a different contest. “My faith is stronger than yours, since I can watch The Golden Compass and come out on the other side still believing in God!”
They can obviously boycott the movie if they want, but it appears all they are doing with the e-mails is giving the movie free advertising. If it hadn’t been for all of the uproar about the film I doubt I would have heard about it or the books. Now I’m rather interested.
I’m not a big fan (tremendous understatement) of Christians boycotting or picketing.
Anyone else feel this way?
I gotta say… I knew nothing of these books before Bill Donohue shot his mouth off about how it introduces kids to atheism.
Now? I am hooked I plan to buy th books and read them!
I planned to see the movie simply because the idea of armored polar bears is so freakin’ cool to me!
Now…because of the purported ideas behind the story I will definitely see it AND I will bring my older kids!
Rock on Phillip Pullman!!
Robert
[...] The Friendly Christian opens the floor for debate over The Golden Compass in specific, but more broadly, “Should religion dictate how people choose to entertain themselves?” [...]
I agree with you Bill. I prefer going to something like this as a church and then go back to our church to discuss it in a religious setting. Why someone would believe this, etc.
Bill- I am not a fan of it either! I have the choice to take or not take my kids..and that is an awesome freedom. sensorship is a scary thing. Like most things it gets carried away to extremes, and honestly sensorship belongs to the parents and how they teach their children. Maybe the real problem lies in people trying to just dictate their thinking on others so that those others can teach their children…Alot of times this kind of carrying on in the Christian community looks like lack of responsibilty on the parents.
I think the glory of freedom of religion in this country is if a movie comes out that’s against your beliefs, you don’t have to go see it! I do get a bit miffed however when individuals or groups seem to feel they have the right to decide for everyone else if they should be allowed to see it, just because it doesn’t jibe with one tenet of faith. And particularly, I feel that since this is being marketed as a children’s film, it should be in the hands of individual families to decide if it’s right to see.
So, in short- If you don’t agree with the movie’s themes, don’t see it. But don’t screw with the right of everyone else to do so, that’s just not fair.
Of course, this raises a whole host of questions about how parents consume media with their children. Do I want to pre-screen every movie in the theater before seeing it with my kid, or do I just wait until things come out on video and save us all the expense (and potential fun) of the trip?
The ratings system is useless to me. Hysterical commentary by the likes of Bill Donohue is useless to me.
But really, I like to choose what I expose my kid to as much as possible, and movies make it hard. Dunno how one quantifies amounts of content that might freak out kids and their parents, but I sure wish someone did and could do it without passing moral judgment on the film itself. I have yet to find any reviewers that give me that edge when I want to take the family for a fun afternoon out.
Mostly, we just plan to skip the movies altogether until my daughter is much older. Not necessarily a bad plan, just frustratingly limited when it doesn’t necessarily have to be.
Could I assume Mr. Donohue is against all attempts at indoctrinating young children? I smell a hypocrite.
“Stay away from the children, they’re mine, all mine! Bwahahahaha!”
People can do all the protests in the world and that won’t change a movie’s popularity. Actually, it will make it more interesting. I just wish we can put our energy towards something else like, I dunno, helping the poor? That might be nice. I mean I love my brothers and sisters in Christ but this is not really
Maybe this could start some more civil discussion like The DaVinci Code did. That would be nice too.
PS The way the trailer makes the movie out to be, the bad guys could represent any group of people that are trying to take over the world and destroy everything else. This doesn’t have to include God, just a bunch of zealots.
PPS I agree with Toni’s statement about looking why people feel this way
I have never read one of Pullman’s books. I will see “The Golden Compass” because it looks like a very entertaining movie.
The Catholic League says:
“The Catholic League wants Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books: unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books.”
I think the League has a responsibility to it’s members to advise them not to bring their children to a movie the League believes will harm their faith.
If the League takes action to prevent anyone from going to the movie that’s where I would take issue with them. The League has a right to picket outside the theaters showing the movie. They don’t have the right to hinder people from buying tickets.
Warnings and pickets of course won’t work because there is no such thing as bad publicity.
@Heather
“But really, I like to choose what I expose my kid to as much as possible, and movies make it hard. Dunno how one quantifies amounts of content that might freak out kids and their parents, but I sure wish someone did and could do it without passing moral judgment on the film itself. I have yet to find any reviewers that give me that edge when I want to take the family for a fun afternoon out.”
That is a dilemma I suspect most parents have. How to protect your children from books and movies that will traumatize them and yet allow them enough control so they will develop the judgment they need to deal with the world outside their home.
How much censorship should our society exercise?
Are there any books or movies that should be banned? That citizens should not have access to?
One thing I can think of is child pornography.
In the age of the Internet I doubt it is possible to control what anyone can gain access to. The best we can do is teach our children to develop the judgment to know what is harmful and what is useful.
Fictional movies are a threat to religious beliefs because of the way religions teach their beliefs. Conclusions are taught without the methods of arriving at those conclusions. It will be taught that Jesus performed miracles X, Y, and Z, as recorded in the four Gospels. It is NOT taught what criteria is used when looking at a historical document to determine (as best we can) what really happened. It is not taught what criteria is used to determine which Gospels become accepted and which don’t (Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, etc.) and shown how Gospels meet or fail the criteria.
Once you teach people to accept conclusions uncritically, ANY contrary conclusions that are presented to people are dangerous - you have already taught believers to accept them! A boycott makes perfect sense. Otherwise, people might start (gasp) thinking about how to arrive at true conclusions for themselves, and the church knows that its beliefs do not follow from such an approach.
Any of you fellow atheists / naturalists hear about an atheist / naturalist boycott of Narnia? Lord of the Rings? Star Wars? Passion of the Christ? I haven’t. I’ve also watched them all, even though none of them follow my model of reality (my beliefs.)
I happened to notice that Donohue is selling the “Agenda Unmasked” document, which denounces the movie, for five dollars. Very curious. A few of you have commented on how this uproar only gives free publicity to the movie. We also cannot forget that this controversy also gives free publicity to the Catholic League. Maybe Donohue knows what he is doing after all …
But on another note, let’s not jump to the conclusion that Catholics (and Christians in general) have cornered the market on defensive posturing. There were plenty of folks who were less than receptive to the Passion of the Christ. All sorts of people are get jumpy when it comes to religious “preaching” or “proselytizing” especially when children are involved.
Really, an open dialog is the best way to reveal truth. What are we afraid of?
@Ed- I think you’re right about the Catholic League’s obligation to its members. Assuming they’re all in the organization because they are like-minded, it seems like a reasonable criticism and exhortation.
The thing that makes it grating is that the “story” of it is all over the various media outlets. It would be a shame if the CL had to beat ~everyone~ over the head with this in order to reach its membership.
My suspicion is that it wouldn’t get much press at all except that there’s never any media “news” anyway and the current writers’ strike is making just about anything media related seem worth reporting.
Fwiw, I think religious organizations do a nice job of pointing out the stuff I wouldn’t want my 4 year old to see. I just wish the reviews came without some of the sanctimony.
If nothing else, this sort of attention to one group’s movie review is really detrimental to other theists with a slightly more mainstream agenda. “Too much violence in this new movie,” they’ll say. And the public at large will respond, “Oh, you’re not one of those Golden Compass nitwits, too, are you?”
I bought the trilogy yesterday, and am most of the way through the first book.
Here’s the deal on the “Catholic League” — it’s a private organization that is not acting with the official authority of the Catholic Church.
So, members of the Catholic League probably think like poor old crazy, creepy Bill Donohue, so he’s preachin’ to the choir with those folks.
Thing is, a lot of not-well-educated Catholics and a lot of non-Catholics think he speaks for the Church in an official capacity. He doesn’t. The Church doesn’t ban movies. They tend not to bother with that sort of thing. The Church itself would rather see individuals use the head on their shoulders God gave them.
The books, btw, are very good (if you like scifi/fantasy). I highly recommend them to everyone, regardless of belief system. They’re just darned good storytelling.
As for parents bringing their kids, well, I believe parents have the right to do as they see fit when it comes to their kids. Christians who question other Christian parents based on what movie they allowed their kids to see are way out of line. That kind of thing is never anyone else’s business.
I did some research on Catholic Church news sites and Toni is right:
“The Church doesn’t ban movies. They tend not to bother with that sort of thing. The Church itself would rather see individuals use the head on their shoulders God gave them.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7115300.stm
“A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church in Britain said she was unaware of a concerted UK campaign to boycott the film: “We have not seen the film yet, so we cannot comment on its message,” she said.”
I did find one article about a Archdiocesan in Philadelphia that is sending “warning” letters to parents:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=special_coverage&id=5781276
“In our region, Archdiocesan schools like St. Anselm in Northeast Philadelphia are sending letters warning parents about the film. St. Anselm’s principal, Geraldine Murphy tells Action News, “It’s contrary to the Gospel message that we teach every day. And so we need to alert parents about that.”
This “news” story does seem to be more about self promotion on the part of the “Catholic League” than about any real effort to boycott the movie.
I am sure both Phillip Pullman and the Catholic League are very happy with the press they are getting.
same here! I might have missed a good read.
I am going to see the movie. If they don’t like it, no one is making them see it, but I find it ridiculous them trying to tell others not to. There are christians I know who do like it, and they get a lot of flak for it. If you really want to know: read the books! If you don’t want to buy them, check them out of the library. If nothing else, they are a good story. I will add I’m not always too fond of the some of the stuff Pullman says, but he does know how to write a good story. 
I just finished the first book and am starting on the second, and here is my opinion as a deist:
It does mention the church, and priests and nuns, but it could be talking about any church. There is a part where he mentions the Vatican council, and a part where it’s obvious he’s talking about the Christian church b/c he mentions it by name and that did bug me a bit, I think he should have changed the name to make it more fictionalized. There are also some parts that talk about Genesis and how it is a fable, which didn’t bother me but I could see why Christians would get upset. Thing is so far it doesn’t really say anything about Christianity itself, it doesn’t mention Jesus or anything, it seems to be commenting on religion and power in general, although it’s obvious it’s using the Christian religion as a model. It’s a fictionalized middle ages church in a different world.
I’ve looked through the other books and there is a part at the end where “God dies”, but it’s not really “God” but an angel who pretended to be God, and he becomes part of nature. Also supposedly there is a part where an ex nun says Christianity is a “very convincing mistake” but I haven’t run across it yet. She’s supposed to be a bad character anyway. If that is the case he probably should have put in a different more fictionalized name. So far it seems like every once in a while he takes a swipe at religion and power and uses the example of the catholic church as a model, but I don’t see it really bashing Christianity as a whole. I will see what happens in the other books, I’ve just started the second one.
As for it “promoting atheism”, I have one thing to say about that: hogwash. There are very spiritual themes in the book. I have yet to meet an atheist who believes in magic dust and witches. If anything it promotes a form of pantheism, though it’s obviously fiction and doesn’t seem to really “promote” anything.
My verdict: good story, although some of the names that do obviously refer to Christianity should have been changed. But it’s obviously fiction. However, I don’t think it’s a story for young kids, as there are things in it that could give them nightmares (fierce bears, and people cutting away kid’s souls). I’d say wait till you’re about 9-10 to read this if you’re a kid. Otherwise you won’t get it and it could scare you. It is true though that after reading this kids may have some questions about Christianity-as in why is he using the Christian church as a model? Most kids raised in it (as I was one) have little to no idea of the church’s history. That’s really the main thing kids will pick up from this if anything about Christianity-that it does not have the best history. Well, better they find out from a work of fiction then another way I think.
Why don’t we atheists get any flak for reading a book with religious content?
Because it’s okay for Christian authors to intend to indoctrinate through their fiction. They get bonus points for that. It’s just not okay for anyone else to ever have a different worldview and operate from it. Not ever. Bad bad bad. The great unwashed masses may only be exposed to fiction and film and theatre and art that promotes good Christian values. It’s not like they can think for themselves, the poor dears.
Oh, btw, if anyone caught Kathy Griffin’s new comedy special on Bravo last night, she did a pretty good riff on Bill Donohue (he tried to stir up some kind of big Christian-atheist fracas over her Emmy speech but, as usual, no one cared. Except for some whackadoo Christian thespian group in Pidgeon Forge, TN). As she put it, one minute she was accepting a smarmy award on some second-rate, D-list, behind-the-scenes version of the Emmys, next thing ya know, she’s on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, all the networks, and in every major (and not so major) newspaper in America. You can’t buy publicity like that…
I didn’t know who Kathy Griffin was so I looked her up on t’Internet. Her comments aren’t exactly terrible are they. It’s not as if she named a teddy bear Muhammad or anything really terrible like that.
She just credited her success herself rather than to someone who I consider fictional. I might as well say “Suck it, Dumbledore” next time I do something well.
Ya, I mean, the whole point of her parody-acceptance speech was to poke fun at all the crack-smoking, womanizing, hootchie-mama-dressing rap stars who get up and thank Jesus for their Grammys. Jesus is not in the business of rigging award shows or sports events in anyone’s favor, contrary to many Christians’ apparent beliefs.
You know, it’s like one of those ridiculous platitudes some Christians offer up when they can’t come up with a serious answer: “God always answers prayers. Sometimes the answer is ‘no’.” Ya. Guess God is saying “no” to the starving, dying, genocide victims in Africa and “yes” to, um, Beyonce.
She is a self-proclaimed atheist, however. Raised Catholic, though. Funny how that seems to happen a lot. :d
@Heather,
once I read your post I skipped to making this comment so if I repeat something someone else already said I apologize in advance.
But to answer Heather’s statement
As the father of 10 and 8 year old boys I had the same problem finding decent sources of information about an upcoming movie so that I could make a judgment before seeing a movie beforehand so that we could all have the movie theater experience instead of waiting for DVDs all the time. The ratings system is limited in help, obviously G and PG movies are fine for my kids but PG-13 poses a problem. They are at the age where they want to see (and their friends are seeing) PG-13 movies. I have a special kind of problem with shelves of toys at Toys R Us aimed for 6-10 year olds that are based on a movie that is PG-13. You can play with the toy but you shouldn’t see the movie?!
Anyway back to my rant. I have found with my kids that if the movie lists frightening sequences that is an automatic no way but action violence is usually OK but very vague ( I might even call it redundant, can you have inaction violience or violent inaction? ). Take the Nicholas Cage Ghostrider movie (PG-13) and Transformers (PG-13). These movies aren’t even in the same ball park but they get the same rating.
I will say that imdb.com has a parent rating system that is contributed to by parents who have seen the movie but it can be hit or miss (and forget about it if you want to see Transformers on opening night, if no one’s seen the movie yet then how can they rate it).
slightly off-topic I agree but I felt compelled to share. hey where’s the *hug* emoticon
doh, and I thought I was being funny
>:d<
I doubt that any ratings system will be in it’s self adequate as a guide for parents.
The Internet does provide an excellent resource for parents to learn enough about a movie to be able to judge whether it is appropriate for their children.
It will take time to find the best sites that will provide the information you need but if the issue is important I would think it is worth the time.
I doubt any one source will be adequate. I use the online edition of three papers, Guardian Unlimited, New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor. I don’t go by their ratings but they give me enough information to judge for myself. I am not a parent but I don’t want to waste my valuable time and money.
I would be interested in any sites that the rest of you have found useful.
I wasn’t planning on seeing this and didn’t give it another thought after seeing the previews.
However, with all of this attention I couldn’t help but learn the back-story and now my interest is piqued by the provocative allegorical message.
I just may see it. Seems like mass boycotting usually backfires.
Maybe it does, but I think it’s a double-edged sword. I have a feeling what it really accomplishes is to make the chasm between the curious and the ignorant a little wider.
More and more I have been observing that certain groups within the Christian community feel that they are protecting themselves and their children by condemning books and movies as heresy and telling their brethren to steer clear of these. I happen to find it very interesting that any works of fiction, including Pullman’s novels, can be the catalyst for such outrage among the Christian community, or any religious community for that matter.
I have actually read all three of the books in the series, and they are very intelligently crafted and thought provoking. What has recently occurred to me is that the condemners of The Golden Compass and its sequels are effectively putting themselves into role of the antagonists that show up in Pullman’s trilogy. These antagonists are an organization called the “Magisterium,” and their main objective is to control individuals’ ability to ask important questions, think for themselves, and so forth. The Magisterium’s method for doing this is to prevent the accumulation of “Dust” that begins to surround an individual once they come of age. The accumulation of “Dust” is symbolic for the discovery of truth, and without it an individual cannot think freely or raise questions. Without “Dust,” they simply become conforming, questionless automatons. The Magisterium explains that their reason for their actions is to protect themselves and their children. (Does this sound familiar? If not, please refer to the first sentence of this posting.)
By labeling Pullman’s fiction as heretical, incendiary material, these condemners are in fact showing themselves to be people who cannot tolerate the ability for others to think for themselves, ask vital questions, or engage in the search for truth and a more complete understanding of God, of ourselves, of the world we live in, and of life in general. If we use Pullman’s symbolism, these condemners are doing the utmost to prevent individuals from being able to accumulate “Dust.”
It is a tremendous shame that a work that has never claimed to be anything other than fiction is being condemned for asking important questions, even if the fictional answers that are given are not those traditionally accepted by most people. Pullman’s fiction raises many important questions, such as:
-Does God exist?
-If so, what is God’s role?
-What is God’s relationship to us and to our ongoing experiences?
-How is society (and how are we as individuals) affected by those who have gained political power in a religious context?
-Are the desires and objectives of those who have gained political power in a religious context always in line with God’s desires and objectives?
The fact that so many people object to Pullman’s work without pausing to gauge its merit as a fictional work suggests that there are a number of people who cannot abide raising these questions without referring to the answers that are detailed in their Sunday school materials. Alas, I fear that it is as a previous poster (Ben on 11/29/07) suggested:
This is a very sad thing to me since I have never understood what value faith has if it cannot weather questions that seek truth. But I suppose this questionless approach is built into the very fabric of the Judeo-Christian tradition, given that questioning is considered a form of doubt and given that doubt is certainly said to be sinful.
While I find this controversy to be very interesting, in the end I suppose I am not very surprised that the popularization of Pullman’s trilogy has stirred up so much ire. It is usually the case that if the mainstream is exposed to any form of questioning, we are told we must protect ourselves or else face dire consequences because we’ve allowed satanic forces to triumph.
Passing over the hurtful nature of the last few paragraphs of comment 31, I have to disagree with the idea that questioning is absent from the Judeo-Christian tradition.
As one example, the very name Israel means “He who strives with God”, not “he who obeys without thinking”. Also, remember that in ancient cultures the heart was the seat of reason (the brain was recognized as the thought center much later), so when people are told to love God with all their heart, they are being told to use reason to love God.
Specifically in the case of the Golden Compass, it is not hard to find many websites with very rational analysis of the books and movie. So far the most reactionary sentiments I have seen are “Don’t go see the movie if you don’t want to” and “Check the book out of the library to read it, so you don’t enrich Mr. Pullman.”
If you are looking for intelligent Christian commentary, let me suggest First Things (http://www.firstthings.com, search for Pullman). In addition, Thinking Christian has a good collection of other thoughtful articles.
Now, where’s that coffee? ~o)
Love God by using reason :S Did you just say that! THe bible says:
“trust God with all you’re heart and with all you’re soul and lean not on you’re own understanding”
Proverbs
I will remind you that nearly nearly 2 billion of the worlds population are christian. In this two billion are doctors, lawyers, teachers and all sorts of proffesionals, they believe because they want to believe. They are not forced! Everyone has a choice, even christians, so if a christian feels he wants to watch the movie by all means.
PS: the movie has been in theaters for weeks and still is below the 40million mark. IF that’s not a statement i don’t know what is.