Caution Advised

Starting this Friday and what will probably be a Christmas Block Buster movie this season, "The Golden Compass" is a movie with a hidden agenda. The movie based on Philip Pullman's 1995 book The Golden Compass is the entry point to his Trilogy of children's fantasy novels, "His Dark Materials". Inspired from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, this time around, however, "God" gets overthrown and the "Fall of Man" becomes the source of humankind's redemption, not failure.

I asked Miles White, to share some perspective on how you and your family can appropriately respond to this movie. (Miles and his wife Laurie own Jacob's Well Book Store - Courtenay)


Hi Dave:
Just some rambling thoughts on Philip Pullman and the "Golden Compass":

Philip Pullman in his book, "The Golden Compass", the first work in "His Dark Materials" trilogy, has actually written a fairly entertaining yet provocative story. Being released in theaters as a feature film with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood would command the attention of families this Christmas. Knowing that this movie was in the works over a year ago, I decided that I would start reading his trilogy because I had heard that he was a good writer, (better than R. K. Rowling) an atheist and definitely not a fan of C. S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia.

The Golden Compass lays the foundation for his other two books (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) where he essentially erects a fictional platform that is appealing to children that attacks the idea of God and is certainly negative against the Church, which he calls the Magisterium. On one hand he says he is only attacking the abuses of the church, but he goes much further than that really.

It is a fantasy set in an alternate universe where everyone has a daemon which is your soul (I suppose) projected on the outside of your body in the form of an animal (it finally settles on one animal when you become an adult). It tells the story of a girl who is key to rescuing children that have gone missing and are being used in laboratory to collect this special "dust" which is collected when they are separated from their daemon. She is joined by others where they will eventually kill (the dust is key in all of this) God and the Christian faith. When you think about 2006-2007, there has been a resurgence of militant atheism with the likes of Richard Dawkins and The God Delusion; Hitchens and his book "God is Not Great" and now Pullman's trilogy (although written earlier) which has appeal to both adults and children.

Should we be afraid of what he has written?
No, we shouldn't. We should be discerning however. Atheism is not new and it's ideas are not new. The ideas are already out there...it is just finding more popular expression and acceptance today. Pullman doesn't even really do a good job in his books, particularly in the second and third where it ends up being a fictional rant against God.

How we respond to this militant atheism is key.
I believe it is important first of all to pray for wisdom in how to respond. Second, "take every thought captive and make it subject to Christ." By this I mean, be familiar with what is written or shown and engage the ideas. Don't fuel Pullman's justification of a negative portrayal of the church by responding negatively as the Church. We can disagree and tell why, but watch our character and conduct. Peter says we are to "always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within us but do this with gentleness and respect." In other words, as I have said frequently, the truth is inherently offensive, so why add to it. If we add to the offense of truth by our conduct, then people never hear the truth...just the offense we have added.

I am planning on seeing the movie...and seeing how closely it matches to the book. I have an atheist friend I intend to see it with. I hope to discuss it with my older children if they so choose to see it. I would not, however, justify taking younger children to see it until it was previewed.

Blessings,
Miles

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