The Golden Compass
I feel a rant coming on.
The Golden Compass. A new movie coming out December 7th from New Line Cinema. I think I saw the first trailer in May or June. It looked like a great movie - along the likes of LOTR or Narnia. And it has Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and Eva Green (love her from the Bond movie!) starring in it.
Then in August I was in Target and saw the book on sale, so I bought it to read before the movie came out. I actually didn't start reading it till last month. I have just been reading a bit each night before bed. And I was really into it. I thought Philip Pullman (the author) was a gifted writer and it was entertaining.
But then.
I started receiving emails. And bulletins on My Space. "Philip Pullman is an atheist! He hates the Church. He wrote those novels (The Golden Compass is the first of the trilogy) to turn people away from Christianity." I was shocked. Huh?! I didn't get that AT ALL from reading the book. I just thought it was a fun read. What's the big fuss?
And then I was reading Entertainment Weekly magazine and came across an article about this. (Click here to read the article.) Apparently, it has escalated into a huge deal. The Catholic Church is calling for a boycott on the movie. What the heck? Didn't they do that last year for The Da Vinci Code and it still made a load o' cash?
And now we are being warned NOT to take kids to see this movie because what if *gasp* they LIKE the movie?? They might want to go out and read the BOOK!! Oh no!! Kids reading!!! The same thing happened a million years ago with the Harry Potter books. "Don't let your kids read them! They're full of witchcraft and sorcery!" And those same books ended up getting kids away from their computers, TV's, and video games to READ. Their imaginations were expanded. A love of reading began.
I guess I just have no patience for boycotts like these. I doubt kids will walk away from the movie (or the book) and immediately turn away from Christianity and become atheists. Instead of spending all this time trying to keep kids from watching the movie or reading the books, how about parents spend TIME with their kids. Read it WITH them. See the movie WITH them. TALK about these things.
And no, I don't believe that by going to see The Golden Compass on December 7th (which I am planning on) I am "supporting atheism". I will be going to watch a movie for entertainment purposes. That's all.
3 comments:
oh brother
now i have to boycott your blog
the old one.
Sarah, Jeff and I have heard things like, at the end of book three the children "kill" God. Have you heard anything like that? Or has the book implied any of those atheistic themes? Just wondering. I'm not planning on taking my kids to it anyway, they're too little.
Amy N - you ARE old. But I still love you.
Amy D - Hi friend! Actually yeah, I did hear about that. I haven't read the third one yet, I'm almost done with the first. But I talked with a friend who read the whole trilogy and she said (*SPOILER ALERT* - sorry!) the kids kill someone pretending to be "God". (not actually "God")
I want to be sensitive about this topic, because I'm not a parent, so it's probably easy for me to say all this. I think decisions like this would be a lot harder if I WAS a parent and I was thinking not just about myself, but my kids as well. And I'm not saying parents who choose to participate in the boycott are wrong - everyone gets to decide for themselves and their family and that's awesome.
I guess where I was going with this blog was that I wish instead of people being afraid of stuff like this and wanting to boycott it...they would see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to take their children to the movie and have a good conversation about it afterwards. Or maybe an opportunity to go with someone who might not be a Christian and get their thoughts afterward. Stuff like that.
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