I saw the Golden Compass…

I am running off to join an atheist anarchy commune in Wales.

….not exactly….

Grab a candle and start the prayer vigil! I went to see the movie this evening. Don’t freak, I am not financing any atheist plots to take over the world I can get in free due to the gimp factor.

The movie is rated PG-13 (as was LofR) due to violence. There were no families to be seen at the showing I went, the audience was mostly young adults. The BEE movie and the Toystore movie got all the families I saw. So I think the hoopla about it corrupting children is a little over the top considering that kids can’t even go without an adult.

As far as what you really want to know…is this movie going to make me an atheist (or anyone else)? The villains of the movie are not really religious at all and there is only one scene that does subtly imply that they may be associated with religion in which one of the building that houses some of the villains has a painting of a Russian Orthodox-esque icon of a random saint. And I was looking for this and am very familiar with Orthodox style art considering my passion for all things Eastern European, I think your average movie goer might not have noticed.

As I sat there and waited to be smited and/or asked to join a anti-religion protest, I pondered the familiar story (yep that’s right I read as a kid…) in light what I now know about Phillip Pullman. And I was stuck by how right he is about our hypocrisy in many ways and how sad it is that is the only Christianity he has seen. I am not half as concerned about what he got WRONG as what he got RIGHT becuase people will pick up on the RIGHT stuff. In the story a child is orphaned because she was born out of wedlock and her mother abandoned her in fear of persecution from the church. Does this not happen in our churches today? Do scared young women who are so afraid of condemnation make choices they regret?

In the story the villains try to poison a professor who is doing research they disagree with. Pretty extreme, yet there is a plenty of tension between religion and science in our world. If we believe we have the truth, what are we so afraid of? What if we stopped attacking science long enough to see the evidence for God?

No where is there a Christ figure that is attacked or belittled in the film and no where is there a single villain who represents the gospel or portrays grace in any way. The villains are obsessed with obedience from the children in their world to the point where they will use any means (including kidnapping, brainwashing and mutilation to get it). Its a extreme legalistic society.

I wish in all the articles that are circulating about this people would stop freaking about the atheist plot to take over the world and start to take apart what Pullman is saying. Because there is a message for Christians in the film, its a warning against corruption, against legalism and its an illustration of our complete reliance on Grace. Because a works base faith imprisons people both in spirit and in mind, a grace based faith sets people free and its biblical. What if instead of writing about boycotting this movie we showed how different the movie church is from true Christianity? What if we admitted to being imperfect? What if we talked about the Christianity of the Bible? What if we lived it?

What kind of church are we? What kind of example are we setting? Do we look more like Christ or more like the church in this movie?

….I fear how the average movie go-er will answer that question far more than I fear that the seeds of atheism will be planted in the hearts of children.

also I am sure Mr. Pullman would be horrified to know that the there was a 3 minute preview of the upcoming Narnia movie…Mr. Pullman has previous stated that he despises the Narnia books and think they corrupt and brainwash children (oddly the same thing that all theChristian magazines and preachers are saying about his books). I enjoyed the irony.

I can’t get the picture of CS Lewis and Phillip Pullman Jello wrestling for control of the imaginations of children worldwide out of my head.