To those who oppose The Golden Compass

A new movie is being released this December called The Golden Compass. It is based on the first novel in a fantasy trilogy by Phillip Pullman. The trailer makes it looks a lot like Narnia, so it’s probably not a movie I’ll go out of my way to see.

Nonetheless, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League (a far-right lobby unaffiliated with the Vatican) has called for a boycott of the film due to an anti-religious sentiment in the final two books of the trilogy.

The Catholic League wants Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books.

Though the movie promises to be fairly non-controversial, it may very well act as an inducement to buy Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials. And remember, his twin goals are to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity. To kids.

And we’re the angry militants? Now there’s nothing wrong with them wanting people to avoid the movie, but I think the hypocrisy here needs to be pointed out.

Catholics baptize their children – they promise to teach faith as a virtue from the cradle. Indoctrination should be no radical concept, but that’s not what this is about.

Donohue is afraid. He is terrified that kids will get their hands on these books and read something challenging what they’ve been told to just accept. So instead of confronting these fictional attacks on their dogma, Christians are being encouraged to close their eyes, cover their ears and scream frantically in the intellectual gymnastic act known as faith.