"The Golden Compass" Movie

So. Today I received a forwarded e-mail from my father entitled "URGENT." Thinking that it was actually something "urgent," I opened it in a hurry. Following is the e-mail I received and my consequent response.

> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> All,
>
> There will be a new children's movie out in December called "The
> Golden Compass". The movie has been described as "atheism for kids"
> and is based on the first book of a trilogy entitled "His Dark
> Materials" that was written by Phillip Pullman. Pullman is a
> militant atheist and secular humanist who despises C. S. Lewis and
> the "Chronicles of Narnia". His motivation for writing this trilogy
> was specifically to counteract Lewis' symbolisms of Christ that are
> portrayed in the Narnia series.
>
> Clearly, Pullman 's main objective is to bash Christianity and
> promote atheism. Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when
> he said in a 2003 interview that "my books are about killing God."
> He has even stated that he wants to "kill God in the minds of
> children". It has been said of Pullman that he is "the writer the
> atheists would be praying for, if atheists prayed."
>
> While "The Golden Compass" movie itself may seem mild and
> innocent, the books are a much different story. In the trilogy, a
> young streetwise girl becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle to
> ultimately defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God. A nother
> character, an ex-nun, describes Christianity as "a very powerful and
> convincing mistake." In the final book, characters representing Adam
> and Eve eventually kill God, who at times is called YAHWEH. Each
> book in the trilogy gets progressively worse regarding Pullman 's
> hatred of Jesus Christ.
>
> "The Golden Compass" is set to premier on December 7, during the
> Christmas season, and will probably be heavily advertised. Promoters
> hope that unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the
> movie, that they will enjoy the movie, and that the children will
> want the books for Christmas.
>
> Please consider a boycott of the movie and the books. Also, pass
> this information along to everyone you know. This will help to
> educate parents, so that they will know the agenda of the movie.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

UGH.

I am sorry but this is ridiculous. People get way too upset over things. With this harangue of an e-mail, the authors are doing exactly that against which they are preaching. These are the same fundamentalist Christian people who treat C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia as if it is the Holy Bible itself. Since they take Narnia too far it makes sense that they would take Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and "The Golden Compass" too far; as well as believe that other people are going to be as fanatical as they are and that other people will take "The Golden Compass" too far.

If Pullman wants to provide a counter-trilogy to Lewis' seven-book series, let him! Seriously, what is wrong with that? Why are these Christians afraid that people will be presented with a different viewpoint than theirs? One of the biggest downfalls of Christianity, and many other religions as well, is the completely one-sided point of view its followers possess. The faithful tend to believe so strongly in the correctness of their religion that, to them, it is futile to take into consideration other viewpoints, since their belief is obviously the correct one. However, in reality, all ideas and viewpoints must be taken into consideration in order for a person to say truthfully that believe what they believe because they themselves chose to believe it. Besides, most people want to see more than one viewpoint on any particular story. In fact, the leading conservative news network on the air, Fox News, claims to be "fair and balanced." So, self-reportedly, American conservatives, many of whom also call themselves Christians, want to see all sides of a story. If this is so, why then must we boycott Pullman's stories? Wouldn't that be censoring a side of the story?

It is also quite obvious that this e-mail contradicts itself. Apparently, "the movie itself may seem mild and innocent, [but] the books are a much different story" (par. 3, line 1). Okay, if "the books are a much different story [than the movie]" as the e-mail states, then why are these people so worried? Also, why are they worried since most people today, including a good amount of these fundamentalists, watch movies and never actually read the books off which the movies are based? However, as mentioned in the above paragraph, even if movie-goers actually do read Pullman's books after watching the movie, it never hurts to see more than one side of the story, or, in this case, more than one viewpoint on the world.

Paragraph four of the e-mail goes on to state that "['The Golden Compass'] will probably be heavily advertised" (line 1) as if that is some extreme and crazy tactic that Pullman and the moviemakers are going to employ as part of their evil plot to brainwash children with atheism. Come on, people. Get back to the real world here. Nearly every movie ever made has been promoted up the wazoo. It's Hollywood. People are in it to make money. Perhaps these fundamentalists need to be reminded that even Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was "heavily advertised".

As if the first line in paragraph four fails to describe fully the horrid immorality of Pullman and the people involved in "The Golden Compass," the paragraph's next sentence expands upon the evil that is "The Golden Compass." It states, "Promoters hope that unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the movie, that they will enjoy the movie, and that the children will want the books for Christmas" (par. 4, line 2). Oh, the horror. The wicked and sinful promoters of the movie (oh, and we all know that no other movie has ever had promoters) will use their manipulative ways to lure "unsuspecting parents" and their poor, naive children into the "mild and innocent"(par. 3, line 1) movie. After the children enjoy the movie, whose innocence is, apparently, both in complete contrast to and drastically different from the sinister, atheistic books, they will beg their parents for the books. The parents will then buy the books for their children; thinking that these seemingly innocuous books are simply another version of Narnia. However, once the children have got a hold of these fiendish books, they will gobble them up, and the promoters' sinister plan will come to fruition as the impressionable young minds of these children take Pullman's His Dark Materials as absolute truth and begin preaching atheism to the world. Of course, everyone can see this coming since we experienced the Christian version of this scenario when we read The Chronicles of Narnia as children. I mean, we all knew that the lion Aslan was a metaphor for Jesus Christ and that the books were all about Christianity. We were totally thinking of metaphors and allegories when we read those children's books in elementary school. Moreover, in the event that we actually were being subliminally brainwashed when reading Narnia, then we might as well subliminally brainwash today's children with two different viewpoints at the same time. What can I say; the world is a mess.

Oh, and one last thing: I don't know why the author(s) of this message are so upset about Phillip Pullman brainwashing children with atheism while at the same time they are brainwashing their children with Christianity. Why can't people just raise their children to be understanding, accepting, loving people who have the free will to practice (or to not practice) the religion of their choosing?

Ah!
Okay my rant is over...for now.