Netlore Archive: Email rumors warn parents that a new children's movie, 'The Golden Compass,' was written by an atheist and is aimed at selling books promoting anti-religious themes.
Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: October 2007
Status: Partly true / Overblown
Variant #1:
Email example contributed by Shon F., 24 October 2007:
FW: Heads up: The Golden Compass
There will be a new Children's movie coming out December 7th called "The Golden Compass." It is written by Phillip Pullman, a proud athiest who belongs to secular humanist societies. He hates C.S. Lewis's Chronical's of Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movie has been dumbed down to fool kids and thie parents in the hope that they will buy his trilogy where in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as they please. Nicole Kidman stars in the movie so it will most likely be advertised a lot.
Variant #2:
Email example contributed by Steve & Jenny, 25 October 2007:
Subject: Bad movie coming out in December--beware!
You may already know about this, but I just learned about a kids movie coming out in December starring Nicole Kidman. It's called The Golden Compass, and while it will be a watered down version, it is based on a series of children's books about killing God (It is the anti-Narnia). Please follow this link, and then pass it on. From what I understand, the hope is to get alot of kids to see the movie - which won't seem too bad - and then get the parents to buy the books for their kids for Christmas. The quotes from the author sum it all up. I'm going to tell everyone about this movie.
Comments: Let me confess at the outset that I have not seen this yet-to-be-released film, nor read the very popular series of books by Philip Pullman on which it is based.
I can confirm on the evidence of his own statements, however, that Philip Pullman is indeed an atheist, that he objects to the dogmatism and authoritarianism of organized religion, and that these views play a prominent role in his trilogy of books called His Dark Materials, of which The Golden Compass is the first volume.
I can also confirm that in a later volume of the series a supreme being called "The Authority" -- who is evidently meant to be analogous to the Christian God -- is killed.
And I can confirm that the author has characterized C.S. Lewis's Christian-themed Chronicles of Narnia as "detestable."
That having been said, Pullman denies that his writings are "anti-Catholic" or "anti-Christian," despite having been labeled as such by detractors. What he is against, Pullman insists, is "theocracy" -- defined by him as religious totalitarianism in all its forms -- under which he lumps regimes as varied as the Taliban and Soviet Communism ("The fact that they proclaimed that there was no God didn’t make any difference: it was a religion, and they acted in the way any totalitarian religious system would") along with its historical manifestations under the rubric of Christianity.
From what I gather based on reviews and discussions of The Golden Compass and the other volumes of the trilogy, if they have any didactic purpose at all it is more on the order of encouraging freethinking and the critical examination of religious dogma than propagating atheism -- though the point is doubtless moot to those who find their world view threatened by these ideas.
Is the movie a 'watered down' version of the book?
Statements made by the film's star, Nicole Kidman ("The Catholic Church is part of my essence. I would not be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic"), and its director, Chris Weitz ("In the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots. If that’s what you want in the film, you’ll be disappointed”), appear to confirm that the most controversial aspects of the story have been diluted in the cinematic version, though the implication that this was done "to fool kids and their parents" into running out and purchasing the more blatantly anti-religious books verges on paranoid.
Ironically, secularists have criticized the movie for precisely the same reason, complaining that the filmmakers are "taking the heart" out of Pullman's epic by undermining its irreligious themes.
All of which prompted Pullman to observe in a recent interview, "This must be the only film attacked in the same week for being too religious and for being anti-religious -- and by people who haven't seen it."
For those who dare to make up their own minds, the film is slated to be released December 7, 2007.
Discuss it with About.com's Christianity Guide, Mary Fairchild.
Poll: Should Christians boycott The Golden Compass sight unseen?
1) Yes. 2) No. 3) I'm not sure.
Sources and further reading:
Tests of Faith Over 'Compass'
Los Angeles Times, 28 October 2007'Golden Compass' Draws Ire of the Catholic League
Baltimore Sun, 24 October 2007Is 'The Golden Compass' Too Anti-Christian, or Not Anti-Christian Enough?
New York Magazine, 16 October 2007Filmmakers Defended in Church Row
Western Mail, 16 october 2007Philip Pullman in Conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury
The Telegraph, 17 March 2004A Dark Agenda? - Interview with Philip Pullman
Surefish, November 2002
Last updated: 10/29/07
