The Golden Compass

Greetings. I'm sure we've all been hit by the forwarded email before about The Golden Compass movie coming out soon. I've blogged my thoughts, please enjoy:

The Email
>> Do not see the movie, "The Golden Compass."
>>
>> The movie "The Golden Compass" starring Nicole Kidman is coming to
>> theaters December 7th. It is based on the trilogy of books by atheist
>> Phillip Pullman, of England , and is geared towards kids. He wants
>> kids to denounce God and Heaven but he does it in a very subtle way
>> that parents may not pick up on what his true intentions are. In a
>> 2003 interview, Pullman said, "My books are about killing God."
>>
>> Please don't take your kids to see this movie!! Send this to EVERYONE
>> you know!!! We need to get the word out about this movie and make sure
>> that no one supports it!!!
>>
>> This link gives more information about the movie and Pullman .
>> http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp You'll be
>> shocked, I'm sure.
>>
>> His beliefs are "dumbed-down" in such a way that even adults might not
>> realize the deception before them. Pullman has said that he wrote his
>> trilogy as an antithesis to C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia."
>> Pullman has been called the most dangerous author in Britain .
>>
>> Please give this email wide distribution.
>>

My response:

ARE WE SERIOUS HERE?!?

I've seen this "protest bandwagon" all over the place and frankly I think it is ridiculous.

1. We are so quick to jump on anything promoting Christianity in the media according to our beliefs in freedom of speech. Yet when an author attempts to express his opposing views in an artistic manner, we are just as quick to jump to attack him, as if freedom of speech did not exist for him. That's pretty hypocritical if you ask me. Have we become a Theocracy? Did I miss something?

2. Have we lost our hope in humanity?

"His beliefs are "dumbed-down" in such a way that even adults might not realize the deception before them."

are you serious here? So in a sense, we should treat this movie like the parental block features on cable televisions. Because it might corrupt us we should avoid it at all costs. If we actually had any faith in humanity at all we would be able to trust that people would have the basic knowledge to understand and decide for themselves!

The same goes for kids! Have we lost our trust in parents to teach their kids what is out there and help them understand what this book series/movie is trying to say? I get the feeling this guy isn't out there to destroy homes and destroy religion and churches as we know it. Like any artist/author, he is presenting his work as it is his objective truth, and he hopes that we will read/watch with our MINDS. He's not trying to brainwash anyone, I guarantee it.

3. This source, are you kidding me? "Urban Legend Reference Pages?" Our valid sources have become Urband Legend websites?!? Question the source my friends. Find the truth yourself.

4. Think of all the people that will actually read these books or watch the movie, then decide what they believe regarding it. Does this not make them stronger? Why is our first instinct to run from things that are controversial? Heck, I'm a seminary student here and I'm actually kind of intrigued by this movie and think it'll be worth watching!

If anything, this movie, like many before it (DaVinci Code, Dogma, The Last Temptation of Christ) has gotten us talking about important issues. Therefore I praise Pullman for getting us out of our comfort zones to talk about these things.

God is dead

*this is cross-posted in www.ruachretreat.com, a blog between a few of us PC friends*

While preparing for teaching high school sunday school using the revered "Christian Doctrine" book by Shirley Guthrie, I stumbled across a section reminding me of our 'God is Dead' discussions. This quote is on pages 97-98 for those of you who have the book, in the section about the attributes of God. We talked about the world after God dies in the novel we read (God is dead by Ron Currie, Jr.) and how there are still small instances of hope and love in the broken world. Perhaps one could go along with Guthrie's view that perhaps God didn't die, but rather, our misled human conceptions of God died.

He states, "The church may talk about a God who is at work in our individual lives and in the world around us. But many people experience only the distance, silence, and absence of God--like Jesus himself who cried, 'My God my God, why have you forsaken me?' Why does God seem so far away, even dead, in our time? Is it because we live in a scientific and technological age that no longer needs 'God' to explain everything--or anything--that happens to us? It is because God seems to do nothing about all the misery, suffering, and injustice in the world? Perhaps these are partial explanations. But could it be that instead of blaming science or God, we ought to ask if the fault is not in ourselves? Could it be that we have some wrong ideas about who God is and that they must die if we are to know and experience the reality of God in our lives? Could it be that we ought to welcome the announcement that 'God' is dead, because only as our false conceptions of God die can we learn to know what the living and true God is really like?" (97-98)

Again I know this might be a stretch from the book, but it seems for the most part, was it not these general perceptions of God that "died" in this book? More than likely it may have been the opposite. Perhaps the "loving and preserving" picture of God died in this book, giving way for people to live like they are described in this book.

Although I keep coming back to one of the middle chapters, "Grace," when a drunk pastor is found with a sign saying, "God is alive." This must be a significant point.

I'll conclude with more from Guthrie:
"Which god is dead? All the gods that were really nothing but a projection of our own fears, wishes, insecurity, greed, or speculation. All the gods made in our own image. If talk about the death of God in our own time exposes our idols and their inadequacy, we may welcome it. The quicker we bury and forget the gods we make for ourselves, the quicker we can learn who God really is." (98)

Regardless of if this fits with the God is dead book or not, I still really liked this quote. Especially after hearing more news about Fred Phelps

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/31/funeral.protest/index.html?iref=newssearch

the video interviews they have with him are purely frightening. I think this truly speaks to a conception of God we make that must "die." The man who won the lawsuit said it best at one point when he described how the God he knows is a loving God. In the message Phelps and company are promoting, there is nothing "good" about it. It is completely a message of hate. I know there's a lot more to this story regarding freedom of speech and the fact that we're just giving him the attention he wants, but I think this is what we need to do to "kill" these bad misconceptions of God!

Ok went on a rant there.

back to planning for sunday school.

Feel free to comment!
-Mike Watson