Action, adventure and atheism? 'Compass' meets some opposition.
Wednesday, Aug 8th
By Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE RELIGION & ETHICS EDITOR
December 8, 2007
Don't go.
Go.
“The Golden Compass” is sending Christians in opposite directions .
The PG-13 fantasy movie, with its armored polar bears and flying witches to the rescue, opened last night under a banner of controversy fueled mainly by conservative Christians who are urging followers to boycott the film.
The problem: Philip Pullman, the author of the trilogy of children's books on which this first installment is based, is a religious skeptic who portrays the unspecified church as the villain in his good-versus-evil story line.
At the end of the popular, award-winning book series, known as “His Dark Materials,” God (or the Authority) is defeated.
“Atheism for kids. That is what Philip Pullman sells,” the Catholic League announced when it launched its boycott in hopes that a low turnout will scuttle plans for sequels.
The league complains that while this first installment may be subtle, “each book becomes progressively more aggressive in its denigration of Christianity and promotion of atheism.”
Bob Botsford, senior pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship North County in Rancho Santa Fe, and Miles McPherson, senior pastor of The Rock Church in Point Loma, have come out against “Compass.”
Botsford calls it “the most dangerous film, to date, ever made for children.”
While the movie may be entertaining on its surface, it “comes with a horrible agenda,” Botsford said. “It would be a bad idea to support this film and a bad idea for Christian families to let their kids go.”
McPherson agrees. “I would recommend that no parent allow their child to see this movie or to read the trilogy,” he said.
All this makes Donna Freitas groan.
Freitas, an assistant professor of religion at Boston University, is such a fan of “His Dark Materials” that she co-wrote a book, “Killing the Imposter God,” which defends Pullman's work as being genuinely spiritual.
Already, she's seen the movie twice – and loved it. “I experienced the movie as an exciting action adventure,” said Freitas.
“I think that if anything, the villain that stands out most in the film is really Mrs. Coulter (played by Nicole Kidman). She's sort of like the classic devil in mink.”
Freitas, who is Catholic, opposes the boycott. “I don't think it (the film) is anti-religious and anti-Christian. I think he (Pullman) is concerned with corrupt institutions and the way people abuse power.”
In this first movie, the ominous force in a parallel universe is known as the “Magisterium,” which in our universe is a Catholic term for the teaching authority of the church. But Freitas said it's a term that most Catholics don't know or use.
The film shows Magisterium officials cloaked in garb similar to bishops and, in one scene, the good-guy polar bear charges into what looks remarkably like a European church to retrieve his stolen armor.
What will children think? “All of those illusions are going to go over their head,” said Freitas.
She argues that the books make it clear that the Authority is really an impostor, an angel who has tricked others into believing he is the real thing. “I think the ultimate arc of the story is actually about revealing God,” she said.
One of Pullman's most novel inventions is the concept of souls, called daemons, which dwell outside each body in an animal form. (The Magisterium kidnaps children and separates them from their souls).
“I love the concept,” Freitas said. “The idea of a soul as something we can hang out with, not just this thing that's inside of us, but this creature that's outside that tells us things and talks with us and is even our conscience.”
She points to other messages of sacrificial love, loyalty and redemption she's found in the series. “He's got some pretty traditional Christian values going on in the books. I think it's shocking for me that more people aren't picking up on it.”
Actually, not all religious reviews of the film are negative.
The media arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called “The Golden Compass” a “lavish, well-acted and fast-paced adaptation.”
It continues: “Despite the professed atheism of its author, and the more overt church connotation of this Magisterium in the novels, director Chris Weitz's film, taken purely on its own cinematic terms, can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with a traditional struggle between good and evil.”
The controversy over the film has prompted some to call for Pullman's books to be removed from schools and public libraries. The request brought a sharp rebuke from the American Library Association.
“Removing a book from a school or library because the author is an atheist, or because a religious group disagrees with the book's viewpoint, is censorship that runs counter to our most cherished freedoms and our history as a nation that celebrates and protects religious diversity,” said Loriene Roy, the association's president, in a statement this week.
Pullman, the author, is dismayed by the debate.
“Why don't we trust readers? Why don't we trust filmgoers?” Pullman told Newsweek. “Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world.”
On his own Web site, Pullman, who lives in England, writes that he does not know if there is a God.
“I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away,” he writes.
“Actually,” Pullman adds, “if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them.”