The Golden Compass
Tomorrow the controversial movie, The Golden Compass, opens at my local theater. It is controversial because the author of the trilogy upon which the movie is based, Philip Pullman, is a self-proclaimed athiest. Bill Brown, of Summit Ministries, has a well-done discussion about the movie here. Regarding the Anti-Christian bias of Pullman, Brown states:
While the book’s fantasy genre has the look and feel of The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia, the storyline has the opposite effect, even being dubbed the “anti-Narnia.” Michael Foust of the Baptist Press writes that Pullman regularly expresses “disdain for C.S. Lewis’ fictional world and has sought to write a completely different fictional tale…. He said in a 2001 interview, ‘I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief,’ and two years later told another newspaper, ‘My books are about killing God.’”
Pullman told the Telegraph newspaper in 2002, “If there is a God and he is as the Christians describe him, then he deserves to be put down and rebelled against. As you look back over the history of the Christian church, it’s a record of terrible infamy and cruelty and persecution and tyranny.”
Although the anti-theistic themes are toned down in this movie version (if one is not aware of Pullman’s bias, one might not even consider the film anti-Christian), they are still there. If sequels are made, it will be interesting to see if they continue to be downplayed. Brown notes concerning the 2nd and 3rd books:
In the second book in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, one of the main characters, Will, is told he possesses a magical knife, “the one weapon in all the universes” that can “defeat the tyrant.” That tyrant, of course, is “The Authority. God.”
In the third book, The Amber Spyglass, Will is told that “The Authority” has many names, “God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty.” These were names God “gave himself” even though “he was never the creator.”
One of the final chapters has an ex-nun named Mary telling Will and Lyra, “The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.”
Brown had good advice for Christians in forming a response to this movie. I’d recommend you read his entire article. Also, Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian has multiple posts on this film which have also been insightful. This recent post of his has links to the previous ones.