***
"You may already know about the 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 a lot 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 hope it totally bombs because we were all paying attention!"
http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
***
A few months ago, I received an e-mail from my friend Kevin about a series of award-winning books he had just completed. He's an avid reader, a social activist, and a fellow Believer. This was my first introduction to the trilogy His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman and the upcoming movie The Golden Compass that's slated to make its debut December 7, 2007.
Since my friend Kevin tends to be a very liberal radical (and not one to "throw out the baby with the bathwater"), I took his mini-book review pretty seriously and plan to avoid going to see the upcoming film based on the first (and least controversial) of Pullman's three books.
When my girlfriend Becki and I were in Borders bookstore last Thursday night, it was impossible to avoid the marketing of this trilogy. Here's Kevin's review if you're interested:
***
A Book Review by my friend Kevin:
I just finished up a series of books by Phillip Pullman, an atheist in Britain, that I wish I'd never started. Didn't know he was a militant atheist. He actually wrote it as his answer to CS Lewis. He combines science with a hate for the Catholic Church, Wiccan thought, Gnostic heresies, Chinese mysticism, and Greek mythology to tell a hell of a young adult story to brainwash kids that God is dead and never really deserved their love anyway.
It was such a compelling story that I couldn't put it down even when I realized I'd been had about halfway through the final third book. The worst thing is that the first book is being made into a movie with Nicole Kidman in December. If we thought Harry Potter was bad, this is gonna be awful. I was even doubting my faith in God during the third book. Just imagine what this could do to a young 12-year-old mind.
In the books, each character from one of the key worlds has a daemon which is like a pet that can change into any animal. As the story progresses, you discover that the daemon is like an external spirit or concsience (think of having half your mind outside your body). That by itself is not bad. What is bad is that the word is pronounced like "demon." Even now, the website-- http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/ -- helps kids take a test to find their own inner daemon/demon animal.
I'm going to write a full review for parents of faith and e-mail it as a warning to everyone of faith. This isn't just a threat to Christian beliefs, but to every monotheistic faith. I'll need you to send it to your contacts to warn parents to not even let their kids see this movie, because in the first book, there is really no threat (except for vague references to the control of the church and one evil group inside the church) and it sucks you in powerfully. I was trembling and crying during one scene when the main girl was nearly separated from her daemon.
In the third book, the young boy and girl meet the "Ancient of Days" (the first angel who claimed to be God) just before he dies of old age, and his second in command, a Lucifer-like character, is thrown into the abyss by the girl's parents, who are a sociopath and borderline themselves . Then a nun-turned-scientist who we met in the second book becomes the kids mentor as they fall in love in new Eden. I counted four times on one page of her lecture to the kids where she states "Once I realized God doesn't exist..." Total brainwash material.
As a journalist and a radical, I hate book burning--but this is one of the very few I'd gladly toss on the flames. It's only point is to tell kids that God doesn't exist and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to fall in love and do good things. According to the story, having good stories to tell the Harpies that guard hell is how you escape to go on to "nothingness" after you die--except that is really a good thing because then your atoms can be part of the universe!
***
No comments:
Post a Comment