A new movie set to come out
on Dec. 7 and stars Nicole Kidman is causing quite a stir among Christians in
the United States. I received an email just this week alerting me to the
content of the new movie and the dangers it poses for my kids.
I usually am pretty
open-minded when it comes to requests for boycotts, except when it comes to my
kids. Kids lack the spiritual gift of discernment for the most part and as a
parent, it is my job to ensure my child’s mind stays as pure as possible in
this society.
So what is the big deal
about this movie? It has Nicole Kidman in it so it will receive quite a bit of
publicity. With Kidman being a self-professed catholic, you would think that it
couldn’t be that bad, right? Unfortunately, stars today do not pick roles based
on moral values but instead of monetary values. But that is a whole other
story.
The main reason this movie
is so dangerous is-it is based on the first book of a trilogy by Philip
Pullman, an atheist out of England. I know what you are thinking," so what, he
is an atheist-writing and religious beliefs are separate." Unfortunately, in
this case it is not.
Also, remember as a
Christian parent, it is our duty to protect our kids’ minds. The purpose of
this trilogy for Pullman was to be the anti-Narnia or anti-C.S. Lewis. He has
stated publicly that his goal is to “kill God in the minds of children."
He has written 3 books that
all promote atheism, and the movie depicts his first book (which is the more
watered-down of the 3). His goal is that you see the movie and then that
your kids want his trilogy for Christmas and then it really gets offensive in
the second two books. But just to give you a snippet of what is in
Pullman’s books: an ex-nun calling Christianity a convincing mistake, two
characters representing Adam & Eve kill God (called YAHWEH) in the end, and
there’s a story about castration & female circumcision. He stated in a 2003
interview that his books are about killing God.
The Golden Compass is
expected to be advertised as a fun, family holiday movie. The advertising will
be targeted towards children. For more information on Pullman or the email,
please visit Snopes.com at http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
The movie is based on
Pullman’s first book in the trilogy called Northern Lights. The production
company itself sees issues with the content of the books and decided to water
down the movie. Accodring to Wikipedia, Several key themes of the novels, the
rejection of organized religion and the abuse of power in a fictionalized
Catholic Church, are to be diluted in the adaptation. Director Weitz said
"in the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone
wildly astray from its roots" but that the organization portrayed in his
film would not directly match that of Pullman's books. In an attempt to avoid a
religious backlash, the Magisterium will instead be a critique of all dogmatic
organizations. Weitz said that New Line Cinema had feared the story's perceived
anti-religious themes would make the film financially unviable in the US, and
so religion and God will not be referenced directly.
The problem with this is
that the books still contain that material. The writer is hoping that the movie
will spark kids to want to read the books and by the third book, he will have
them hooked in atheistic thoughts. As a parent, this is something I want to
guard against. As someone who went to a very liberal college, I understand some
view this type of exposure as being a good thing for kids to experience so that
they can defend their faith easier. I say that sheltering them at a time when
they are questioning anyway is not a bad thing.
We are here to protect our kids
and their minds. Garbage in can sometimes mean Garbage out. I, for one, will be
one of those that boycott this film. Hollywood has to wake up at some point and
realize that the trash they are spewing is not acceptable for families. The
only way they will do so it if we as families stop supporting their ideologies.
After all, they hope to make over $205 million on this anti-Christian movie.
