Shortly before posting a blog about the upcoming movie The Golden Compass, I received an interesting article presenting an alternative view. Since my intent is to base my decisions and opinions on the factual evidence available, I want my readers to be aware of this as well.
The background of the emerging controversy surrounding The Golden Compass is documented on both the Truth or Fiction and Snopes websites. The movie is based on the novel Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the United States) by English author Phillip Pullman, an overt atheist who reviles, among other things, The Chronicles of Narnia series of children’s stories written by C. S. Lewis. Lewis clearly intended his series to be an allegory of the Christian faith. The Truth or Fiction article reveals that “many view Pullman's books as a response to ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ but with an emphasis on ‘scientific materialism’ over religion. Pullman has criticized ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ as ‘religious propaganda.’ In 2001 he told Guardian Unlimited ‘I hate the Narnia books, and I hate them with deep and bitter passion, with their view of childhood as a golden age from which sexuality and adulthood are a falling away.’”
The Golden Compass, scheduled for release on December 7, 2007, is considered by critics and observers to be a “watered down” version of Pullman’s novel, meaning that the film itself is an “innocent and interesting” children’s adventure story. The concern being raised is that this “innocent” cinematic introduction to Pullman’s novels will lead to increased exposure of the unadulterated hatreds he expresses toward the Christian faith with no regard for any alternative exposure to the truth of Jesus Christ’s righteous purpose of saving love. The e-mails currently circulating offer a warning about both this motion picture and Pullman’s novels.
To be fair, however, not all professing Christians are encouraging a boycott of the movie. In one article I received, Yvon Prehn writes, “Rather than boycotting it, I think the movie provides a challenging opportunity for Christian communicators to explain and engage.” Her article goes on to explain some mischaracterizations about Pullman’s novels that are circulating in the e-mail messages. Providing correctives to some of the mischaracterizations is the reason why I include the reference to her article in this blog.
I retain the conclusion, though, that Christians will be better served to not attend this movie or purchase Pullman’s books. In theory, I concur with Prehn’s challenge for Christians to use this release as an opportunity to engage in thoughtful dialogue with those who watch the movie or read the books. I agree that thoughtful dialogue must be rooted in first-hand reflections of the messages of the movie and books. To the extent practicable, this is exactly what I attempt in my approach to Christian apologetics on any topic.
In practice, though, I sincerely doubt that such engaging, thoughtful dialogue will occur on any significant scale. Christians have tried recently to engage secular society through motion pictures such as The Passion of the Christ, The Nativity, and The Witch, the Lion, and the Wardrobe. Personally, I appreciate the efforts of those who have brought these monumental works to life on the “big screen” and do not mind supporting them. In spite of all the good intentions, though, I have not observed any significant thoughtful dialogue resulting from these productions. Similarly, I have not observed any significant thoughtful dialogue resulting from media that overtly or covertly carry an anti-Christian bias and message. I certainly have no intention of using my limited resources to provide financial support to those producers and authors who want to eradicate Christian expressions of faith from our culture. I am willing to read the Pullman trilogy if the novels are available from a library or similar source that incurs no additional revenue to the author, but even that represents a use of my limited resource of time that could be better applied to positively engaging in ministry that pleases Jesus.
While I thank those like Yvon Prehn who provide further factual insight into this particular controversy, my conclusion remains unchanged: I think that Christians will be better served to not attend the motion picture or purchase Pullman’s novels. I think that we will be better served to use our resources of money and time to support and/or engage in some ministry that pleases our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Oh, one bit of good news I did discover in all of this: A second Narnia film, Prince Caspian, is scheduled for release in 2008.
The background of the emerging controversy surrounding The Golden Compass is documented on both the Truth or Fiction and Snopes websites. The movie is based on the novel Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the United States) by English author Phillip Pullman, an overt atheist who reviles, among other things, The Chronicles of Narnia series of children’s stories written by C. S. Lewis. Lewis clearly intended his series to be an allegory of the Christian faith. The Truth or Fiction article reveals that “many view Pullman's books as a response to ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ but with an emphasis on ‘scientific materialism’ over religion. Pullman has criticized ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ as ‘religious propaganda.’ In 2001 he told Guardian Unlimited ‘I hate the Narnia books, and I hate them with deep and bitter passion, with their view of childhood as a golden age from which sexuality and adulthood are a falling away.’”
The Golden Compass, scheduled for release on December 7, 2007, is considered by critics and observers to be a “watered down” version of Pullman’s novel, meaning that the film itself is an “innocent and interesting” children’s adventure story. The concern being raised is that this “innocent” cinematic introduction to Pullman’s novels will lead to increased exposure of the unadulterated hatreds he expresses toward the Christian faith with no regard for any alternative exposure to the truth of Jesus Christ’s righteous purpose of saving love. The e-mails currently circulating offer a warning about both this motion picture and Pullman’s novels.
To be fair, however, not all professing Christians are encouraging a boycott of the movie. In one article I received, Yvon Prehn writes, “Rather than boycotting it, I think the movie provides a challenging opportunity for Christian communicators to explain and engage.” Her article goes on to explain some mischaracterizations about Pullman’s novels that are circulating in the e-mail messages. Providing correctives to some of the mischaracterizations is the reason why I include the reference to her article in this blog.
I retain the conclusion, though, that Christians will be better served to not attend this movie or purchase Pullman’s books. In theory, I concur with Prehn’s challenge for Christians to use this release as an opportunity to engage in thoughtful dialogue with those who watch the movie or read the books. I agree that thoughtful dialogue must be rooted in first-hand reflections of the messages of the movie and books. To the extent practicable, this is exactly what I attempt in my approach to Christian apologetics on any topic.
In practice, though, I sincerely doubt that such engaging, thoughtful dialogue will occur on any significant scale. Christians have tried recently to engage secular society through motion pictures such as The Passion of the Christ, The Nativity, and The Witch, the Lion, and the Wardrobe. Personally, I appreciate the efforts of those who have brought these monumental works to life on the “big screen” and do not mind supporting them. In spite of all the good intentions, though, I have not observed any significant thoughtful dialogue resulting from these productions. Similarly, I have not observed any significant thoughtful dialogue resulting from media that overtly or covertly carry an anti-Christian bias and message. I certainly have no intention of using my limited resources to provide financial support to those producers and authors who want to eradicate Christian expressions of faith from our culture. I am willing to read the Pullman trilogy if the novels are available from a library or similar source that incurs no additional revenue to the author, but even that represents a use of my limited resource of time that could be better applied to positively engaging in ministry that pleases Jesus.
While I thank those like Yvon Prehn who provide further factual insight into this particular controversy, my conclusion remains unchanged: I think that Christians will be better served to not attend the motion picture or purchase Pullman’s novels. I think that we will be better served to use our resources of money and time to support and/or engage in some ministry that pleases our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Oh, one bit of good news I did discover in all of this: A second Narnia film, Prince Caspian, is scheduled for release in 2008.
(Illustration: Aslan, the allegorical Christ figure from The Chronicles of Narnia series)
2 comments:
Life is filled with ironies.
After sending my e-mail condensed version of this blog entry, I received the following reply from my daughter: "uhm dad...i read this book in middle school... i liked it...but maybe i didnt know what it was talking about haha"
This would make her one of the Christians able to engage others in thoughtful dialogue. :)
Excellent post!
I've been warning my friends that this is an anti-Christian movie.
Funny, atheists like to accuse Christians of evangelizing, of forcing their view down people's throats. Atheists are just as pushy as they say we are.
I won't be giving this movie a penny of my hard-earned money.
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