Pastor’s E-Pistle

Unlabeled Poison

As I said earlier, much of the worst content in His Dark Materials is not found in the first book. If you watch the soon-to-be-released The Golden Compass after reading this, it is entirely possible that you may be left thinking, “I don’t see what all the fuss was about.” There is little doubt that much of the most virulent anti-Christian content has been eliminated from the movie, which only makes it more dangerous, for two reasons. One is that even though words like “the Church” and “God” will probably be gone, the underlying anti-Christian themes will still be present, a form of indoctrination rendered all the more subtle and seductive by its difficulty to recognize. The second danger is that after watching the movie, children will undoubtedly want to buy the books. Since their parents may not have noticed any problem with the movie, they will probably be allowed to do so.

There are many excellent reasons why children should not watch this movie. Philippians 4:8 commands us “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.“ Pullman’s world, by contrast, challenges our ultimate truth, the truth of God‘s goodness. Also, the story’s concept of morality is often the reverse of Biblical morality. If you take your child to the theater and something comes onto the screen that you do not want your child to watch, you will be faced with the difficult prospect of extracting your disappointed child from the theater without a scene, fighting your way past a row full of irritated people. This will take at least a couple of minutes, and by that time your child will have already seen what you did not want them to watch in the first place. When all is said and done, you will have done nothing for your child except create an appetite for something unwholesome, and you will most likely be treated to the following conversation as you walk to your car after the movie:

“Daddy, can we buy that book?”

“No, son, the book is bad. It turns people against God and Christians.”

“Then why did we just watch the movie?”

What will you say?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 4:07 am and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.