'The Golden Compass' threatens to lead astray

The movie trailers sure look enticing, with majestic polar bears, rapid-fire action and a cast that includes Nicole Kidman. Behind the advertising campaign for "The Golden Compass," though, lurks a dark secret. For all its glitz and seeming similarities to the friendlier fantasy works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Golden Compass" offers a thinly veiled assault on Christian doctrine and on the very certainty of God's existence.

Based on British agnostic Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy -- a series written for children -- "The Golden Compass" attacks Christianity as a dark force that oppresses and tortures mankind while crushing man's emotions and desires. Worse yet, the movie presents its anti-Christian message with just enough seemingly innocent appeal to lure audiences into reading -- or watching future cinematic adaptions of -- Pullman's two later, more stridently agnostic works. Parents should consider Pullman's openly stated intention of destroying faith as they seek to guard their children from harmful media influences.

The author proudly claimed in interviews, "My books are about killing God," and he admits he is targeting children, believing they represent the best audience for his anti-Christian ideology.

"The Golden Compass" encourages viewers to sympathize with 12-year-old Lyra and her companions as they struggle against the zealous persecution led by the Magisterium, a fascist organization intended to represent the church. In Pullman's twisted worldview, the Magisterium oppresses humanity by trying to cast out children's "daemons" (pronounced "demons") and separate them from their "Dust," a substance somewhat like original sin.

The trilogy encourages man to seek pleasure in rebellion against God, or the "Authority." In contrast to the Apostle Paul's condemnations of licentious lawlessness, "The Golden Compass" celebrates -- as any future film adaptations of Pullman's novels certainly will -- unrestrained human choice as the ultimate freedom. Consequently, "His Dark Materials" defends evolutionary theories and glorifies witchcraft, homosexuality and premarital sex, all while casting as heroes those who resist the Magisterium by choosing to practice such debauchery.

Moreover, the trilogy's condemnation of church doctrine and practice ranges from scorn for Christianity's supposed impotence to accusations that the defense of Christian truth maims and dehumanizes man.

One character in the series, Mary Malone, announces, "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all." In another instance, a witch -- one of the good guys in the trilogy -- charges that churches sexually mutilate children "so they shan't feel. That is what the church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling."

Such hate-filled messages threaten to deceive audiences by grossly distorting the Christian gospel of redemption, purification and grace. Who would want to worship God if He is the sadist Pullman alleges?

Conversely, why should any thoughtful Christian open his own ears, or his children's, to such open blasphemy against their Heavenly Father?

If parents want to expose their children to classic fantasy entertainment while instilling moral messages, perhaps they should consider the cinematic adaptations of "The Chronicles of Narnia" or "The Lord of the Rings." Both encourage audiences to love heroism, to seek transcendent truth and to recognize mankind's fallenness and need for a savior.

"The Golden Compass," however, masquerades as harmless entertainment while threatening to lead the undiscerning astray from Christianity.