I have debated a little bit over posting about this shameful Golden Compass trilogy but have decided for the love of my Church and my dear Lord it is the right thing to do.
My first unnerving came this week when 7 year-old daughter came home with her monthly Scholastic Book order form. Smack dab on the front page was advertised a new picture book for the movie. To her credit, bless her soul, this little 2nd grader was already empowered and cautioned as to the book and movie’s harmful matter and so raised her hand to tell the teacher that “this book should not be for sale to children”. Many of the class then questioned her saying they could not wait to see the movie. When she told them the movie was about “children trying to KILL God” she got a quite proper reaction – fear! Indeed her classmates had no idea and were shocked by her words. I think the teacher did not want to go into discussion so further questions were put privately to my daughter at recess.
The second shocker came yesterday when my 11 year-old son said he was having to do another “Catholic apologetics and philosophical debate” with person(s) in his class. Bless this little soul too for he really fears for the harm it will do to his friends to be apathetic about the real deception and subterfuge of such militant atheist propaganda. (Mind you this sweet boy spent 1 month of recesses convincing his best friend that the material in the DaVinci code was all bunk! He gave him evidence after evidence refuting each outrageous claim of Mr. Brown.) Nevertheless, many in his class to were eager to see the movie and one boy told of his 4th grade sister reading the book right now.
The shameful and most outrageous thing about this Golden Compass Trilogy is that it is designed to sell such un-God(ly) beliefs to unknowing and innocent little souls and to mislead good and trusting parents into believing the story is actually harmless! The fact is that the author is trying to indoctrinate young minds into skepticism, disbelief and hate of organized religion. He is a man with a clear, clever and I dare say, evil agenda!
I might hope that parents will look further into this subject. As educators of our children it is a certain Christian duty to keep our children as far away from the harms which come at them under many disguises in all subject matters. This film and books series are parading about as innocent and harmless entertainment (and make no mistake, the previews for the movie are FANTASTIC!) But the truth is (and you will discover if you read further below to the list of quotations I have included) that this is another diabolical trap launched on our culture , this time aimed at innocent children.
To combat this most recent assault on the children, our young little souls must be educated in the truths of their faith so they may defend themselves and help to bring about positive change in the world they are to lead. We should not step away from this opportunity to help their intelligence in Catholic philosophies to grow and mature. We must help them to develop wisdom and right judgment! There does exist an ultimate right and wrong – an objective truth which is not to be distorted.
I encourage all you good parents to tell your pastors and parish school principals and librarians about these books. Feel free to write an email or a letter. Cut and paste from this post, download a PDF booklet from the Catholic League (God bless their efforts to get the word out about Catholic bigotry!) or just tell a few of your friends and family members. I wrote a note to my school and they were so very good and appreciative. They are going to send out a notice to all the families and even had the courage to call Scholastic Books! AMEN!
But really, this is a no-brainer. The author himself has said that the books are about “KILLING GOD” so I don’t think we need to be some radical deconstuctionist pseudo philosophers and read the book ourselves to find out if he is actually right. He’s telling us, there is no guess work to be done!
Read below some quotations and factoids you can find available easily by doing a little “googling” around. Protect the little souls entrusted to you!
Quotations from Philip Pullman, author of the Golden Compass series:
“I’ve been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God,” he explained. (Terry Mattingly/Scripps Howard News Service
Saturday, November 17, 2007)
“I’m an atheist. There’s no God here. There never was.” (Pullman vs. the Magisterium by Terry Mattingly)
· Pullman, along with Michael Rosen, has created a DVD for 11-year-olds called “Why Atheism?” In the video, students talk frankly about their atheism and why they left their religion. Pullman wants atheism to be taught in the schools, which is why he made the DVD. (from “Why Philip Pullman Wants to Teach Children about Atheism,” The Independent, July 10, 2007.)
· When a children’s book was released that portrayed a teenage girl who morphs into a fornicating dog, Pullman objected to the book’s critics—not the book. (Catholic League Booklet : THE GOLDEN COMPASS: AGENDA UNMASKED)
· Of the Narnia books, Pullman says, “I hate them with a deep and bitter passion, with their view of childhood as a golden age from which sexuality and adulthood are a falling away.” In fact, Pullman considers the Narnia series “one of the most ugly and poisonous things I’ve ever read.” (Catholic League Booklet : THE GOLDEN COMPASS: AGENDA UNMASKED)
· Pullman wants to turn the story of Adam and Eve on its head. He beckons kids to learn that “the temptation in the Garden of Eden was that of enlightenment rather than an invitation to evil disobedience.” Indeed, two of his central characters, Will and Lyra, “are a sort of Adam and Eve,” notes Deborah Ross, but “instead of reaffirming the Creation story, CS Lewis-style, they subvert it.” According to Ross, Pullman is “all for Eve listening to the serpent and trying the fruit.” Pullman himself admits that “I see it as a positive act.” When asked if Eve’s defiance shows curiosity and a willingness to embrace life, he answered, “Yes. Absolutely.” (Catholic League Booklet : THE GOLDEN COMPASS: AGENDA UNMASKED)
About the book:
The book tells of Lyra’s quest to rescue a kidnapped friend and then charts her efforts to save the fantastical world she inhabits. She has to fight the forces of the dominant religious authority, the evil Magisterium, which condones the abduction of children for experimentation by cutting. The three-part series culminates in an epic battle in which God dies – at the hand of a child.
Excerpts from the novel:
One fallen angel tells one of the novel’s young heroes, “The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty – those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves – the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself.”
When the hero finally finds this “god,” he is ultimately described as a “demented and powerless” creature that “could only weep and mumble in fear and pain and misery.” The boy then kills this “god” by breaking him out of his crystal cell, thereby evaporating him. The only “god” in this universe is matter.
In the book, the Church is depicted as an organization bent on power, control and the torture of children by cutting.
One heroine in the story who turns from the Church did so when she realized, “there wasn’t any God at all and…the Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.”
From the President of the National Secular Society is flaming mad that the movie’s producers tried to “water down” the aetheism in the book:
It was clear right from the start that the makers of this film intended to take out the anti-religious elements of Pullman’s book,’ said Terry Sanderson, president of the society. ‘In doing that they are taking the heart out of it, losing the point of it, castrating it. It seems that religion has now completely conquered America’s cultural life and it is much the poorer for it. What a shame that we have to endure such censorship here too.’ (Catholic League Booklet : THE GOLDEN COMPASS: AGENDA UNMASKED)
Reality versus fictional facts in the book:
The Roman Catholic Church’s Magisterium
The body consists of the bishops and the Pope. ‘The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church.’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. 1997, pt. 1, sect. 1, ch. 2, art. 2, III.)
Pullman’s Magisterium
In the parallel universe set up by Pullman in his series His Dark Materials, Magisterium becomes the name of a dark and malevolent religious organisation that perpetrates abuse, torture and murder.
Hollywood’s Magisterium
The Golden Compass, the new film version of Pullman’s Northern Lights, will represent the Magisterium as a catch-all didactic authority. It will now stand for the evils perpetrated by any non-democratic, powerful government.
Role of Scholastic Book Corporation:
“Equally dishonest is the role of Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Entertainment, the media arm of Scholastic Corporation. She has been associated with the film from the get-go, acting as producer for New Line Cinema.
Scholastic Corporation is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books. In making the movie, the mega-corporation expressly violated the tenets of its own Credo, one part of which says, “To help build a society free of prejudice and hate, and dedicated to the highest quality of life in community and nation.” Astonishingly, Scholastic also professes a belief in “High moral and spiritual values,” and says its stands square against “discrimination of any kind on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, or national origin.” Except when it comes to Christians.
Just as with Pullman, the rank hypocrisy of Scholastic is made worse by its glaring deceitfulness. On its website, it features a short review of each of the three books that comprise His Dark Materials, a short biography of the author and a two- plus page interview with Pullman. Not surprisingly, there is not a single hint of Pullman’s in-your-face atheism.13 In short, it amounts to a sanitized cover-up.” (excerpt from Catholic League Booklet : THE GOLDEN COMPASS: AGENDA UNMASKED)
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