The Forbidden Compass…
December 2, 2007 | 7:47 PM
I find myself more concerned about the evangelical response to The Golden Compass, not because of its content but because of our inability to discuss its differences with what we believe. The problem isn’t with the book. It’s with our unbelievably inadequate ability to show the differences between Pullman’s “straw god” and the God in whom we’ve put our trust and hope. It’s the overall attitude of the evangelical subculture: to fear what we cannot sufficiently answer and refute. So we forbid our children from watching it. We loudly boycott it. But rarely, if ever, do we refute the theology behind it. Rarely do we offer a valid reason other than, “they kill god.” It’s true. But whose god is it? Pullman kills an idol of his own creation, albeit an idol set up in the name of the Christian God. Overall, our concern should be more about our inability to discuss The Golden Compass (and other books like it) in an intelligent and thoughtful way; our outrage shouldn’t be over a book written by an unbeliever. Unfortunately, both Pullman as an atheist and we as an evangelical subculture have been completely predictable. Maybe next time, we’ll surprise someone.
Read “Fear Not the Compass” on ChristianityToday.com.
Posted in Books, Life, Media, World Religions
joe kennedy, 2008
good point joe. thanks for sharing. reminds me of the response to harry potter.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:52 PM
Great post!
Unfortunately, in America, many Christians are intent on living in the ‘Christian Ghetto’ and they feel totally uncomfortable / defensive whenever they venture out of it! It’s unfortunate, because outside of the CG is where all the LOST people live…
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 PM
Great points, Joe. I have been thinking about this too after going to my folks house this weekend and my step mom telling my wife that Christians should boycott the film. I plan on seeing it this weekend. Maybe we could go see it together on Sat. morning, $4.00 before 12 at Elmwood.
December 4th, 2007 at 8:29 AM
there is nothing wrong with “forbidding” you children from seeing a movie such as “the golden compass” assuming you have done the research and seen the movie (or read the book) ahead of time. older children who are at a maturity level where they can engage their parents in discussion about the film should be able to see it, but younger kids who are very impressionable ought not to see it or any other film with such an agenda.
i read dan brown’s book before it came out in the theaters because i wanted to intelligently discuss it with other folks. i also saw the movie (executed pretty poorly if you ask me). i never “forbade” anyone from seeing the film, but i did offer to them my first hand impressions on the book as art, the themes in the book and the cut-and-paste approach to history that dan brown has.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:03 AM
Adam, my problem isn’t with people not watching the movie. That’s fine. I mean, we’ve seen that boycotts don’t work (think Disney), and that in some cases they even help the prosperity of the thing we’re boycotting (The DaVinci Code movie) even if it’s terrible (which it was).
My problem is with the reactionary tone we, as a subculture, seem to take when we’re opposed. It’s anti-culture, antagonistic, and completely unnecessary. Think of Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture. Where are we fitting in? Almost always- Christ against culture. And that disappoints me- in particular this time because most of the letters to boycott are coming from people my age, give or take a few years. I thought that my generation had kind of gotten over that, at least to a certain extent (as postmodernistic types).
December 5th, 2007 at 11:41 AM