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Ave Maria!
Wow! Sometimes you think a persecution sounds far fetched. Then something like this comes around the corner to wake us up, a major high budget film using all the best computer generated imagery about a battle with a sinister, tyrannical, organized religion called … “the Magisterium”!
A fine “Merry Christmas” from New Line Cinemas, the very ones who gave us the spectacular Lord of the Rings trilogy!!! This is Narnia in reverse.
A viewer submitted:?
THE GOLDEN COMPASS, a new movie targeted at children, will be released December 7, 2007. This movie is based on a the first book of a trilogy by atheist Philip Pullman. In the final book a boy and girl kill God so they can do as they please. Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that “My books are about killing God.
The movie is a watered down version of the first book and is designed to be very attractive in the hope unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the the movie and that the children will want the books for Christmas.
The movie has a well known cast, including Nicole Kidman, Kevin Bacon, and Sam Elliott. It will probably be advertised extensively, so it is crucial that we get the word out to warn parents to avoid this movie.
You can research this for yourself. Start with this article on Snopes.com, then go to Google.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
More links:
Bill Donohue has condemned the movie?and is waging a battle against its distribution.? See his Video.
To see what we are up against here’s the trailer.
Ave Maria!
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Ave Maria!
I believe this movie was partially funded by Scholastic, Inc – so if your kids are not homeschooled, look out for the scholastic book order form – undoubtably it will have His Dark Materials (The name of the trilogy) books, etc…
The wikipedia website has a well documented article on Pullman, including web links to the Washington Post article where some of his more infanous quotes come from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23371-2001Feb18?
Let us pray for Mr Pullman.
Scott
Thankyou so much for the information on this film , we are going to spead this around to all we know.
With ‘Catholics’ like Nicole Kidman, who needs heretics? Wasn’t everyone just celebrating that her marriage was recently ‘blessed’ by the Church? We shouldn’t go about blowing the horn of ‘Someone Converted’ until we’ve actually seen them put the Faith into practice, and clearly, her actions as starring in this film show her for who she is. The least we can do is “Penance…Penance…Penance…”
Not all priests are condemning this movie. One priest warned his parish that the movie is entertainment even though it doesn’t portray the Catholic Church in a good light. He went on to remind his parishioners that as Catholics, we do not learn our faith through movies. With advice like this, how can we totally blame the laity even when they participate in fictitious events. Grrrrrrr….
When the LEADERS of any Christian church, especially the Catholic Church, do NOT make a definite stand against atheism and mockery of our faith, we have lost a battle. Our officers are surrendering, sending up the white flag. It makes it so hard for the “soldiers” to fight the good fight. It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain composure and perseverance. Thank you, God, for the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. The FIs are in my daily prayers.
Paul Xavier…
I agree with you about the statements you made about Kidman and the celebrations. I have had (for years) the same issue with the Kennedy’s in Mass…why did Law allow the Kennedys to represent the Catholic position in the public arena for so long? I lived in the midwest/south for a while and I recall many times when I heard someone tell me “Kennedy does this and he is Catholic…???
Yes, penance, right….I detract.
What I wanted to say is that if I had never heard of this movie Golden Compass before and read the review that I partially quote below, I do not get the feeling that I should NOT go and watch it…
“Is Pullman trying to undermine anyone’s belief in God? Leaving the books aside, and focusing on what has ended up on-screen, the script can reasonably be interpreted in the broadest sense as an appeal against the abuse of political power. …Will seeing this film inspire teens to read the books, which many have found problematic? Rather than banning the movie or books, parents might instead take the opportunity to talk through any thorny philosophical issues with their teens.???
Please, read more….. http://www.usccb.org/movies/g/thegoldencompass.shtml
To be fair, the reviewers (who ever they may be) did not even condemn The Last Temptation of Christ. They said that the movie failed “. . . because of artistic inadequacy rather than anti-religious bias.???
The point is, I did not read something like “We, as guardians of the faith condemn the movie The Last Temptation because of the anti-religious bias which, in this case supersedes any artistic inadequacy.???
If the bishops do not take a united position, how can the priests? Parishoners can easily say something like “Yes, the movie may be offensive I only need to resolve the philosophical issues….”
I do grant the movies (Last Temptation and Compass) were about 20 years apart and different reviewers probably performed the reviews. Thus, I can understand there is no pattern there….except. . .
. . . Nancy, to answer your concern….no spine then, no spine now.
PF
Has anyone been to the website for this movie? The site should cause as much or maybe even more cause for alarm than the movie. Children can choose a tab titled “About Daemons” which explains that “in Lyra’s world, a person’s soul lives on the outside of their body, in the form of a daemon – an animal spirit that accompanies them through life.” It goes on to say, “In our world, it is possible that people have daemons as well, only they are invisible. If you would like to learn more about your daemon, and create a demon avatar to take out into the world with you select ‘Meet Your Daemon’.” This tab takes the child through a series of questions and at the end, I assume, because I didn’t finish it, assigns a “daemon” to the child. Is this not opening a door directly to the occult? The last thing I want to point out about the site is a tab labeled “Daemons of the Golden Compass” in which it describes the daemons of three of the main characters. the “daemon” of “Lord Asriel” is a “female, green-eyed snow leopard called Stelmaria. Human and daemon pairs are always of the opposite sex and are bounded by a powerful energy.” Is this not a very thinly veiled attack of the Blessed Mother? I have not yet heard anyone mention these things in their criticisms of the film, and probably most “Catholic” filmgoers would not pick up on them if not warned in advance.
I must say, having children be assigned a demon really freaks me out.