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The Golden Compass has the sound of an innocuous title with no undertones, no agenda, and no mission to destroy religion. Bill Donohue CEO of the Catholic League says, "These books denigrate Christianity, thrash the Catholic Church and sell the virtues of atheism."

At the heart of the Golden Compass controversy is a man, Philip Pullman who admitted in an interview, "The plainest and simplest description of the world, for me, and the truest, is that there is no God, but that human beings are capable of great goodness and great wickedness, and we don't need priests or Popes or imams or rabbis to tell us which is which."

Next, we add some more players to the controversy. The financing authorities, bowing to the voices of protest, changed the concept of God to "Authority" and watered down the film to make it palatable. Some atheists and Christians are angry about the watered down version, each for their own reasons.

We know from experience, however, the bigger the controversy, the more tickets the film is likely to sell. Pullman, a self-defined materialist, is probably counting his money as the controversy continues. He didn't even mind the watered down version.

With the controversy will come more book sales by those who want to find out what Pullman really wrote in his book, Northern Lights. The Golden Compass is the lightest of the trilogy. If this film does well at the box office, we can expect a sequel. Maybe the sequel is already a given.

The film was released December 7, 2007 with mixed reviews. Critics either loved it or thought it was mediocre storytelling with problematic animation characters. One critic gave it a ho-hum rating.

The question: Is it the intent of the film to tear down religion? Pullman is plain spoken about his atheism and says that Christians are deluded. Up front, I'd say that Pullman definitely has a message to get across to people about his own atheistic beliefs. He admits that he detests C.S. Lewis' Narnia.

What we know is that Pullman is a good storyteller. The watered down version still gets his points across about authority and the church. The controversy will die just as it did with The Da Vinci Code. Other controversies will come and go.

Having said that, every person of faith is responsible for knowing what is acceptable and reasonable for himself and his children.

Pullman can't destroy faith that's grounded in the experience of knowing a loving God. When it comes to children, that's a different story. Children are pliable and easily able to be swayed. Parents must make the decision about what the child is allowed to see.

Most people advise parents to view the movie first and then make a decision about allowing your children to view the movie. That makes sense.

At some point, our children make their own decisions and when that time comes they may choose to see the movie. The question for parents is this: would you rather teach your young children about spiritual concepts, or would to prefer to let Philip Pullman teach them?

Redference:

http://filmcha tblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/phi lip-pullman-extended-e-mail.ht ml

http://movies.yahoo.com/movi e/1808718640/critic

Learn more about this author, Mona Gallagher.
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