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Clearing Up the Compass Controversy

Remember how Christian watchdog groups went into an uproar over the Harry Potter books for supposedly encouraging children to practice witchcraft? Well now they have a new target, the new movie "The Golden Compass", based on the Philip Pullman fantasy novel of the same name. Said watchdog groups are calling the movie "anti-Christian", even going so far as to calling it an attempt to recruit kids into atheism.

At first, it may seem that they have a point. Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist, and has made statements such as "My books are about killing G-d". Yet as blatant as these statements may seem, they have been taken out of context, and the furious protests that can be seen simply by searching "The Golden Compass" on an Evangelical website express a great irony that represents the slippery slope that our country is going through when it comes to the first amendment.

Confused? Allow me to explain. The Golden Compass (I am referring to the book, although I would assume that the movie follows on most levels) is, first and foremost, the exceptional first part of the outstanding trilogy collectively titled His Dark Materials. It should also be noted that Pullman does not delve too deeply into any religious themes until very late in the second book. If it weren't for all this controversy, I wouldn't have known (or cared) that Pullman was an atheist. As neither a Christian nor an Atheist, I saw nothing in my initial reading that would have indicated any sort of anti-Christian sentiment. What he is against, however, is the way that organized religion can become corrupt and oppressive, forcing people to believe things simply because they are told. For example, the aforementioned watchdog groups have misinterpreted the series' portrayal of a villainous church based political power known as the Magisterium as an attack on organized religion as a whole. In reality, Pullman was trying to emphasize the danger in mixing politics and religion. Pullman is not trying to turn people into atheists, but simply encouraging us to question, for doubt is what makes us human. According to Time Magazine, even the Archbishop of Canterbury praised Pullman for raising the theological questions that he did.

My concerns about this situation go further than my own personal love of the novel. I see this as a threat to free speech. Even if Pullman was trying to preach atheism (which he is not), shouldn't he have the right to do so? Nobody said a word of protest about "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", which featured heavy use of Christian themes. I don't have a problem with that- C.S. Lewis had as much a right to write to write the "Narnia" books as Pullman did to write "His Dark Materials". What I do object to, however, is the double standard. Atheism may not be the mainstream religion that Christianity is, but that doesn't mean that the first amendment is any less applicable to the former as it is to the latter.

This all goes to show how important Pullman's attempts to dissuade people from giving in to blind obedience really is in a time when Wikipedia entries are considered reliable sources of information. Haven't we become sophisticated enough as a society to think outside of the box, or at the very least respect an opposing viewpoint? Our culture has been too quick to comply with conventional wisdom and too wary to question the beliefs that some hold sacred. Pullman has given humanity a well-needed slap in the face for becoming so simultaneously nave and gullible.

Learn more about this author, Holden Potter.
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