I recently received an email from several different people including friends and family stating that The Golden Compass is anti-God and you should not allow your children to see it. If you are not familiar with the Golden Compass, it is one of the movies coming out prior to Christmas targeted at children in which a young girl named Lyra tries to find her kidnapped friend in a fantastical world similar to our own. It is based on the book of the same name by Philip Pullman which is the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. If you want more details, Wild Bluff Media has posts on both the movie and the book.

I have only read the first book in the series which, is the one the movie is based on. In that book, I got the impression that it was only certain members of the evil church (not necessarily Christian) who were trying to sever or at least harness the world’s connection to God. The children who are the heroes of the story were attempting to stop them. As a result, I assumed that the email I received was just some rubbish being passed around the internet by some fundie Christian group who interpret anything they don’t like as sinister and are just looking for something to protest. You know, the same folks who think Trick or Treating is paramount to Satanic worship. Nevertheless I decided a little more research was in order.

Needless to say I was quite surprised to find out the story seemed to be true. If you’re interested in reading more on this I recommend the Snopes.com article on the subject. It is well written, objective, and fully documented (three things the email I received was not). Here is a quote from that site which pretty much sums it up: Pullman left little doubt about his books’ intended meanings when he said in a 2003 interview that “My books are about killing God” and in a 2001 interview that he was “trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.” Its a little hard to argue when that comes straight from the author’s mouth.

This story has at least given me pause for thought. In this case, I am going to take the PG-13 rating to heart and do the right thing which is to finish reading the series myself and go see the movie before I allow my children to do so. Then I can decide for myself the right or wrong of it and do what I think is best with regards to my children with first-hand information. Even though it is extra work on my part, I think it is worth it. I recommend all of the parents reading this article do the same. This is the type of thing parents should be doing all the time. If they did, then we wouldn’t need the government doing the censoring for us.