Golden Compass and other movies against christian beliefs?

Question

Alright. First id like to point out im a Christian but not an extremist. I go to church a few times a year but ive never read the bible all the way through i dont get up and go every week to church etc. I recently heard of a new movie called "The Golden Compass" that is coming out and i decided to read up on it to see what its about because it reminded me of Chronociles of Narnia by the preview. Soon i found out that this is a movie about pretty much trying to kill God. I went on Yahoo answers and many people were mad that Christians were getting worked up about this because its just another opinion but let me put this into perspective. What if i wrote a book about killing the leader of a country or about even killing your parents and presented it into a positive light? I wouldnt be commiting a crime but i hope it would still upset you. My question is, why are people actually getting mad at christians for defending what they believe is true and holy?

Answer 1

You obviously read alot of trash. Read the books and you'll see (I've read them cover-to-cover many times). There's no mission to kill God. And it's not anti-Christian. You've been sadly misininformed. Find an unbiased source to get your information- or better yet, read the books and formulate your OWN opinion, rather than regurgitating others'.

It's an alternate view of religion, life and death. If you can't accept that, your beliefs weren't very strong to begin with.

BTW: I find it so hilarious that you're boycotting these books now- I read them at age 12- which was 9 years ago. And I read them for school. Which was a Catholic highschool. Then we debated and discussed them in class. Do you know why? Because ALTERNATE VIEWPOINTS AREN'T AN ATTACK.

Answer 2

Because they see it as Christians trying to take over and force their beliefs on others by now allowing the other side to be heard.

I am a Christian and I read those books as a child. For me, they were great for my skills in practicing discernment, catching the messages. My parents didn't pay any attention to what I read, so I read everything from Stephen King to The Bible, and this. Here's what I think about boycotting this.
- First of all, they kill God at the end of the third book, so that will not be present in the movie
-An interview I read with the director said that he didn't put the anti-Christian stuff in, because he didn't want to alienate the Christian crowd.
-Nicole Kidman is Catholic and she said that she couldn't be in the movie if it was anti-Catholic.

So now the only danger will be in kids reading the books. Possible solutions:
-don't let your kids read the books. Tell them what is in them and say that the movie is better (the books were slow to me, especially the first one, so this is probably true)
-Read it with your child and point out the offensive material so that in the future when they read theologically offensive things, they will catch it and not fear it. Use them to teach them about God.

I don't support a boycott because we shouldn't just be advocating Christian material in the world. This is not a Christian state, and we can use this as a springboard to witness to others. Plus, I believe that the shadow proves the sunshine. God allowed evil in the world as another option, and as a comparison. They made the movie because they wanted to make money, and have courteously watered it down for us. I would reward the makers for that, so instead they don't make a fiery political movie in the future, because those are just not entertaining at all. Anyway, I will see this movie, because I'm not afraid of other ideas in the world. They provoke thought and lead to clarity. This movie and the books have as much right to thrive as Narnia. There are many things that are more harmful at blatant, like the Da Vinci Code (had more flat-out lies about history and the early church than a Satanist). There are anit-Christian messages in most things. You can't stifle them all, and you shouldn't. Is God stifling them? Find a new tactic to deal with stuff you disagree with. Boycotting is dumb. a) it won't even work and b) it promotes anger and ignorance and c) it just makes the few who will boycott feel self-righteous

Answer 3

By "read up on it" did you mean actually reading the books it was based on? Or did you mean searching for spam created to feed christian persecution complexes? From your answer, I suspect the latter.

Are you so devoid of awareness that you haven't seen the attacks your fellow "christians" routinely make against ANYTHING that questions their worldview? Remember all the burning of Harry Potter, and the rampant idiocy over a supposedly gay TELETUBBY?

You see no problem with putting YOUR propaganda in every possible forum (sometimes demanding the public pay for it), but the instant someone with a different opinion wants to be heard you scream bloody murder. It's such blatant hypocrisy, can you really not see it?

Is your precious "god" so PUNY, so pitifully WEAK and helpless that a WORK OF FICTION is actually a threat? Why would such a being be worth worshiping in the first place?

Answer 4

You are absolutely right. Do you ever notice when something negative is said about a different Religion people automatically go nuts. They say its prejudice to do just things. But us Catholics barely say anything. We are constantly bashed for are beliefs. When we finally say something we are called names, ignorant, and closed minded. And my favorite thing is when people say they have the freedom of speech and they can make whatever movie they want. Worst excuse ever because so do we! And your bashing us for using the same freedom of speech you said you had.

Killing God. Great children's movie! You people are all sick.

But I'm not going to fight about this. God sees everything. Oh yeah and God can't be killed! I'd like to see you try.

Answer 5

It's fiction for one thing. Just seems rather odd that anyone gets upset over fictional books/movies. As for your perspective, if you wrote a book about killing my parents, I wouldn't be upset... No matter what light it was put into. Because... it's a BOOK. A STORY. Again... FICTION. I would probably buy a copy for my parents so they could read it too! I don't understand why anyone would get mad over a fictional story. It can only be because they have decided to live in a fantasy world and not in the real world.

Now as for the religious outlook on this whole deal. Christians have been trying to get Harry Potter taken out, claiming it's teaching kids witchcraft (by the way, it does no such thing... again, it's a fictional story... but we're working from Their perspective at this point). They claim that kids are doing magic because they read Harry Potter and have done everything in their power to try to remove Harry Potter and any kind of religion they see as tied to it (mainly Wicca and Paganism - which, AGAIN, they are NOT tied. Harry Potter is a fictional story. Wicca and Paganism are religions in the real world.) Why is it such a damnable thing when one writes something that is seen as against Christianity, yet none of these freedom loving Christians seem to give a squat when it's happening to another of their Neighbors?

To say the least, it's hypocritical. And they can rage all they like about the Golden Compass, threaten to boycott it, etc... It will not make any difference. We do live in a FREE Country after all. And they need to understand what that really means. It means the same freedom for all. Not just freedom for those they want the freedom for.

Answer 6

it's about a fictionalized Catholic church... it's not attacking Christianity as it is now, but "a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from it's roots" (Weitz, director)

similar to the movie "V for Vendetta"

no matter how noble any faith is, it can be corrupted by people - and we should always guard against that..

Answer 7

I believe that it is fear and disappointment that causes these reactions. A deep seated fear that just maybe, JUST MAYBE, their views MAY be wrong and they don't want to know it. But mostly I believe it is their disappointment that we had our eyes open wide enough to see what they were attempting to do with this movie. These same people are the first to insist that our nativity scenes be removed from public view and insist that prayer and any form of religious reference be removed from our schools. They are angered that all of us won't blindly submit to their insistance that we become like them and they loudly voice their opinion while calling Christians and Jews violators of "their" rights. They want to take away our choice to worship and display our faith while they expose theirs regularly and expect us to just take it and not react or complain. If we do react and stand up for OUR rights, they call "foul" and hire an attorney or the ACLU. Unfortunately, the land of the "free" is not so "free" anymore if you are God-Fearing. "In God We Trust" was once our country's theme and now these people who fear us are being given more rights than those of us who stand firm in the faith that made this country what it was and what it should be again (if we continue to stand up and not fold under pressure and political correctness). The atheist community won't be pleased until our coins read more like "In NO God we trust".
I also believe the reaction is a "UNrighteous indignation" because they had hoped they could "slip this one by us" and spoon feed our children these submessages under the disguise of an innocent fantasy movie, even releasing it during the month of our most precious Christian and Jewish Holidays. That is NO mistake, it is just another attempt to slap us in the face (or more like a sucker punch as they had hoped we wouldn't discover the underlying theme of this trilogy).
Research this issue online and you will find atheist websites glowing over the movie, others will try to play down the purpose of the movie and still other atheists are disturbed that it isn't MORE blatant as to the anti-God theme. Check also snopes.com and you will get a more accurate idea as to the underhanded purpose of this movie; to distort the minds of our children towards thier views, yet they cry foul if we expose their children by daring to pray in public or in school or to even say the pledge of allegiance because of the "one nation under God" phrase. It is very sad that the very rights that they hold up as constitutional and deserved (but yet want to deny us) are the rights that were given to them by our GOD FEARING and GOD TRUSTING forefathers.
I am not an extremist either, but I don't like it when others expect more respect and rights than the rest of us and I do not like the underhanded attempts to slip this message through to our children. Boycotting this movie is an important stance that should be taken by Christians and Jews as well as anyone else who believes that our children should not be fed subliminal messages in such an underhanded, distorted manner under the disguise of "friendly fantasy".

Answer 8

I wouldn't take it too seriously, after all how many people are going to believe any story with talking animals?

Answer 9

Its FICTION. It meant to provoke IDEAS. It is meant to make people THINK and form OPINIONS and be CREATIVE, INTROSPECTIVE, and INSIGHTFUL about their own beliefs which they can measure in contrast to the artist's (writers, filmmakers ,etc) work. It is a work of ART a form of creative and intellectual expression. It creates an intellectual and philosophical dialogue. These things are the biggest threats of all people who would be thought police or who are afraid to think, aren't they? That's why when dictators take over countries, they censure and round up and kill all the artists and intellectuals first. Ironically, it was why Christians were persecuted and killed when Christianity was the new, subversive philosophy, and the Gospels were the subversive and culturally threatening literature that was circulating 2000 years ago. In time, Christianity became the norm--and then it went about persecuting those who held other beliefs. We live in an open, multicultural society now. People don't have to play that game anymore, and a backlash is being seen.

It is one thing for a person to defend his or her beliefs; it is another to malign and censure someone's creative product because a person is intellectually threatened by it.

Answer 10

I always check every rumor with urban legends, snopes.com


http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

And yes, the movie does have anti-religous themes.

Answer 11

This is America. That means you get to consider your beliefs to be true and holy, and others get to not.