Thursday, December 06, 2007

Fear Not The Compass

Once again, the Christian community has jumped on the bandwagon of encouraging you and I to avoid a movie. I find it rather annoying when we do this sort of thing. Somehow, we equate movie boycotts with changing the world for the better. But what really irks me is need to bash something that we haven't even seen for ourselves. Many did that with DaVinci Code, lots of far-right wingers do it with all things Harry Potter. And now The Golden Compass. You've probably gotten the emails warning and urging Christians to "run for the hills...there's a movie coming." So its probably not a new topic for most.

I won't get into the controversy, mostly because I haven't seen the movie and have little input to give (there's a novel idea). Yes, the author of the book is a very outspoken critic of Christianity and an equally outspoken Athiest. And apparently the later books in the series have some blatant attacks on the Christian faith.

But come on, is our God that we serve so small that we're scared of a little fantasy film? God is much bigger than that. Sure, we should use some caution. How about talking to our kids, if we see the movie with them, and highlighting some of the thinking that's there that might be contrary to our faith (those who have seen it have said this movie has little of that sort of thing in there....its just a movie). And yes, I'm aware that the movie might just get kids interested in the books. I hoped that might happen with the Narnia film, so I guess it works both ways.

Just sayin', perhaps we should catch it on video or at the cheap theater, see for ourselves, and then decide. Regardless, Christianity Today had a bit to add to the conversation, so check it out. The "Fear Not The Compass" tag is actually from them...not my original creation. Read the article and see the film for yourself (or not...)

2 comments:

  1. Great link -- one of the best I've seen on the subject.

    Minus the "doesn't matter" part, his quote from the Today show sounds more like what today's church should be teaching than something said by one who is setting out with the agenda of 'killing God.'

    ReplyDelete
  2. That had some great answers to questions I had. I was a huge fan of The Da Vinci Code, it is an excellent book. So, I didn't have the immediate affinity to boycott The Golden Compass. Great post!

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to comment, but please keep it nice. It is helpful if you use your name, too...anonymous comments with no names attached are generally deleted!