It may be old news by now, but I wanted to get this out and see if anyone knows more about it.

The soon to be released movie, “The Golden Compass” has raised the ire of many Christian groups. Despite the impressive star-power and production values this movie boasts, the story behind it seems pretty nefarious. The movie is based on the first book of a trilogy written by secular humanist and staunch atheist Philip Pullman. Pullman’s trilogy, “His Dark Materials”, was written in response (or perhaps retaliation) to C.S. Lewis’ Christian allegory, “The Chronicles of Narnia”. It is Pullman’s attempt to, “kill god in the minds of children”.

Snopes puts it this way in their article on “The Golden Compass”:

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of children’s books [is] a series that follows the adventures of a streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears, and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God.

“Compass” is the first, and least offensive of the books, designed to pull in readers. Reports are that the movie is a “dumbed down” version of the book (but really, what movie isn’t) to increase it’s appeal and mask it’s anti-religious theme. Later in the trilogy, the protagonist kids fight against the church, referred to as the “Magisterium”, in order reach and kill God, referred to as “Yahweh”.

I don’t consider myself a rank-and-file religious nut. Instead, I try to be a careful, thoughtful, truthful religious nut, basing my beliefs on facts rather than hearsay. I’m not planning to see “Compass” but that was established long before I heard about all this hubbub. I haven’t seen any of the recent fairy tale movies, like “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Last Mimzy”. They just don’t appeal to me. Maybe I’ve just had enough of Hollywood’s pseudo-philosophy that seems to drip from the genre. Or maybe I’m actually growing up a little. … Nah! That can’t be it.

Anyway, I wanted to stir the pot a bit on this one and see what percolates. I would love to have some comments from anyone more familiar with the subject. Maybe someone who’s actually read the books. If I had time, I’d find them at the library and read them myself, but that seems unlikely.

I await your thoughts.