I've been fascinated by the opposition to the Golden Compass. That's a movie (out in December to very disappointing numbers) based on a fantasy series His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. The trilogy fits into the genre of fantasy occupied by Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling. It has, however, fallen victim to the culture wars in which zealous christians (the lower case is intentional here) have opposed it, ostensibly because the stories contain characters and plot sequences that are critical of the church. Now that I've read into the third book (still reading) and seen the film, I want to make my own comments.
First, the "church" described in the books and implied in the movie bears only a glancing resemblance to the institutions of Christianity, perhaps closest to the Roman Catholic hierarchy, but not really. After all, the last "pope" was Calvin who moved the Vatican to Geneva. Pullman describes a religious institution and power system that has managed to squeeze all the spirit out of its life and exists to maintain its power by oppression rather than freedom. I rather enjoyed the straw figure Pullman has created because I don't love any part of the church that destroys freedom and joy and creative growth of the spirit.
Second, the books describe the "afterlife" as a mystical union with the universe. Now that's not too different than what was reported in the Times' report of the latest encyclical from Pope Benedict (in Rome, that is).
Third, Pullman's god is an absentee god of the theists who got the universe started and then went off to contemplate deeper things. It's another straw figure and it's easy to root for the demise of such a god.
Finally, the central character of "The Golden Compass" is a strong, bright, capably gifted, courageous, and fiercely independent little girl. It seems to me to be quite possible that more conservative forces in our church families are deeply, and probably unconsciously, unable to handle any story line that puts a female, particularly a female child, in leadership.
When we saw the film on a weekend evening just after Christmas it was shown in the smallest screening room in a local multiplex with not more than 15 people in attendance. What a shame that this imaginative story about truth-telling and making a world where children can be whole and happy has been so diminished by forces of unenlightenment.
