Churches up in arms over a book - The Golden Compass

So today I was thinking about this whole controversy about the book the Golden Compass.

On one side you have a bunch of non religious people siding with the author, a self stated athiest, about a series of books that were written by a free thinking individual with his own thoughts and ideals on how things are in the universe.

On the other side you have a bunch of "believers" who, simply because of the authors states religious belief, are protesting the very release of the movie based on his writings.

Now before one can go off in support of either side you must free your self of ignorance. Ignorance, meaning - lack of knowledge or education, unaware, uninformed, uneducated. You cannot base your ideas on something that was told to you second hand as you are leaving yourself in ignorance. The majority of people protesting over these writings are people who have been told that the books are anti god / anti religion. There was also a statement from the author who said "my books are about killing God". This statement has drummed up the entire controversy to begin with, but without reading the books how will you know what he means.

[ SPOILER ALERT ]

At first glance most people believe that the hero is out to kill god and all religion (not necessarily a bad thing getting rid of religion in my mind... but that's my opinion) but as you read further (or watch the movies as is usually the case in our time of the internet) you find that the very people who claim to be working FOR God and protecting him are the ones that are killing him, while the heroine of the story is actually freeing God to the universe from the control of the church and thus saving him, not killing him as the ignorants are trying to make everyone believe.

[ Spoiler is over now lol ]


Simply put, Ignorance breeds FANATICISM. The more you learn about anything the more you know and therefore the less you judge.

So before you go out and boycott a movie or a book of any kind by any author, do yourself a favour and be sure you KNOW what you are talking about before you join a cause, led by a bunch of ignorant fanatics. THINK FOR YOURSELF and free your mind.

In a day and age when we are desparately trying to get kids to sit down with a book like we did in our childhoods we should not be condemning a series of books that will easily draw your kids in as C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles, or J.R.R. Tolkien, or J.K. Rowling, all of whom had their own controversy surrounding them over their subject matter. Use the mind that you have to make it up for itself.

Hmmm and you think CS Lewis wasn't writing to a religious agenda?
Particularly in the perelandra books ?

My 9 yr old brought this book home last year to read. She is in 3rd grade, and is reading at a 9th grade level. So basically has free reign over the library at school. So this means we have to monitor her reading for content appropriatness. Just because she can read it, doesn't mean she should.

My objection to this one (we didn't let her read it) was the blurb on the back, the girl and her daemon familiars...so on. Usually, if a book is questionable, I read it first. I could have the Golden Compass done in under three hours. She's read the Harry Potters (I've read them all), the Lemony Snicketts (again, I read them), The Narnia books, which dh read growing up. She's also read the Dragon Rider books, and Eragon and Eldest...

Anyway, my point. I don't care if the book has a religious message. It's on my list to read, I've got about 4 in front of it, so probably over Xmas, and then we will determine if my 9 yr old will read it. If anything, the controversy has made me more interested in reading it.

I'd like to know just how it is you know that the religious folk who oppose this book are only opposing it based on what they've heard rather than what they have investigated for themselves? Or are you just trying to make a broad, sweeping statement that all religious folk are ignorant and never think for themselves?

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Originally Posted by schrackman

I'd like to know just how it is you know that the religious folk who oppose this book are only opposing it based on what they've heard rather than what they have investigated for themselves? Or are you just trying to make a broad, sweeping statement that all religious folk are ignorant and never think for themselves?

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Everytime I have had this discussion in person with people who are ADAMANT about not seeing it because of the statements made by the author it has ended the same way.

" have you read the books?" I ask
"no, our pastor / priest / minister told us not to"
"Then how can you have formed ANY opinion on it at all then?" I ask walking away form teh discussion.

I have been reading other forums boards for weeks about this and I would say that almost 85% of the people boycotting the movie have no idea what the story even is... they are simply following what their pastor told them to do.

So it IS a general broad comment, but it is based on personal observation and conversation and inclusive of teh !15% who are not ignorant of the writings of the author.

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Originally Posted by Smart Wombat

Hmmm and you think CS Lewis wasn't writing to a religious agenda?
Particularly in the perelandra books ?

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C.S Lewis is widely known for writings based on the teachings of the bible and basing his fantasy stuff with "Christian Ideals" " and his "Religious Agenda" as you put it, in mind so there's no getting around that. That doesn't mean that there wasn't controversy around what he wrote by the people who were offended by it.....again I am guessing that close to 80% of them never read the books either. I have no problems with C.S Lewis either. I am neither for or against either of the authors. What I am taking offense to are the people who choose to remain ignorant and yet sign their name to a petition just because their "shepherd" told his sheep to do so.


Adina - you are doing exactly what any informed individual should be doing. Read it first and then formulate YOUR opinion. Not that foisted upon you by a peer or community leader. That's exactly what EVERYONE should be doing in order to make an informed decision.

I can see how a bunch of religious folks wouldn't like the book, but so what? I don't like a lot of books I see on the shelves, not to mention the disturbing trends in "Reality" TV (it's okay to laugh at other's misfortunes). Are we going to start burning books again and banning free speech? This is ridiculous. It's fiction!

Paul