Spring Break
The Catholic Church plays its winning hand
Issue date: 1/31/08
The Catholic Archdioceses of Philadelphia issued a statement last November condemning the movie The Golden Compass, released late last year. Philadelphia area Catholic school principals sent letters to parents asking them to prohibit their children from seeing the film. In December, a religious rights group known as the Catholic League pulled the same stunt complaining about the book depicting children killing God. According to them, "militant atheist" author Phillip Pullman wishes to undermine the church by infecting the minds of children with secular blasphemy. There's a pattern here.
With the Harry Potter series tearing the New York Times bestsellers list to shreds, the church intervened in classic fashion by condemning the book on the grounds that "The Bible is very clear that wizards, demons and devils exist and are very real ... God's people are told to have nothing to do with them," adding that "it is confusing to children when something wicked is being made to look fun." With The Golden Compass and its sequels gaining in popularity with young readers, all the Catholic Church can muster is to condemn yet another revolutionary children's book.
To give you an idea of the stir that the book has caused in the community, I'll pass along some criticisms. According to certain Philadelphia Catholic leaders, the series "has kids kill God and promotes atheism." The Catholic League asserted that the movie is "selling atheism in a stealthy fashion," and has called for a nationwide boycott of the film. Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, said that the directors of The Golden Compass are "using the movie as a lure to ... hook the parents into thinking the books are okay and get it as a Christmas gift."
With the film's initial cravings and controversies now dying out, the mass heretical hysteria against which the church warned us seems now to be no more frightening than whatever recently raised the Homeland Security Advisory System up to orange.
With the Harry Potter series tearing the New York Times bestsellers list to shreds, the church intervened in classic fashion by condemning the book on the grounds that "The Bible is very clear that wizards, demons and devils exist and are very real ... God's people are told to have nothing to do with them," adding that "it is confusing to children when something wicked is being made to look fun." With The Golden Compass and its sequels gaining in popularity with young readers, all the Catholic Church can muster is to condemn yet another revolutionary children's book.
To give you an idea of the stir that the book has caused in the community, I'll pass along some criticisms. According to certain Philadelphia Catholic leaders, the series "has kids kill God and promotes atheism." The Catholic League asserted that the movie is "selling atheism in a stealthy fashion," and has called for a nationwide boycott of the film. Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, said that the directors of The Golden Compass are "using the movie as a lure to ... hook the parents into thinking the books are okay and get it as a Christmas gift."
With the film's initial cravings and controversies now dying out, the mass heretical hysteria against which the church warned us seems now to be no more frightening than whatever recently raised the Homeland Security Advisory System up to orange.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 4
J. DiStefano
posted 2/01/08 @ 2:05 PM EST
I'm a Catholic and couldn't agree more with your viewpoint.
I'll take it one step further; the Catholic church should concentrate it's efforts elsewhere and leave parenting to parents. (Continued…)
Sugarboy Cannon
posted 2/01/08 @ 11:53 PM EST
I'm an Atheist and I couldn't agree more with your viewpoint.
I think the church exposes its own weakness and paranoia it uses it's majesterial authority to 'forbid' the reading of literature, or viewing movies. (Continued…)
Sugarboy Cannon
posted 2/01/08 @ 11:55 PM EST
I'm an Atheist and I couldn't agree more with your viewpoint.
I think the church exposes its own weakness and paranoia when it uses it's majesterial authority to 'forbid' the reading of literature, or viewing movies. (Continued…)
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