Would Jesus See “The Golden Compass”?

Today's post was written by Nathan Talbot, a regular blog reader and frequent commenter. A special thanks, NT, for the thoughtful insights and contribution to Walk Wisely.

I have been receiving some emails about the movie The Golden Compass. This movie is an adaptation from the first novel in the trilogy of books called His Dark Materials written by English author Phillip Pullman, who is a proud atheist. The more troubling aspect is these books are, by his own admission, designed to “kill God in the minds of children”. Now there are conflicting reports about how much of this theme the movie includes because they deleted some of the more controversial parts to make it “not as offensive”, and the first book is said to be the least offensive of the three to those who do believe in God.

The point of this post is not to re-iterate the meaning of the movie/book or to serve as a warning to Christians who may read this. It is troubling to me the number of Christians saying that they will in fact see this movie or take their kids to see it. They even go as far as scoffing at those of us who do not agree with seeing it or allowing our kids to see it. Their comments seem to attack us calling us zealots and accusing us of not being able to think for ourselves or not “trusting our kids” will be smart enough to understand it is just fiction.

I have heard (or read where) people say, “Well, I don’t really agree with the author but he is just such a good writer I will definitely read the rest of his books.”

Really? Should “good writing” or the “quality of work” be the litmus test for what we feed ourselves? The reasons to avoid or dare I say boycott this movie seemed rather obvious to me initially. However, the more I’ve read about Christians who have no problem with it, not only was I troubled, but it prompted me to thoroughly examine my reasons for choosing not to see the movie.

We should not put money into a man’s pocket whose clear message is to destroy the idea of God in children. It goes against what we believe as Christians and I would rather not “sow into this man’s ministry”.

Why would we, as Christians, want to subject ourselves to a story that is so completely contrary to our fundamental beliefs? I don’t think it wise to feed on things so openly contrary to the Word of God. Furthermore, it is extremely offensive to my spirit to hear such things. I love my God, my Heavenly Father, and it pains me to even read of these things. I could not in good conscience go sit and watch the story unfold before my eyes. I wonder how anyone in relationship with their Heavenly Father could sit through such a maligning of Him without feeling outraged.

It is our job to teach and protect our children. It is our job to help guide them in the things of righteousness, not to give them all the options and let them decide for themselves. Proverbs 22:6 tells us, “Train up a child in the way that he should go, and even when he is old he shall not depart from it”. This tells me that we are to teach our children the things of God and not to confuse them with thoughts/stories/movies of there being no God.

What about free-thinking adults? Those who say, “Well, we know better, it is not like I am going to believe the message of the movie. I am just going to enjoy the creativity of it, the excellence of the literature/movie production, or the amazing work of art that it is.” There are some pretty revealing scriptures guiding us in these matters.

Proverbs 3:7 states “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.”

Proverbs 16:17 tells us, “The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life.”

We are instructed to avoid evil in many places in scripture. What could be more evil than the story of children killing god, with the ultimate conclusion declaring there is no God? Even though I feel certain I could see the movie and it wouldn’t rattle my faith, I am going to trust the wisdom of the Word of God and “shun the obvious evil”.

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Psalm 119:37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your Word.

Psalm 101:3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.

As a Christian believer this movie goes against all that I know to be true and right and good and is therefore evil. There is no moral high ground for watching such things. There is no benefit that could come from watching such things. We should not be ashamed to take a stand against evil in our world. We should not be “open-minded” about evil things and we should support and edify those who take this stand as well, not admonish them for being zealots or over protective.

“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15), and we will not be supporting or seeing “The Golden Compass”.


bloggers note: to read a full summation on The Golden Compass go to http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp