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12 Responses to “It’s Boycott Time Again!”

1. Suzanne Wild
   October 23rd, 2007 at 7:56 am

   

   I have read this book. Actually, 3 books, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. I loved them, and was actually looking forward to the movie so I could see what they made of it. I am a total sci-fi/fantasy junkie (just one of my many vices, right up there with gaming actually) and an absolutely voracious reader. While I don’t think there was a single thing in the book I would say espouses the Christian ethic, I didn’t really find it anti-Christian either.

   I am a Christ follower, but I don’t think I agree with many of the things that the so-called “Christian Right” promote as being “Christian”. I LIKE Harry Potter, I like reading books that aren’t about Christianity, and maybe even include concepts that are counter to the Bible’s teaching. It doesn’t mean I am going to try and enroll in Hogwarts, or start worshiping Thor. Where does that leave me? Am I sinning?

2. Kevin Stover
   October 24th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

   

   Hey Suzanne,

   I think that your question, and the discussions that Christians have over things of this nature, has been asked since the inception of the church. In the New Testament, we read about the Apostle Paul telling numerous churches how to act when it came to “food sacrificed to idols”. Now, that may sound like a silly correlation, but you have to remember that nearly all the meat sold in the marketplace was sacrificed to some type of deity. It wasn’t like these Christians were visiting temples and festivals and the like, they were just doing their grocery shopping!

   Paul gave them some great advice. He said: Listen, we all know that meat is just meat. It doesn’t matter if it’s sacrificed to Jupiter or not. Being dedicated doesn’t change the meat, because Jupiter doesn’t even really exist. The problem is when you look down on other Christians because they don’t eat meat, or when you cause them to mess up because you are able to eat it. (Romans 14, 1 Cor. 10)

   Until the Lord comes back, we live in the world. That means, like it or not, we are a part of our culture. Some people are able to watch/read/drink things, within reason, that other people are not. Ro 14:5 - “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” The key is that we don’t get down on other people because of what they can or cannot do.

3. Cheryl Jackson
   November 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

   

   Hello,
   I have to say I enjoyed reading your comments on the Golden Compass. I just wanted to add some thoughts to your postings. I pray, before I send this, it will be received in a way that will be pleasing to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I was a sinner, but accepted Christ as my savior when I was 13. I am now 43 and while I have not lived an exemplary Christ led life over the years, I seek His will for my life and have faith in Him to forgive me for the bad choices and help me turn away from things that are not pleasing to Him. My personal belief is Golden Compass is not pleasing to Him. I believe you are correct in saying each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. It took one woman to remove prayer from school. What impact might one movie have on the minds of our children or people in general who do not know the love of God? Pullman makes no bones about his belief about God. I don’t even have to do the research on this movie. I already know it doesn’t have a Godly message. Which leads me to say to Susanne that if you as a Christian feel convicted about any situation in your life that perhaps it is God’s Holy Spirit giving you that still, small whisper of caution. I base my belief about “Compass” on the following scripture to just a name a few.
   1 Peter 1:15 says “but be holy in all you do, just as God, the One who called you, is holy.”
   James 4:4 says “anyone who wants to be a friend of the world becomes God’s enemy.”
   John 18: 36 says ” My kingdom does not belong to this world.”
   John 3:17 says ” For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

   While I agree with you that some people are able to do the things you said and some are not, Christians are called to a higher calling than the “world.” A christian does not have to be like the “world” even though we live here. We don’t have to be like the crowd and accept things we consider wrong for us according to His teachings. We don’t have to bring ourselves down to a level that is not pleasing to Him. Holiness seeks to be like God.
   These books were written by someone who is against God and Jesus Christ teachings. I as a Christian parent believe I have a responsibility to my children to help them understand the difference and to teach them to discern for themselves what the world offers is not what Jesus Christ deems holy. I, myself, love the scifi genre of movies and literature, but I have to make a choice. Do I give in to what the world is saying that it’s ok to satisfy my passions even if it means thumbing my nose at God? Would the Lord find this movie pleasing or worldly?

   God did not create us to live in this world. He created us to ultimately live with Him in eternal salvation. This old world is not here to stay. The Bible tells us it will pass away. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. Do you think the Golden Compass will in the new earth? Why give in to worldly demands and acceptance of worldly things by people who choose to ignore the plea of Jesus who gave His life so that all we have to do is ask forgiveness and receive an eternal life with Him. I struggled with Harry Potter as well for my children because it was interesting and fun to read. I read the first book myself first in order to make a better choice. I do not want to give off the impression that I believe I am “holier than tho”. I am far from that. However, I do care about what goes into the hearts and minds of my children. I just believe, while Pullman has every right to write or have made into a movie whatever he chooses, I have the responsibility as a Christian to choose not to read or watch it. There are many things in this world that I might find pleasureable. I choose not to give into those desires because they are not holy. I just want to make a choice that will honor and glorify the Lord and my hope is that this posting may cause someone just to ask questions before they readily accept what the world has to say.

   Thank you for the opportunity to post on your comment. I apologize for the length of my post, but not the content. My prayer is that all Christians will be able to discern for themselves a choice that will be pleasing and honoring to the Lord about this situation. May God bless you in your ministry.

4. Jacques Berger
   November 18th, 2007 at 3:38 am

   

   Perhaps before you comment on a book you should read it? Wouldn’t that be an honest attitude and therefore more Christian? And perhaps also, instead of talkiing about what you don’t understand - or that you only understand through the buzz - you should read what the author has to say about his writing… To help you grow up here is his answer to your babbling:
   “What I don’t like is the notion that the world is a cruel and imperfect copy of something much better somewhere else. Seen from that perspective, which is not exclusively Christian, life is shabby and second rate, shot through with failure and corruption and evil. Both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien seemed to believe this, but I don’t, not for a second. In my trilogy ‘His Dark Materials’, I bang the drum for the primacy of the physical world that we live in. As far as I can see we only get one shot at life, and that is in the here and now. It’s a sort of betrayal of life to long for death, as C.S. Lewis expresses in the Narnia books, which climax with the children being killed in a railway accident; their deaths are presented as a release from this ghastly life on earth. I think it would have been a braver - even, a more Christian - choice for Lewis to have let those children grow into fulfilled adulthood.”

5. Kevin Stover
   November 20th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

   

   Cheryl - I agree that we as Christians shouldn’t do things that the Bible expressly tells us are harmful to our spiritual well-being. To argue the opposite would be folly. My only problem is that if we are not careful, this can be taken to a ridiculous extreme. The Harry Potter book series, for instance, portrays an imaginary world in which certain people are endowed with the ability to perform “magic”. Now, on the surface, that may seem like a cut and dry issue: Christians are not supposed to be associated with magic. On closer examination, however, it is clear that the books do not treat the subject of “magic” in an occult like fashion. There are no sacrifices, no real incantations, no drawing of symbols or icons, etc. In fact, the “magic” in Harry Potter’s world works much the same as another famous fictional universe’s “mutant powers”. It’s also puts one in the mind of the types of “magic” used in the Chronicles of Narnia, and throughout the works of Tolkien, both of which are considered “ok” for Christian consumption.

   Furthermore, I would assert that even things not done expressly for God can contain beauty, simply because they are created by humans, which were created in his image. When I look at a painting by Monet or listen to a symphony by Beethoven, I can see and hear God being praised. Why? Because these people used their God given gifts to the best of their abilities. When I eat dinner, my food doesn’t fall to the floor because I have a well crafted table, created by someone who was gifted by God to do so. I don’t care if the table was dedicated to God, it’s a good table.

   Again, I’m not arguing that Christians can do anything that they would like to do, but simply that we should take care in declaring that something is evil.

   Jacques - While I wholeheartedly agree that Christians all too often speak about things that they haven’t fully read or understand, I can’t agree with the lack of tact that you display in your comment. Why can’t we have an honest and open academic discussion without it devolving into childish name calling? Your delivery is disingenuous to your point. You want her to have an open mind and refrain from judging, yet you use degrading words to make your point, and yourself, sound more intelligent.

   If the author is not a professing Christian (on this point, I admit that I may be ignorant, although I am fairly sure he is not), how does he know what would be “more Christian”? That would be like me telling a Muslim that I think they should pray three times a day instead of five. While I do not long for death (I feel that I still have a lot more to do/see/accomplish here), there is no getting away from the Bible’s discussion of the afterlife. Jesus didn’t die so that we could have a more complete life here on earth, although that is certainly true, he came so that our relationship with God could be made right. Certainly Christianity’s focus on the afterlife has been screwed up since the Middle Ages, but you can’t place primacy on this world either. You don’t want be “so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good” and, conversely, you don’t want to be “so earthly minded that you’re no heavenly good”.

   Just my two cents.

6. Linda
   December 8th, 2007 at 12:54 am

   

   First off, I will say I have not read the books yet, however I am looking forward to them and the movie.
   I have my own beleifs as far as religious factors. The point I would like to make is, how can anyone condemn the contents of any story book that is written? After all, even the Bible is a story book is it not? Imagine is you will……..thousands of years in the future when perhaps technology has over taken and the written word is no longer on paper. A future culture finds Dr Suess, Green Eggs and Ham in a time capsule that was made by a grade school class in the year 2007….Will the future humans read the story of a thousand years ago and live their life in accordance to Green Eggs and Ham? Yes this is a very loose comparison…but the point being the Bible is afterall…a Story Book is it not? It is many short stories composed by many authors and their perceptions from many many years ago. In todays day and age the stories have been used and perceived in different ways by how many religious cultures?…but they are based on what…….the beleif that the stories are based upon reality. I am not writing this to say anything against anyones religious beliefs….I am writing this to say that no one has the right to demean one book over another…after all in reality they all are……just stories.

7. Jenny
   December 8th, 2007 at 11:15 am

   

   I recently read this article about The Golden Compass on Christianity Today and I really appreciated what the author had to say. It’s a bit lengthy, but worth the read.

   http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commentaries/fearnotthecompass.html

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10. Sai K
    December 19th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

    

    I’ve read the book, and he isn’t anti-Christian. The book’s only passing mentions are against the corrupt nature of organized religion and its use of its resources to appease or control the world around it to protect that world “for its own good”. As we know, from any bit of history including the Inquisition, this never really works.

    He doesn’t call the Catholic people evil or vile, and his writings are beautifully orchestrated from beginning to end, but he does say that the Church is corrupt, as any intelligent individual will tell you that any powerful group can tend to be. This doesn’t mean all people involved with that group are corrupt but that the group itself is. He also writes implyingly that this group needs to learn to look forward and accept change or it will stagnate and no longer be accepted by free-thinking minds, and they will begin to seek their own unique spiritual path.

    In my opinion, that is a very good message to deliver to young people: Don’t accept what you’re told based on old teachings and ways, decide for yourself.

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