I went and saw the movie “The Golden Compass” yesterday.  Before you call me anti-Christian or put me on a stake, let me explain why I went to see the movie and share with you my perspective. 

I know that Phillip Pullman is a devout atheist.  I know that in the books he makes his viewpoints quite clear through the use of allegory and metaphor.  It is no secret.  I debated even going to see the movie.  Partly because I know it was a response to C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia I decided that I wanted to see “The Golden Compass”. 

I am a C.S. Lewis fan even before the first movie “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” ever came out, I’ve been reading the classics such as “The Great Divorce”, “Till We Have Faces” and for some reason the allegory (intended or not) set in a fantastical world appeals to me.  I’ve come to this conclusion.  We all long for our lives to more resemble the fantastical and something beyond our world. 

 

While I believe that is very true, I don’t think this movie will do near as well as people think it will do and it will not come even close to the figures that any one of the Narnia movies will.  Why? 

The world that is presented is fantastical sure, but it fails on the most basic level in that it is not a world that I would want to be a part of.

  I love animals, and polar bears are some of my favorite animals but the world presented is one of fear, loneliness and despair. 

 

Supposedly this is all because of the illusive Magisterium.  Which by the way, according to Wikipedia is:

(from the Latin magister, “teacher”) is a technical ecclesiastical term in the Roman Catholic Church referring to the teaching authority of the church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the church, led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), who has authority over the bishops, individually and as a body, as well as over each and every Catholic directly. According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so either non-infallibly or infallibly.

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Oh, now I understand why the Catholics are so upset.

The Magisterium of the movie desires to take away “free will” which is the same kind of doctrine that I too have encountered by some in the Roman Catholic church (see the bold print above and in the blockquotes).

This is completely contrary to what we find in scripture though.

 

Phillip Pullman as an atheist understands any kind of faith as being a crutch by which people are controlled and manipulated.  I believe that many churches and religions have to do more with perpetuating this line of reasoning through their own actions and that Phillip only sees what these institutions represent more clearly.

 

The God I serve as a Christian desires that we become more fully ourselves through Him.  That is the difference.  We don’t become clones of each other through having a faith in Christ, we become more individual, more creative, more original rather than less.  How can a creation encounter it’s creator without becoming more itself through the creators touch.  If Van Gogh came back to life somehow and touched up one of his paintings so it would more closely resemble the intent that the painting originally had, would it make the painting worth less?  No, because it was the hand of the original creator working to bring his creation to completion.

 

So, how can we as Christians view this movie?

That people are definitely seeking for truth.  They have their Golden Compasses ready and are only trying to figure out how to read the thing.  We have God’s word that points to the truth.  Can we help them read it and understand it? 

Maybe, but many so-called Christians don’t understand or read the Bible themselves.  Before we go pounding this movie or author for not knowing the truth, let’s understand it ourselves. 

Let us come to grips with reading our Bibles and knowing what we believe before we cast a judgmental finger at those who are still seeking for the truth.

Only a fool would judge those living in darkness for living in darkness when we withhold the light that we have.