The Golden Compass

What follows is a piece I was asked to write for my church on the Golden Compass...

The Golden Compass: Should we See It?

This Friday the film The Golden Compass will be released in theaters, including the Sioux Center theaters. The film is based upon the fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, written by Phillip Pullman. There is much controversy surrounding both the books and now the film. The latest Christianity Today has referred to the books as the “Chronicles of Atheism”, a contrast to C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narina. The Golden Compass tells of the quest of Lyra, a young girl who sets out to discover the secrets surrounding the mysterious disappearance of children, and the strange activities taking place in the North. These stories are fantasy, similar to The Lord of the Rings. There are witches, talking polar bears, and magic compasses, all in a world where John Calvin is pope, and the geographic center of the church is located in Geneva. Maybe for us Reformed folk, the last part isn’t too hard to imagine!
The controversial part of the story is the characterization of both Christianity and the church. The church is represented as an organization bent upon control and obsessed with power. They are involved in secret activity to prevent the truth from being known in order to protect the authority of the church. The quest at the center of the film is to discover the secrets of Dust…and the possible existence of other worlds…which are not in the Church’s best interest. Is the Dust good or bad? Is it something to fear and overcome, or is it a part of the natural world? This is what Lyra is trying to find out.
So how should we – the church – respond to such a story? Should we read the books? Or more importantly, should we go and see this film? In my humble opinion the answer is both “yes” and “no”. There have always been critics of Christianity and more specifically the church. There have always been accusations against the church regarding the abuse of power, influence, and control. And there have always been critics of God. Pullman is not the first author to speak of the death of God, nor will he be the last. There are those in the world who look at the suffering, the sorrow, and the mess we have made of things…and shake their fist at the heavens. There are some who look at the church and the North American manifestation of Christianity and shake their heads. We are escapists they say…we are uncomfortable in our own skin…so we fantasize about another world…a spiritual world…far away from the reality of this one. Or like Karl Marx, they say we use our religion to justify the status quo…promising those we oppress bliss and happiness in the life to come…a reward for the pain and suffering they accept in the here and now. I hate to say it…but sometimes they are right! Too much of modern Christianity is “pie in the sky, go there when I die” Christianity. Too much of modern Christianity refuses to recognize the goodness of creation, that we were created to be human, and although things are not the way they should be, God is at work making things right. Pullman wants the audience, or the reader, to love this world…to love our humanity - to quit looking upward and start living life. Believe it or not – biblical Christianity wants the same thing! Biblical Christianity proclaims that in Jesus Christ God has come to reconcile the cosmos to Himself…and that instead of us looking to the heavens…God comes down, and enters into our world as the baby in the manger. Biblical Christianity takes this world seriously, proclaiming the good news that in Jesus Christ God is at work making all things new. Some “gods” need to die…false ones…including the false “god” set forth sometimes in modern Christianity. “The god who is not God”, as Luther would say. In this way, we can stand along side authors like Pullman, and not be afraid of films like The Golden Compass.
But there is still a “no” to consider. These books have been marketed as children’s books, and my guess is the films will be directed at older children as well. Here is where we must be careful. Our job as parents, teachers, members of the body of Christ, is to train up our children in the Lord. Personally, I will not let my children read these books until they are much older, and able to discern the ideas the book engages. I have heard the film softens the controversial aspects of the books, but we still must be careful. Parental discretion must be used with regard to your child’s ability to discern the subject matter of the film, and your willingness and ability as parents to process these ideas with them. Our children will encounter these ideas at some point in their lives, but we should be careful not to expose them needlessly or before they are ready.
Should Christians go and see this film? I would answer with a qualified “yes”. We need to engage the world of ideas, we need to understand how others see the world, and we need to see how others view Christianity and the church. But we must also be discerning with our children and their ability to process these ideas, protecting them from needless exposure, or at the least, being willing to watch with them, and help guide their thoughts on what they see and hear.