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The movie, The Golden Compass, that will be coming out next month is from a book which is very anti-Catholic. Is was made to bash Catholics and their faith.

In the book and the movie, it says that the magisterium is a evil power. And at the end of the book, the anti-God character "kills" God.

For all Catholics and even Christians, I don't any of us to move away from our faith.

I read all the books ages ago, and though I can't remember much of the specifics from any of them...nothing jumped out at me at the time as being explicitely "anti-Catholic." From what I remember, I interpreted it much more as the need to overthrow oppressive powers, not religion (or Catholicism) specifically.

Granted, even if this supossed anti-Catholicism was blatant and obvious, I wouldn't (and don't) care much. Any given author has as much right to write against religion as another author has to write supporting it (or condemning atheism).

And in any case, if someone were to be turned from God simply by reading a children's fantasy book...well, sorry to be so blunt about this, but they're bloody stupid.

And yes, for any who are wondering, I do hate censorship. With a passion.

No offense, but I think the Catholic League is kind of . . . . stupid. They get their knickers in a twist over the smallest things. If they were to simply raise the red flag to parents, "You might want to read/watch this before you decide if your small children should read/watch this", I would be find with that. But no, they simply tell all Catholics what they should and should not watch. Granted, they really have no power over us, I still find it kind of insulting that they think adult Catholics A) don't have strong enough faith to not let "anti-Catholic" media affect them and B) aren't capable of making their own decisions.

Moving on to those sites you posted . . . .

“Well, you know I always mistrust people who tell us how we should understand something. They know better than we do what the book means or what this means and how we should read it and whether we should read it or not. I don’t think that’s democratic. I prefer to trust the reader. I prefer to trust what I call the democracy of reading. When everybody has the right to form their own opinion and read what they like and come to their own conclusion about it. So I trust the reader.” -- Phillip Pullman

What's the Catholic League's response?
Liar! If you really trusted the reader, you wouldn't put athiesm in your books. (Or at least, that's what I got out of it)

Personally, I agree with Pullman's quote. It's up to the reader to take what he/she will from the book. Some people are clearly taking this as promoting athiest. I read all three books (and loved them dearly) and took it as a great fantasy story. Did it effect my faith? Yes. It made it stronger. It wasn't the whole plot that did this, but various little things that stuck in my brain and led to personal revelations and a deepening of my faith in the Catholic Church. As an atheist, I doubt this was Pullman's intention, but that's what I got out of it.
Seriously, the Catholic League needs to have more faith in the Catholic Church. If we really are the one true Church, and if our doctrine really is true, we have nothing to worry about. Don't encourage people to hide from oposition. Encourage them to seek the truth. If our faith is correct, we have nothing to fear. If it isn't correct, why the hell are we following it?

Oh great, here we go again with another book we shouldn't read or movie we shouldn't watch.

Whoops, did my sarcasm just escape? I suppose I should apologize, but I just can't because in essence I really don't agree with telling anyone what not to read or watch. People are capable of making their own decisions.

Also, when it comes to children, parents can take this as a teaching experience. Talk to the children about the book and movies, but for heaven sakes don't tell them they can't see it! That will only cause them to see it behind the parent's back, and then the parent would have lost a wonderful teaching opportunity. Take the kid to see the movie, talk about the movie, and approach it through the lens of faith. Ask the child what they thought and what they like and didn't like. Turn it into a game or something.

That's what people should be doing. They shouldn't be trying to censor this. Like Enj, I am completely and utterly against any type of book/movie censorship. People have their own brains. They can think for themselves, and children need to be taught that they also can think for themselves, and the best way to do it is through the help of their parents, who take them to controversal movies and discuss it with them. By honoring the fact their kids have minds of their own and can generate their own thoughts, they help build a child's self esteem and help the child learn ways to think for themselves and how to discern reality from fiction.

As for the series itself. He did create an intricate fantasy world, but I must admit that his last book didn't have the same quality and rich characters that the first too had. It seemed more flat and the characters not as rich, like their life was being sucked out of them. I was really disappointed, but then that no doubt was my view on it. Others may not see it the same way I did. Also, it never once occurred to me that the Magisterium had anything at all to do with the Catholic Church or any other Christian Church for that matter. I just saw it as a government that wanted to control every aspect of human life, and that Lyra and the other characters fought against that. If Phillip Pullman was trying to create it to be some sort of Christian Church, then he failed horribly because it was so far from any sort of Christian Truth and Reality that it was nearly impossible to see any link between the two. In fact, I wouldn't have known he attempted that until I read his own quotes.

Though I wonder sometimes, if people misquote him, and he's not the militant atheist out to destroy religion after all, because quotes like the one gaara_eyes pointed out exist to counteract the negative ones.

I just think this is not a black and white issue, nor do I see a reason to have such a huge fuss over it. Once again, I agree with Enj on thisl: if one loses one's faith over a silly fantasy book, then they obviously didn't really believe to begin with.

One more thing I wish to stress: Books should never be censored on a wide scale. If you want to censor a book for just yourself and no one else, fine ~ it's your life and your decision. But don't do it for other people.

*end of rant*

I love you.

And, just because something that has come up is that these books are aimed specifically at children and "destroying their faith," I asked my step-son (age 11) if he thought that this series had an anti-religion message. His interpretation was similar to both mine and Anarya's: that the books were about overthrowing an overly-controlling government, and that they had very little, if anything, to do with religion.

So really, if the author wanted to get people to hate religion by reading these books, he didn't do a very good job.

i go to a catholic school.
us students were told to stay away from that movie. my teacher told us it was anti catholic and in the movie they ''kill God''.
my teacher said lots of things about this movie but mostly not to watch it.

Yes I was just in the catholicanswers forums and read that.

Very sad and interesting. ninja