Christian Group Calls for Boycott of "The Golden Compass," Wants to Maintain Its Monopoly on Fiction

The U.S.-based Catholic League has called for a boycott of The Golden Compass, a $180 million motion picture starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, scheduled for a December 7, 2007 release.

The film is based on a novel by Philip Pullman, a noted English atheist. 

The group concedes that "the movie promises to be fairly non-controversial," but urges Christians not to see it, because it might draw people to read His Dark Materials trilogy.

Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is a fantasy story in which a fictional Church and its governing body are linked to cruel experiments on children aimed at discovering the nature of sin, and attempts to suppress facts that would undermine the Church's legitimacy and power.

Which is nothing compared to what the real-world Church has done throughout the ages. The Crusades, the Inquisitions, countless massacres of innocents. It's all in the real-world history books not provided to students in U.S. schools, and which few Americans, and fewer Christians, ever pick up to read.

As for the real-world Church's suppression of facts that would undermine the Church's legitimacy and power, that, too, is well-documented.

The film has apparently been stripped down, devoid of all references to the Church, in an effort to avoid offending all religious movie-goers. Still, the Catholic League is urging all Christians to boycott "The Golden Compass," in a very clear attempt on behalf of Christianity to maintain its monopoly on fiction. In fact, fans of the original novels are disappointed, outraged even, that the story is being watered down for the masses.

On its web site, the Catholic League states that it is Pullman's objective "to bash Christianity and promote atheism. To kids."

The Catholic League fails to mention what a wonderful world we might have thirty years from now, if indeed, that were Pullman's message and it actually came across.