Posted by Helen on: 12.10.2007 /
I’m also posting this on Friendly Christian today
I went to see the movie The Golden Compass yesterday. The movie version doesn’t incorporate all the plot complexity and subtlety of the book but I enjoyed it nevertheless. The effects were well done and Lyra was perfect - smart, brave, loyal, kind and feisty!
The rest of my comments are about the trilogy His Dark Materials which begins with The Golden Compass. It’s hard to comment on just one book (or movie) since I’ve read the whole trilogy. (But I won’t include spoilers)
Reading His Dark Materials (in 2002) was a powerful experience for me. I found myself very caught up in the story and characters and didn’t want it to end when it did.
More than that, it did the very thing some Christians fear; it drove a deeper wedge between me and conservative Christianity.
Not because Pullman’s church is viciously evil and his witches are good - although they are. Rather, because his story resonated with me more deeply than conservative Christianity did any more.
In conservative Christianity the point is to pledge allegiance to the right side. That’s enough to save you for eternity. And hopefully you’ll behave in ways that reflect which side you’re on. It’s never really clear how much your actions matter, since God will ultimately triumph, period. Except that whether other people are saved for eternity may depend to some extent on your efforts to convince them to join your side. So that inevitably should become your first priority.
By 2002 I was pulling away from this belief system. I wanted to be deeply connected to this life and everything good it has to offer. My life seemed more messy and complicated than the black and white absolutes of conservative Christian belief. The hard lines it drew didn’t seem compatible with grace even though it claimed to be all about grace.
Pullman’s story is very affirming of this life and the beauty of this world. And I agree with him that the greatest threat to this world is people who have power over others, who are so dogmatically certain they‘re right that they could be going completely in the wrong direction and never notice.
Conservative Christianity tends to condone people having power over people and using it as long as they are ‘on God’s side’. As Brian McLaren helpfully points out in Everything Must Change, that’s a major misinterpretation of how Jesus envisioned the Kingdom of God. It’s how the Roman Empire and the Pharisaical religious system (according to Jesus, according to the Bible) operated. Jesus came to subvert that type of system, not to uphold it. He proposed a better way, based on serving, not on being served.
What if, instead of boycotting Pullman’s books and movie or being defensive about them, those Christians were to read them and ask themselves “Is Pullman right about anything? Has he identified anything about the church that is evil? Is he upholding any values which we as Christians also uphold?”
For me the answers to all of these are definitely ‘yes’. There is much love and redemption (and sacrifice) in Pullman’s trilogy. If that was the point of the Christian story, I don’t think Christians would have anything significant to complain about in Pullman’s trilogy. Why isn’t it?
Comment by: Steve S.
1 12/10/07 7:52 AM | Comment Link |you really go to far here Helen…
;)
Comment by: Helen
2 12/10/07 7:53 AM | Comment Link |Steve - I’m sure it’s not the first time :)
Comment by: Pam Hogeweide
3 12/10/07 10:11 AM | Comment Link |I expect I’ll be receiving an email campaign soon from outraged Christians warning me to boycott the film. I received two last month in anticipation of the film’s release.
It wasn’t that long ago that I would have been the one sending out the email…
But somehow, in my mellowed-out forties, I’ve become more willing to be challenged and critiqued by opposing beliefs and values, and to even find harmony in other points of view. And I am teaching this to my kids. I think this might be called “critical thinking skills.”
I have decided that if it only takes a book to sway my children away from faith then they were already swaying….the trilogy would not have had an impact on you Helen the way it did if you were not already in the grip of a faith crisis. And I don’t view your journey as an abandonment of faith in a benevolent God, but a rejection of pious, stifling religiosity. Correct me if I’m mistaken…
My 10-year old philosophical son who thinks creatively and divergently is unwilling to see Golden Compass. When he heard it had some anti-God parts his reaction was, “I don’t want to support that kind of movie by going to it.” I’d love some enlightening advice to help persuade my son to come. I would love to see the film with him and then talk about it. He is a deep thinker and processes things in an unusually sophisticated way. What would you say to him, Helen, about the film being anti-God and why should a God lover pay money to see it?
Comment by: Helen
4 12/10/07 8:55 PM | Comment Link |Pam, I don’t actively have faith in God at present - but part of the reason is because I came to think a good compassionate God wouldn’t have any problem with atheists who are doing their best to make the world a better place. So it doesn’t matter whether I have ‘faith in God’ or not.
Regarding your son: first you could tell him the person acting one of the key roles in the movie (Nicole Kidman) felt the same way as him! She refused to act in it unless they took out anything anti-God - so they did.
Then you could say you would really love to go to the movie with him so you could discuss it together.
You could say, yes, in a way, paying to see the movie is ’supporting’ it, but if what people do is discuss good and evil afterwards, the movie could be a good thing not a bad one. It’s not really hurting God if a movie leads to helpful conversations - even if the author of the book the movie is based on doesn’t believe in God himself.
That’s along the lines of what I’d try…
Comment by: Pete S.
5 12/11/07 10:29 PM | Comment Link |I started reading the book once. It felt dreary. I got about 1/3 of the way and put it down. I found out later that it was written by an atheist: ardent, actually. His trilogy, set within an alternative/parallel type universe has the Church as evil, and has God as a dying God who eventually “vaporizes”. Well, that is not what I know of God. I’m not inclined to finish the book. It felt “dark”, actually, to me. Hopeless, although I’m sure Lyra finds her own sort of existential hope within….
I doubt I’ll see the movie.
Comment by: David H
6 12/11/07 11:29 PM | Comment Link |Unfortunately, when history is examine, many would contend that a universe in which the church is evil is alternative or parallel. It is our own. I am inclined to see the movie and maybe read the books simply for a viewpoint that is not my own. Because while my experience of God isn’t one in which he is dying, I can fully understand the opinion of those who wish he would turn his attention elsewhere based on their experience of his followers.
Comment by: Helen
7 12/12/07 5:09 AM | Comment Link |Pete, I wouldn’t push you to read a book (or go see a movie) you find discouraging.
It’s complicated to explain the part about God without getting into the plot.
I finished the book thinking, this is the sort of book I want my children to read because it has the very good message in it “Don’t worship anyone, no matter who they say they are, or how good they are, if their behavior is evil. Oppose evil with all that is in you, no matter what the source.”
I think that message is much more likely to make the world a better place than “Believe me when I say I know God and this is who God is”. Which seems to be the conservative Christian approach to teaching children.
I think Pullman teaches a valuable lesson in story form: that wolves can certainly hide in sheep’s clothing. Jesus warned about this and ironically I think Pullman understands what Jesus was warning about much better than a lot of Christians, because Pullman depicts evil by deeds - as Jesus did. If Jesus ever used the word unbeliever it was tied to behavior, not just what the person said they did or didn’t believe. I think we need new language for our age - but anyway, I’m far from convinced Jesus would be boycotting this movie since it encourages the kind of discernment I think he wanted people to have.
But I still wouldn’t push you to read it if it was doing nothing good for you.
Comment by: Helen
8 12/12/07 5:17 AM | Comment Link |David, the dying God who vaporizes is an ‘impostor’. Pullman’s universe is full of people who do good - what it doesn’t have is a Benevolent All-Powerful Person they are serving when they do good. Instead they are serving each other by saving the universe they all share from being destroyed by people who are only interested in power and controlling others.
Like I’ve found in real life - most people in the trilogy are a mixture of good and bad impulses. They are not totally consumed by their desire for power (or whatever). Some of them learn and grow and change along the way as events unfold and they realize that there’s something more important at stake than their own personal issues.
For what it’s worth, I think this parallels the need of (rich) people today to get beyond their own personal issues and take responsibility for helping to save rather than destroy our planet.
Comment by: Helen
9 12/14/07 5:05 AM | Comment Link |This is an example of how ridiculously wrong some of the Christian objections to the movie are: I just read this in a review by Ted Baehr:
How could he have missed that Lyra put herself in danger to rescue her friend Roger? Lyra is one of the most unselfish people in this movie.