How can anyone comment on a book or movie without having read or seen it?
By sedel1027
@sedel1027 (17846)
Cupertino, California
December 2, 2007 1:26pm CST
I am really annoyed, the stupid Catholic League is up in arms about a movie AGAIN. They make a worse name for the Catholic than anyone else every could. Anyway, they are fighting against the Golden Compass. They have their right to say it is anti-Catholic (Lord forbid we get a UNIQUE view point to our kids!) and it trick parents (isn't that the parents fault for not doing their research?). However, mo0st of the people writing and publishing the comments have not read the book or seen the movie. How can they judge a piece of work that they have not themselves experience? I was going to take my son to this movie anyway, but now I am going to make sure he sees it multiple times.
BTW since the Catholic League put this book & movie on their "bad" list, book sales have tripled!
Here is the article that ran in our local paper (check out the last paragraph on pg 1 and there is a comment about parent just believing the church blindly and agreeing with the boycott on pg 4) :
http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-9/119657753846480.xml&coll=1
6 responses
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
3 Dec 07
How interesting, after reading the article, that you singled out the Catholic Church as the ones that are making the biggest deal about the movie. I've been hearing about it for quite some time from all denominations and from news sources in Britain. It is because the author is an atheist and very anti-Christian as well as anti-Catholic. The main complaint is that the books are anti-God and the author kills off God in the end. I've had emails from the American Family Association, OneMillionMoms.com, and the Catholic League. Here is an article.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/december/12.36.html?gclid=COalr93Xi5ACFQIQFQodMWg2uA
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
4 Dec 07
Esther -
I singled out the Catholic Church because the people making the most noise int he US about this is Catholic League. The main churches in an uproar are the Catholic Churches. IIRC there are no other churches mentioned in this article but the Catholic Church.
I found out a few days after I posted this that the movie has been opposed by other groups. That article was the first I heard of the opposition.
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
4 Dec 07
Pushed submit too soon. Here is another article about this movie.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58987
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
4 Dec 07
The author, Philip Pullman additionally states about his own belief and work:
"… if there is a God, and he is as the Christians describe him, then he deserves to be put down and rebelled against."
"I wanted to reach everyone," he says, "and the best way I could hope to do that was to write for children."
"My books are about killing God."
No surprise that Pullman has been called "the most dangerous author in Britain."
You can read some more of this and about the movie itself, here.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58987
@Withoutwings (6992)
• United States
15 Jan 08
My neice sent me an email about banning the book and movie because that's what her family thinks. She couldn't even tell me why, just that it's bad. It annoys me that at fourteen she doesn't at least try to think for herself... or at least question reasons for things instead of blindly following.
When the Davinci Code was popular we actually had people protesting at our entertainment complex (bars, restuarants, clubs, movies, etc). SOme of them dressed in full papal costumes. I feel that the place they chose to protest was inappropriate (the movie wasn't even playing at the time). I also felt it inappropriate that they were forcing their literature on kids without parental consent. Overall it's ridiculous that they were protesting a work of fiction.
And then we have Harry Potter. The churches were all anti-Harry Potter. The books were going to turn all the kids to black magic, blah blah blah. This past August I was quite surprised. I was on a trip to DC and one of the tour stops was the National Cathedral. I went down to the book store to find a postcard of the building and saw something that made me laugh. You know how they have books out now, like "The Matrix and Philosophy" and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy, etc. They had a book that was Harry Potter and Christianity. It completely embraced Harry Potter and was using it to illustrate good Christian points. I tried to look on Amazon for the name of the book and it was either "The Gospel According to Harry Potter" or "Looking for God in Harry Potter". I find it funny how they discovered they couldn't beat the Harry Potter craze, so use it to their advantage. I wonder what parents like my stepsister did when Rowling anounced Dumbledore was gay. Last time I visited the Harry Potter books were absent from my neices bookshelf.
@wiccania (3360)
• United States
3 Dec 07
I don't get it myself. I mean, it's one thing to hear the whole "this is anti-catholic (or any other religion/religious icon)" and then pick up the book, read it and make a decision for yourself. It's something else completely to say (without having read it) "yeah, it's anti-catholic, we shouldn't watch that!" I bet that half the people who've never read it but speak against it still go and see it after their kids have pestered them enough.
@smwilliams (647)
• United States
29 Dec 07
I know exactly what you are talking about. My mother in law actually sent me a message and a link to a website that was putting the movie and the book down saying this Author was trying to get get children to kill God in their hearts..I was seriously erked about it. They tried the same bull crappy when the Harry Potter series came out and I loved those and so did my girls. It basically stems from the fact that the Catholic Church is pissed that an Athiest is an Author of childrens books. Who cares? If it is well written and kids enjoy it then Im not going to judge him on his religious preferences. If we were to go around judging every book based on who wrote it and not how well its written the only thing we would be able to read is the bible...Well at least the Catholic church wouldnt be able to whine anymore..jk
@warpedfate (68)
• Philippines
29 Dec 07
im a catholic, raised by catholic parents, and don't have anything against God. nothing against the book too. I'm a fan of Philip Pullman and i say Northern Lights (retitled as Golden Compass) is just one of the many books/movies being criticized by the catholic people. I dont see any big deal with the movie/book nor with the criticisms. I have my own view on each and just ignore it. I can read any book, may it be evil, or worshiping the devil yet that doesn't mean that i'll do what the book is trying to convey. I hate to say it but there are just really Shallow-minded people who acts before they think.
well, on the bright side, it can be a publicity too though! look at Da vinci's code, it wasn't being criticized as much before it was shown in the big screen right? Same goes to the Northern Lights, the book has been around for how many years yet they just commented on it upon the release of the movie.
