Be The Fruit

The Golden Compass

by Bill Blair on 09/12/07 at 3:53 pm

So what should Christian parents like myself do about this one?

If you don’t know, The Golden Compass is a new children’s movie that just came out based on a book by Phillip Pullman by the same name.  By all accounts, Pullman is a “devout” atheist dead set attacking anything Christian, apparently writing this book, and others in the same series, as sort of an anti-Narnia collection.  Where C. S. Lewis wrote the Narnia stories as a way to lead people to Christianity, Pullman wrote his collection to attack it.  Much has been written and said regarding this, so I won’t reinvent the wheel here.  Dr. Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Seminary, has written a very good piece on the movie that you can read here.

What I would like to ponder is how Christian parents like myself should react to such a movie.  I heard a few minutes ago that the movie was number one this week at the box office, so it is something we will have to deal with.

In the past, boycotts have been called by Christian leaders that have seemed to have very little impact.  In fact, I would venture to say that boycotts may have the opposite effect.  Such boycotts generate free publicity for the movie or book, which drives up the sales and impact for the movie.  So, our boycotts could end up causing more people to see the movie that we did not want anyone to see.  Also, I think there are times where our boycotts only make us look like people who are only interested in spoiling other people’s fun.  We end up looking out of touch and irrelevant.  So if boycotts don’t work then what is the answer?

Instead of staying away, maybe we should engage the issue.  The Bible tells us to always be ready to give a reason for the hope we have. (1 Pet 3:15)  Perhaps we should obey this command and be prepared to give a clear reason for why we oppose The Golden Compass, and then give the reasons why we have the hope we have.

Yesterday I had a thought that I may just try.  My thought was that perhaps I should take my oldest daughter Allison to see the movie, then sit down and discuss all of the issues and prepare her to give the reason why the movie is bad along with the hope she has in Christ.  I don’t really like giving money to an atheist propaganda machine so he can put out more anti-Christian material, but I think we may have a much bigger impact than he can have if we take this opportunity to equip our mature children to engage the issue. 

Imagine the impact an equipped child could have in the classroom when asked if they saw the movie.  If we boycott, then our children will have to answer, “I am not allowed to watch that movie.”  If we equip our children they could answer, “Yes, but let me tell you about that movie and those books…”

I don’t really know if this is the best approach either.  I would appreciate some feedback on this issue.  What do you think?  Stay away?  Ignore it?  Equip?

Any thoughts?