I’ve already posted a warning about the upcoming movie The Golden Compass and the books that it is based on (see “The Atheistic Compass”), but recently Steve Wood (of FamilyLifeCenter.net, dads.org and EWTN’s “The Carpenter Shop” fame) issued an urgent warning for parents regarding the movie and books.

Five years ago, Mr. Wood warned parents that Harry Potter was just a first step in a worldwide attempt to lure children into unspeakable realms of spiritual darkness. On worldwide radio and television he warned that the trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman, would be the next deceptive trap for children.

Now the trilogy’s first volume, The Golden Compass, is coming to the big screen in a $150 million production. Newsweek calls Pullman’s series “absorbing … like Harry Potter.” The tens of millions of children who are addicted to the Potter phenomena will rush to see this latest hit movie. Deceptively, the movie has removed Pullman’s explicit attacks against the Catholic Church — Instead the wicked enemy of children (and human freedom) is only referred to as the “Magisterium.” This veiling of Pullman’s hatred of Catholicism will permit the movie to rake in millions by not arousing too much religious opposition. Of course, after seeing the movie, the children in the thirty countries in which it is released will rush out to buy and digest Pullman’s God-hating and Catholic-bashing books.

You might be wondering what exactly it is that is so abhorrent and detestable about the Catholic Church in Pullman’s novels. Well, it’s that the Catholic Church is engaged in a conspiracy to separate children from their personal demons.

You didn’t misread that last sentence. There’s already a website where children are asked 20 questions about themselves and then given the name of their personal demon.

Pullman’s work is about to bring millions of children into contact with the demonic. By volume three of the trilogy children are invited to join in a diabolical revolt against God, bishops, and priests. His Dark Materials is a brilliant, alluring, and convincing inversion of good and evil.

In the dads.org newsletter for December 2007 (volume 13, issue 6), Mr. Woods lists a sample of the objectionable content that kids will encounter in the books:

• Demons are a child’s best friend and companion. Each demon is in the form of an animal. They’re like talking pets. A child and his demon are like an invincible team.
• Children can go to the movie website, answer 20 questions, and get a name for their personal demon.
• Pullman tells children that the “Authority” [God] is really not the creator, but that he just assumed authority of the universe (the fallen angels rebelled because of this usurpation of authority).
• Children are invited to join the new Republic of Heaven where there are “no kings, no bishops, [and] no priests.”
• In the third volume, children learn that there isn’t a heaven or hell, just a dismal zombie-like wasteland plagued by the greatest unhappiness for all the dead.
• The Catholic Church, portrayed as the despicable enemy of children, seeks to “dehumanize” children by separating them from their personal demons.
• A charming 12-year-old girl is the heroine of the movie. With the help of her personal demon, she’s on a quest to kill God and vanquish the Catholic Church for the benefit of all humanity.
• At the end of Pullman’s third volume, God is revealed as a pathetic, decrepit being. After God is let out of his cell, he gets vaporized into nothingness. That’s it for God in the chapter entitled “Authority’s End.”
• The Pope is called Pope John Calvin and the Vatican is moved to Geneva to reflect Calvin’s heavy-handed religious rule over that city.
• Catholic priests kidnap children and one priest is an assassin.
• Philip Pullman seems to take particular aim with his poisoned pen at nuns. On my CD, His Dark Materials: An Urgent Warning for Parents, I describe in detail how Pullman has a nun breaking her vows, cohabiting, and much more.

On a related note, Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, wrote the following letter to book publishing giant Scholastic, which is co-producing The Golden Compass:

As someone who spent 20 years in education, I am aware of Scholastic’s stellar reputation. This is all the more reason why I am profoundly disturbed by Scholastic’s role in co-producing “The Golden Compass.” It is not the movie, per se, that is the problem, it is the book — and the other volumes that comprise His Dark Materials — that is the issue.

The author of these books, Philip Pullman, does not disguise his hatred of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church. Why, then, would Scholastic be associated with such bigotry? As pointed out in our booklet on “The Golden Compass,” producing such a movie would seem to violate Scholastic’s own Credo, one part of which says, “To help build a society free of prejudice and hate, and dedicated to the highest quality of life in community and nation.” Moreover, Scholastic professes a belief in “High moral and spiritual values,” something which surely sounds odd given the Pullman connection.

Christians need to be convinced that Scholastic will never again work with militant atheists who have an animus against their religion. Catholics, in particular, want to be certain that purchasing Scholastic materials does not indirectly fund campaigns against them. To this end, we look for Scholastic to pledge that in the event a movie version of Pullman’s other two books, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, is launched, it will have nothing to do with them. This would reassure Christians that the “Golden Compass” venture was an anomaly.

Once again, as Mr. Woods urges,

Do not form a judgment on His Dark Materials based solely on the first movie. Deceptively, the first movie has removed Pullman’s explicit attacks against the Catholic Church. Instead the wicked enemy of children and human freedom is only referred to as the “Magisterium.” This toning down of the first movie will permit the producers to rake in millions while not arousing too much religious opposition. Of course, after seeing the movie, children in countries around the world will rush out to buy and digest Pullman’s God-hating and Catholic-bashing trilogy. … The trilogy, His Dark Materials, is the most seductive and diabolical attack upon God and the Catholic Church that I have ever encountered in books for children. Throughout all three volumes, Pullman is seeking to alienate children from God and the Catholic Church. By volume three, he has children joining the fallen angels in a final demonic attack upon the Kingdom of God. … You might be saying to yourself, “Pullman’s stuff is so over the top that no one will be taken in by it.” I urge parents not to underestimate this skilled and engaging writer. Newsweek calls Pullman’s trilogy “absorbing … like Harry Potter.” Actually, I think Pullman is a much better writer than J.K. Rowling. And that’s why I think he’s even more dangerous. Pullman has won every imaginable literary award, even more awards than Rowling.

Concerned? Write to Scholastic’s Vice President for Corporate Communications and Media Relations, Kyle Good, at kgood@scholastic.com.

See also:

• The atheistic compass
• ‘The Golden Compass’ — the video game
• Zenit interview of Pete Vere and Sandra Miesel, authors of Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children’s Fantasy (Ignatius Press)
• The Catholic League’s response to the movie
• Dads.org discussion of The Golden Compass
• Steve Wood’s His Dark Materials: An Urgent Warning for Parents

A paraphrased excerpt from the November letter by Fr. John Fullerton:

Many still refuse to acknowledge the King of Kings, as they also did during His time on earth. “Ah! If thou hadst known, and in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace, but now they are hidden from thy eyes” (Lk xix:42). If only men would follow our Lord’s words and “seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Lk. xii:31). But in his folly, modern man continues to seek rulers to his own measure and not to God’s. The cry is the same as that of old: “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Lk xix:14) — “We have no king but Caesar” (Jn xix:15).

Because of perversity, modern man desires rulers who personify their pride, ambition and short-sightedness. Many have been persuaded that the state can, by its own resources and without God’s help, bring about that perfection of intellectual, material and moral culture which will procure temporal happiness for its citizens. Thus, they deny Christ any say in such areas as international relations, the drafting of constitutions and laws or systems of public education. Christ may be tolerated in men’s private lives, but He is kept out of their social lives, as citizens, and seen unfit to rule.

The folly of this view is not too difficult to see. One need only look at the current conditions in our own country to see how great the moral degradation is. From vice taught in the public schools, to rampant immorality protected by “laws,” our culture continues to depart further and further from God’s Law.

Christ’s unerring vision, through His Beatific and Infused knowledge, can alone provide the means by which man can realize his good here on earth. His plan alone can order our lives in the best way calculated to procure the welfare of nations while providing happy conditions for all classes of men. He was born a ruler able not only to point out the goal of human life, but also to effectively lead men to it. He has proven this by His power, wisdom and mercy.

Despite this, He is rejected again and again — not because He is a tyrant, but because He cannot be diverted from the pursuit of men’s good. He is rejected, not because He is inhuman, but rather, oddly enough, because He is too perfectly human. He invites man to live, not in part, but in the whole of his life, as a child of God; to regulate all his human activity, whether personal or social, according to this status, made possible through the redeeming grace of His Precious Blood, shed on the cross.

Christ was commissioned by God the Father to reorganize humanity, scattered by Adam’s sin. His grace, communicable to men, was meant to be the bond that welded men together among themselves and with Him into a perfect social unity of a supernatural order. This unity was also to be visibly reflected in the earthly sphere. Thus, heads of states, by submitting their intellects and wills to Him as their sovereign, will be enlightened and moved by His spirit to see the order of things that will promote the state’s temporal welfare.

Society, as well as the individual, must draw from the Sacred Humanity of Christ the light capable of promoting the material, moral and spiritual welfare of the citizens. From His grace, the strength to put His principles into practice is derived. If docile to His authority and teachings, states will find the ways to construct the social and economic framework within which each citizen may freely develop his personality.

But if the state denies God, it forces itself into His place, and slavery will necessarily press heavily upon the citizens. For it is real slavery for man to have his actions declared good or evil by an authority no higher than himself. True freedom comes only from following and serving God and His Law. This denial is simply a repeat of Adam’s revolt, whereby he aimed at making his own reason the law of truth and his own will the rule of good. Inevitably, this denial will lead to further disorder which will have to be met by force, which is the constraining principle in the kingdom of man. On the other hand, in the kingdom of Christ, love is the constraining principle.

Christ will inspire men to use similar weapons as He did, when, with supreme fortitude, He flung His defenseless humanity against the forces holding mankind in captivity. He used no other arms in this conflict than His unflinching courage, perfect truth, uncompromising faithfulness to the true human ideal, undying hatred of hypocrisy and unreality, death-braving devotedness to God and zeal for the well-being of man.

If nations and their rulers would only submit themselves to the merciful and gracious rule of Jesus Christ, the world would have a profound peace. All would live in harmony, free from anxiety and fear, while they assist one another in preparing themselves to be citizens of heaven.

A few months ago, I reviewed the marvelously clever Dangerous Book for Boys. While girls can benefit from this book, too, they would surely prefer the newly published The Daring Book for Girls!

From the book description: “The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to know — and that doesn’t mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it’s female heroes in history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it’s not just a guide to giggling at sleepovers — although that’s included, of course! Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl’s invitation to adventure.” Surely this puts them on par with their brothers…

Between Girls and Boys, only one thing’s for certain:

Daddy’s gonna have a heckuva lot of fun!

In London, the Kensington and Chelsea Council is considering plans to erect a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham at Chelsea Embankment Gardens on the site of the former home of St. Thomas More. When the saint was executed by Henry VIII, his home was given to the King’s chief minister and agent for the destruction of the monasteries and other Catholic properties, Thomas Cromwell, who removed the old statue of Our Lady of Walsingham from its famous Norfolk shrine and publicly burned it on the ground of More’s former residence. He burned other statues, including the Black Madonna of Willesden, one of whose devotees was the King’s own mother, Elizabeth of York. It is hoped that the new statue, which will include a memorial of the ransacked monasteries, will be dedicated on June 22, the feast of St. Thomas More. The executive director of the Kensington and Chelsea Council said that it will “mark both the artistic vandalism and religious intolerance” of that period.

Those dark days were not unique. Another Cromwell, Oliver, along with such as Calvin, Robespierre, Stalin, and Ceauşescu, do not have high places in the history of art and were to Catholicism what the Taliban were to Buddhism. Our generation has passed through another wave of iconoclasm from which the Church is just starting to recover. This iconoclasm, unlike previous movements, was self-inflicted by misguided liturgists and compliant authorities in the name of the Second Vatican Council which, as Pope Benedict has reminded us, never intended such demolition. Recently, one of the most beautiful churches in our own archdiocese was saved from such renovation by the happy intervention of our Cardinal, but over the years many other churches were not so fortunate. Most of our own parish’s treasures are preserved, and our beautiful altar rail was never removed. Some years ago I found candlesticks in our basement which had been specially designed for the church. Blackened and in disrepair, they were restored and now shine on the high altar. In adjusted inflation dollars, the six large ones cost $36,000 and the eight smaller ones for the side altars cost $24,000. Four of them have been recovered. The original tabernacle, crafted at a cost of $90,000, was demolished, but in recent years it has been replaced. Some years ago, the baptismal font, of rare marble at a cost of $30,000 was removed to the garden and is beyond repair, but we have been able to restore the baptistery, including long-hidden carved cabinetry, and were blessed to secure a magnificent font from the closed St. Ann’s church, which is even finer than our original.

There seems to be a resurgence of excellent architects and artists, quite of few of whom belong to our own parish. It may be that a “New Springtime” of the Church’s heritage is about to appear, but after a long winter.

You may also be interested in the following related works:

A few people in the forums at Catholic Answers who have read my (and others’, such as Catholic League’s) stance against The Golden Compass didn’t react very favorably. A usual reply: “Come on, it’s just a novel!” or “You’re over-reacting. Kids are smarter than that! They’re not idiots!” or “Reading Harry Potter isn’t going to turn them into witches!” In response, let me explain.

Kids are not idiots. I never said that they were.

But shielding them from secular humanism and militant atheism is really no different from shielding kids from drugs or sex or violence in the media. Obviously most kids are smart enough to know that drugs are bad and that violence is bad and that they shouldn’t have premarital sex. But allowing them to be exposed to movies with gratuitous debauchery can numb their senses and blunt their better instincts.

Look, reading Harry Potter is not going to make children into witches. Nor is seeing The Golden Compass or playing the video game going to make kids pray to demons. But, that said, each is yet another thing that builds upon the other bad influences to which they are exposed by this Culture of Death.

Gradually, then, it may build to the point where the balance is tipped, and the ‘natural morality’ of secular humanism becomes more attractive than the ’supernatural morality’ of the Faith. Choosing one’s own way — picking what to believe — is preferable to the duty-laden and difficult way of the Church. So they start to feel that they can be ‘deep’ and ’spiritual’ without going to Mass. They may believe that there is no need for Confession because sin doesn’t really matter; it’s just good or bad choices in life. They don’t need to pray because there isn’t someONE to pray to, just a general sense of spiritual awareness to become attuned to.

This is how the devil works — not usually by possession or converting people to satanists or occultists or sadists, but by gradually increasing the distance between someone and God.

Remember The Screwtape Letters? Also a work of fiction, but incredibly insightful. Makes you think…

Lex orandi, lex credendi. If you take aware the prayer; take away the turning toward God; then the person starts to believe that he has the power, within himself, to run his own life. And that’s the fatal mistake that can doom him to Hell.

Anyway, this is what the anxiety over these secularist (let alone militant atheist) works is all about. We’re not worried that our kids will start wearing witching hats or shouting spells or what have you. We’re worried that they will fall further from the Faith.

Militant atheistic work His Dark Materials — upon which the upcoming movie The Golden Compass is based — will also be adapted into a fantasy video game. Unfortunately for us, it looks great: a good aventure theme, lots of action and intrigue, eye-catching graphics and a pleasant instrumental musical score. Take a look:

and a listen:

Even if the game (like the movie) has stripped the story of its atheistic doctrine, children are likely to be seduced by it and attracted to the books. Don’t think so? Consider this quote, from the video-game composer Jaimie Christopherson:

Just a week before signing on to do the music for the game, I came across the trailer for The Golden Compass film. When I saw that trailer, I was thinking to myself the movie looked so cool that I wished I could do a score for a fantasy adventure project like that. I guess the universe listened, and I was instantly thrown into that world. … After doing a bit of research online I discovered that the film and game were based on a book series titled “His Dark Materials” that has quickly gained a pretty big fan base all over the world. I went out and bought the book right away.

Unless you want your kids to start turning to “the universe” and grow increasingly distant from God and the Faith, boycott the movie, the video game — and above all, the book series!

See also:

• A warning for parents
• The atheistic compass
• Zenit interview of the authors of Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children’s Fantasy
• The Catholic League’s response to the movie
• Steve Wood’s His Dark Materials: An Urgent Warning for Parents

The Harry Potter series has received a lot of heat for several reasons, most notable (and important) of which is the absence of God and its potential to lead young readers astray. In 2003, Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger) issued a public statement expressing his extreme concern and opposition to the books. At that time, German author Gabriele Kuby wrote a book entitled Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which she stated, “the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.” Our Holy Father thanked Kuby for her “instructive” book and said, “It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.”

More recently, the controversy surrounding Harry Potter — just following the release of the final installment in the seven-volume series — is not about witchcraft, but about something more “mainstream”: homosexuality.

As reported by the BBC,

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is gay. She made her revelation to a packed house in New York’s Carnegie Hall on Friday, as part of her US book tour. She took audience questions and was asked if Dumbledore found “true love”.

“Dumbledore is gay,” she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who[sic] he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.

The audience gasped, then applauded.

“I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy,” she said.

Of course, gay-lifestyle advocates were ecstatic with the news:

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed the news about Dumbledore and said: “It’s good that children’s literature includes the reality of gay people, since we exist in every society. But I am disappointed that she did not make Dumbledore’s sexuality explicit in the Harry Potter book. Making it obvious would have sent a much more powerful message of understanding and acceptance.”

And a spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall added: “It’s great that JK has said this. It shows that there’s no limit to what gay and lesbian people can do, even being a wizard headmaster.”

Rowling herself said she regarded her novels as a “prolonged argument for tolerance” and urged her fans to “question authority”.

Truth be told, even if Rowling thought of Dumbeldore as gay when she conceived him in her imagination, she didn’t make it very obvious in the Harry Potter books. I’ve read a number of them, and it never crossed my mind once. (What did cross my mind was that while the author was entertainingly imaginative, her books were far from world-class literature — especially the last one, which is verbose and poorly written.) Nevertheless, Rowling’s recent admission at a book signing that Dumbeldore was gay has sparked serious debate worldwide.

Consider the following MSNBC interview:

Notice the caustic remarks from the program’s anchor, Dan Abrams. For example, in response to the guest’s concern that adolescent, sexually confused boys may see Dumbeldore as an authority figure and may be led to experimentation, Abrams says, “Well, at least they won’t have to have abortions, right?” (Obvious which team he is batting for, to put it plainly.)

As I mentioned above, Dumbledore’s homosexuality is not explicit in the work, and I doubt that this will have any effect whatsoever on the children who read the books. (And in my opinion, the books are unlikely to seduce children into a cult of witchcraft either — The books are just not that well written!) All this amounts to is the inclusion of a gay character in a work by a secular author.

What I fear, however, is that advocates of homosexuality, with ulterior motives and hidden agendas, will successfully lobby for the homosexualization of the Dumbeldore character in the remaining movies — and that this will set a precedent for “political correctness” in — and the subversion and corruption of — children’s literature.

Moreover, what I’ve noted is an obvious transition from a formerly passive secularism (that wanted nothing to do with God) to a militant atheism that has declared war on God and aims to bring down the Faith. I commented previously on the imminent release of The Golden Compass, the film adaptation of Northern Lights (of the His Dark Materials trilogy) by “secular humanist” Phillip Pullman. With the His Dark Materials trilogy, Pullman aims to “kill God in the minds of children.”

The Culture War has long since been declared. But what are the prospects for the Church Militant? The duty of every Catholic “soldier of Christ” is to fight the atheistic and secularist agenda. This requires exercising economic sanctions in the bookstore and at the box office, boycotting heretical works and discouraging publishers and production companies from sponsoring such works in the future. And this also requires action on the preventive front: If children are not to be seduced by secularist mumbo-jumbo, then they must have decent alternatives. New works with the Christian message must be written; older classics must be revitalized and publicized, adapted for the Big Screen and for the interactive Cyberspace experience. Lord of the Rings and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe were such successes… but we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We must continue to pressure for the release of good works.