awake Category: Religion and Philosophy
Ah, can you smell and feel that? Christmas is in the air, the lights are shining, the presents are being wrapped and families are making travel plans to spend time with their loved ones. It's a magical time of year, just don't let anyone in the Catholic League or Focus on the Family hear you say the words "Christmas" and "magical" in the same sentence.
Catholic League president William Donohue is on the prowl again, this time against kids and polar bears in shinny armor. The PG-13 movie "The Golden Compass" will be released this Friday, December 7th nationwide. The movie is aimed at parents and their kids and is going to be one of the highest grossing "family fantasy" films of the season. With a star studded cast in Nicole Kidman and 007 Daniel Craig and totally awesome special effects, what's stopping you from buying your ticket now?
What's all the hubbub bub? Well, some Christian conservatives believe that this movie is an open ended and full out assault on organized religion. Focus on the Family's "Dr." James Dobson and Donohue are sounding the call and leading the charge against the film, which is adapted from novelist Phillip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark Materials." I'm going to plant the seed now, Pullman is public in his atheism.
The basic issue with the plot is that the "evil" and "mysterious" force in the movie is an evil and mysterious cult-like group referred to as the "Magisterium" which is a diluted version (at least in adaptation form) of the Catholic Church. The group has gone horribly awry from their roots and wields a hunger and lust for power that would make Montgomery Burns himself blush.
Just a little Catholic trivia for those not in the know, but Magisterium is also a term used in the Church itself and refers to the teaching authority of the Church. You can start to see why some conservatives are clearly upset by this fact and by the movie.
The reason they are upset is because this point is no coincidence. Pullman intended the books to be anti-organized religion. He is reportedly upset that the themes of secularism are watered down in the movie because New Line Cinema studio executives thoughtfully came up with the idea that an anti-religious move wouldn't be commercially viable for families this close to Christmas. As if most people even remember what Christmas is really about anyway. A gaggle of conservatives are worried that the movie will be a gateway to reading the books (oh my!) the movie is based on, turning sweet, innocent children into Godless creatures of the night who will stop at nothing at bringing down the Catholic Church and organized religion as we know it.
My issue with all of this commotion? The continued dismantling of the family. Whether your family is a single parent home, gay or lesbian couple with adopted kids or good ol' fashioned straight parents, people like Dobson and Donahue want to make your decisions for you. They don't want you to research the movie to see if it is fit for your children and in line with what you preach, or don't, in your own home. They want to make you "safe" from the thoughts and opinions and stories of others and mold their idea of what is good and right into your psyche.
I'm fairly sure that children seeing this movie won't be worshiping any God of the Golden Compass afterwards. If anything, and by the sounds of it, the movie will only teach them to question what they are told and taught, which should be normal. Sadly our society that is becoming increasingly saturated with social conservatives would want you to believe otherwise and would rather impose their will on you than let you be the decider.
Personally, I want my children to question and ask questions when I make a decision that will affect their lives. This way they have a certain level of understanding as to why or why not they are allowed to do certain things. It's exactly how I was raised and I think I turned out okay.
Do you know which religious group didn't have an issue or decide to take up a cause against the movie? Are you ready for this? The Catholic League of Bishops. That's right, the people who are actually paid servants of the Catholic Church thought the movie was positive because the characters in the movie demonstrated "free will" for their resistance to the Magisterium and went further by saying that this quality is a reflection of Catholic principles and is "entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching." What? Really? Shouldn't it be as easy as Dobson and Donahue seeking the advice of the very people they should be taking their moral and religious cues from? Not so fast my friend, they instead wish to challenge them.
When it gets down to it, this is the biggest issue I have. Uber-parishioners. Uber comes from Germanic tongues and is a cognate of both Latin (Super) and Greek (hyper) words. If individuals in an army are soldiers and normal citizens civilians, than individuals in the Catholic Church (priests, nuns, monks, bishops, etc) are to soldiers as normal citizens are to parishioners.
My experiences with parishioners are mostly negative. They believe that they have special say over religious matters and that they are, in fact, bearers and holders of the keys to the kingdom. Let me give you an example.
This past September my wife and I were enrolled in an "Engaged Encounter Weekend" because we, both being Catholic, decided we wanted to be married in a Catholic church. At the meeting the leaders and hosts were two married couples and one priest. The married couples passed judgement on everything from birth control to living together before being married. The priest, who was quite humorous and down to Earth, admitted to accepting his best friend's admission of being a homosexual and also admitted to being a recovering alcoholic. Very human.
The couples or, uber-parishioners, took the holier than thou route and told us the only way to a happy marriage was by doing what they did. The priest said the best way to a good and happy marriage was through God, personal faith (not collective faith) and communication. Now, usually you take the advice of the person with the most experience. However, I was less inclined to listen to what the married couples had to say. The priest in this situation, or most, I'm sure has given council to many married couples over his 45+ years of priesthood. The couples had only their experiences to draw from.
My point is that sometimes we listen a little too much to the people with the biggest microphone or the loudest voice. Or even those that outnumber minorities. We should be listening to the people who have devoted their lives to God or a god, if that's what you believe in. If not, then that is fine too. It's not up to me to judge you, because if there is a God, that's his job. I have enough to worry about.
I'm Catholic. I admit it, not practicing, but I am. I believe in God, but not necessarily everything that has passed from the dawn of time until now on the subject. No, I don't believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old. I figured that out in second grade during my fascination with dinosaurs. I believe in science, even (gasp!) evolution. If you aren't Catholic and/or you don't believe in God, that's fine too. If I had kids old enough to see this movie, they would also be old enough to understand that this movie and the series of books is just plain fantasy.
If my kids grow to believe that the Bible is in the same fictional reality as these books, that's fine too. All I'll be able to do, and all any parent can do, is raise their children the best they know how. They don't need the "Dr." James Dobson's and Billy Donahue's of the world telling them what to do. Excuse me, public religious uber-parishioners, fuck off, raising my hypothetical kids is my fucking business, not yours. So keep your maladjusted thoughts and theories to yourself.
From pre-marriage counseling to movies, people that believe in God a little too much turn weak minded people in dangerous people. They turn them into murdering terrorists who shoot up abortion clinics or they turn them into the next Bill Donahue.
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