Several Toronto-area Catholic school boards in Ontario have removed Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass fantasy novel from library shelves for review following a complaint in the municipality of Halton in late November. The novel and its two companions in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy are receiving heightened scrutiny for their allegedly anti-Catholic content prior to the December 7 U.S. release of The Golden Compass movie starring Nicole Kidman and Donald Craig.
The Catholic school board in Halton set up a 12-member committee to review the books, and Catholic officials in Durham and Peterborough are following suit. The Dufferin-Peel Catholic board has asked its staff to read the first book in the trilogy to see whether it is suitable for children, CBC News reported November 23. The Algonquin and Lakeshore school board is also conducting an informal review, according to the November 28 Kingston (Ont.) Whig-Standard.
Canada’s Catholic Civil Rights League issued a warning November 26 to Catholic parents not to take their children to the movie because of the “strong antireligious content” in the books. In October, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States issued a 26-page pamphlet, The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked, that cites Pullman’s outspoken atheistic views and claims the books were “written to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity” by featuring a “Calvinized version of the Catholic Church” called the “Magisterium.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has urged Mormons to stay away from the movie, according to the November 30 Salt Lake Tribune, but the Presbyterian Church of Scotland came out in support of the film, which premiered in London November 27. The Rev. Andrew Campbell, a church development officer, said in the November 30 Scotsman, “We are asking people to watch the film for themselves and ask questions which are relevant to their own lives, in particular about spirituality.”
Pullman, who along with New Line Cinema is relishing all the publicity, told CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth November 28 that “Religion is at its best when it is furthest away from power.” Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, said the movie is about questioning authority, and “there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that.” Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who plays the villainous Mrs. Coulter in the film, said in the November 30 London Daily Telegraph that critics were far off the mark: “I don’t think it warrants this alarming response. I’m a Catholic and I didn’t feel it was antireligious when I read the screenplay.”
Posted November 30, 2007.