i want to make this absolutely clear that my posting of this is not
taking a stance of supporting this movie, and heralding it as a good
thing, but rather...the exact opposite. what i have posted, which
follows below, are articles from sites that are promoting this movie
and the accompanying materials that are being distributed to our public
schools.
please be aware that i am not for this, but reposting it so
as to raise awareness as to how this movie and the trilogy it is taken
from is being promoted.
i've already received some very negative
feedback from some of you, that think i'm pushing this as a good
thing...not getting defensive here, just letting you know that what
follows is a repost...not my words (beyond my name)...so, before you
start tossing scriptures my direction, please realize that i'm doing
this as a "concern for the kids"...i appreciate your comments, but
please make sure you are aware of the fact that i'm not in support of
this movie/book/author.
thanks and have a great day...
God bless,
d

Welcome
Teachers! We hope you enjoy this language arts program featuring The
Golden Compapples, the soon-to-be-released film based on the
multi-award-winning novel by Philip Pullman. You’ll find turnkey,
skill-building materials on symbolism and characterization that help
students understand the relevance of literary themes in their lives.
The lessons and activities, while connected to the book and film, can
be taught independently to supplement any language arts curriculum.
There’s also an amazing student sweepstakes: Grades 8-12 students can
enter for a chance to win a Hometown Movie Screening or one of 500+
other prizes!

OBJECTIVE

1. By studying provided
examples, as well as studying their own personal choices, students come
to understand that a symbol is a representation of a bigger idea or
"truth."
2. Students study character traits and use critical-thinking skills to build their understanding of characterization.
On
November 2, 2007, Philip Pullman appeared on the Today Show to talk
about his book The Golden Compapples and answer questions. He responds to
the claim that his books are anti-Catholic, and appleserts that he is not
promoting atheism in The Golden Compapples. Read his responses.

Literary
debate and analysis of the meaning of Pullman's books has gone on in
schools and colleges worldwide since The Golden Compapples was first
published more than ten years ago. Take, for example, this comment from
Father P.S. Naumann, S.J., a lifelong educator from upstate New York
who wrote, "Teaching English for thirty odd years in a Jesuit high
school, I kept looking for a contemporary novel that could, would, and
should provoke questions and discussions. Philip Pullman's book is an
eye-opener and window-opener that can bring kids, parents, and teachers
together to talk. The windows in our own minds, and in our own Church,
open onto a secular society and a multi-cultural world, as Pope John
XXIII knew. How to deal with that? Sooner or later students will open
windows for themselves; it's part of growing up. If they don't ask any
questions in the process, we may have lost our opportunity. The Golden
Compapples will help in that direction, and if the book brings kids and
parents together to discuss important ideas, think of the good it is
doing."

The Golden Compapples is the first book in Pullman's
critically acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials. It
describes the otherworldly adventures of Lyra and her companions. The
Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglapples complete the trilogy.

Lyra
Belacqua's carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College
is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her
fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and
danger in the far North, including photographs of a city suspended in
the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe.
He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and
explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long
refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it
seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her
kidnapped friend, Roger. All around her children are
disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects
in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons,
creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both
Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

The Golden Compapples
was originally published as Northern Lights in 1995 when it won the
Carnegie Medal for childrenÂ?s fiction published in Britain that year.
In 2007, it was named the "Carnegie of Carnegies," voted by readers the
best Carnegie winner of the last 70 years.

Dubbed by many as the
"next Lord of the Rings," The Golden Compapples will hit the big screen on
December 7, 2007, and has already been heralded by Time Magazine and
Entertainment Weekly as one of the next big movie events. The film is
set in an alternative world where peopleÂ?s souls manifest themselves
as animals, and where armoured polar bears fight over a throne and
beautiful but deadly witches must choose sides in a coming war.
Starring Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and newcomer Dakota Blue Richards
as Lyra, it promises lots of action and special effects to bring the
world of His Dark Materials stunningly to life.
An Emboldened 'Compapples'
By Tom Gilson
11/16/2007

Anti-God, Anti-Church at School

Last
week, a local school counselor loaned us material from the Scholastic
publishing company, promoting curriculum resources based on the
upcoming movie and the already-published book, The Golden Compapples. The
materials were impressive—a gorgeously designed 31-by-21-inch poster of
the movie, including an invitation for students to take part in an
“Amazing Student Sweepstakes,” and on the back of it, a set of
curriculum resources based on the book—all at completely no charge to
schools or teachers. (The poster and teaching materials are on
Scholastic’s website.)

If it seems somewhat unusual for a
curriculum company to be promoting a movie, that’s not the strangest
thing about it. The Golden Compapples is the first book in Phillip
Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. And what are these “dark
materials”? Readers can get a very quick overview of the series through
the (quite accurate) plot summaries at SparkNotes online.

There,
for example, we learn about “intercision,” a plot feature of the The
Golden Compapples. What is this “intercision?” The answer really can’t be
quoted on this page. You may go to SparkNotes to find out, but be sure
no young children are looking over your shoulder. (Note that SparkNotes
draws its interpretation on that point from the second book as well as
the first.) Yet Scholastic wants schools to teach this material to our
children.

And they surely don’t want them to stop at the first
book. The second book is entitled The Subtle Knife. That happens to be
the name of the one weapon that can kill God. The third book tells us
that God is relieved to be killed. He’s a rather pathetic character,
tired of all the responsibility, “half-crazed with age and infirmity,”
in SparkNotes’ words. He had been rather mixed up about things all
along, though. The Satan figure in the trilogy was the one who brought
freedom to humans. God—and the dominating, violent, fearful
church—fought against this freedom. Pullman cheers for their downfall.
He has said so not only in his fiction, but also in interviews. The
books, he says, are “about killing God.”

Pullman’s God is
fictional, and we must hasten to note that the actual God is not
concerned about death threats that might be made against Him. The real
concern is for students who will have this dark material forced on them
in schools.

Scholastic is by far the top source of reading
materials for American schools. What they market, schools buy. One
might wonder what they stand to gain from giving these expensive
materials away.

Well, it's not really all that hard to figure
out. The poster says the materials are “generously sponsored by New
Line Cinema.” Generous, indeed, that they would co-opt an educational
company to advertise their film for them? But it’s not entirely a
co-optation—for Scholastic co-produced the film. It’s all bound to sell
a lot of books, of course, and Scholastic will gladly handle that
transaction for your child, too. Does this seem like a company that has
students' and schools' best interests at heart?

There is word on
the Web that the anti-God theme has been toned down for the movie; and
that theme is expressed much more strongly in the second and third
books than the first, anyway. So is there any reason to make a fuss
over this first book, and the movie? Yes, because the first book in a
trilogy, if it is at all interesting, is (among other things) the
strongest possible advertisement for the second and third. It’s
impossible to promote only the first. Who could stop reading The Lord
of the Rings just when the Fellowship separated, at the close of the
first book?

Moreover, the anti-Church, anti-Biblical elements of
even the first book are plenty strong. The Church is presented as
highly controlling and evil; and this is not some other-world, purely
fantastical church with no connection to our own world. In Chapter 16
we learn of its “Vatican Council.” In Chapter 19 a character speaks of
being “baptized as a Christian” in Geneva. Chapter 2 tells us the last
Pope in this world was John Calvin, which in another context would be
knee-slapping hilarious, but here contributes to the strength of the
connection this fictional world has to our real one.

One of the
prominent themes of the book is “Dust,” a mysterious “charged particle”
from the sky. In the closing chapters of the book, the protagonist,
Lyra, finally learns that Dust is “the physical evidence for original
sin”; and Dust is what powers her “alethiometer” (the golden-colored,
compapples-looking device for which the book is named). From the Greek,
alethiometer means “truth-measurer.” It is a device she consults,
through a kind of clairvoyant process, to learn secrets and discover
truths; it never lies or misleads. Dust and the alethiometer—central
symbols in this book—together send the clear message that truth is
measured by the power of original sin. In the closing pages, Lyra
decides that Dust is a good thing after all, and she determines to go
on and defend this original sin against the Church. Thus we are ushered
into the second book.

This is certainly not a message we want
our children to take to heart. Still, we cannot lose sight of the fact
that Pullman is working on our turf when he tells his tale. I'll gladly
stand up our story against his! The story of Christ has drama, it has
strong characters, it has relevance, it has a truly stupendous surprise
ending—in short, all the elements of great story. Best of all, it’s not
fiction. It happened! So we need not respond defensively, or with
anger, or by picketing the movie, or with any of the worldly methods
Paul warned against in 2 Corinthians 10. This is the time—especially
since the movie is coming out at Christmastime—for us to tell the true
story of Jesus Christ, in love and with a positive tone.

Yet
there is a limit, and Christian parents ought to stand guard on behalf
of the next generation. The Golden Compapples—book or movie—does not
belong in our schools.

Tom Gilson is director of strategic
processes in the Operational Advisory Services team for Campus Crusade
for Christ. He maintains a blog at www.thinkingchristian.net..

For Further Reading and Information

Tom Gilson's Discussion on The Golden Compapples, Thinking Christian.

Tom
Gilson, “Coming Soon To Your Child's School: Hostility Toward God and
Church, Heavily Promoted,” Thinking Christian, 30 October 2007.

“Philip Pullman's The Golden Compapples,” Scholastic, 2 November 2007.

Gina Dalfonzo, “The Impoverished Imagination,” BreakPoint WorldView, March 2004.

Gina Dalfonzo, “Tone Matters,” The Point, 2 November 2007.

Gina Dalfonzo, “’Pied Piper of Atheism’,” The Point, 15 November 2007.

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