The 'Golden Compass' points to controversy

Mr. Donohue is urging parents to read a booklet published by the Catholic League titled "The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked," saying that its readers "will be armed with all the ammo they need to convince friends and family members that there is nothing innocent about Pullman's agenda."

Mr. Pullman, in his online interview with Ms. Freitas, said parents "should read the book and trust the book and trust your children. If you brought them up decent, open-minded, wise, and clear-sighted, you don't need to worry about them turning into little monsters or little atheists or anything."

I find Mr. Donohue and the Catholic League's actions very amusing. "Armed with all the ammo they need" indeed. Why must the League seek to tear down His Dark Materials the way they do, and why now? After all, Northern Lights, now known in its US publication and in the movie as The Golden Compass, has been on the market since 1995.

Excuse me as I answer my own question.

Now, with the spotlight on the book in its movie form, a closer examination of the book fully illustrates Pullman's opinion on the Catholic League itself, considering that...

the main villain happens to work for a branch of the book's anti-heresy Church, working to tear down anything that goes against the Church...even as she produces inhumane experiments on souls.

Sound familiar? And that's only the first book.

I personally find nothing wrong with Pullman's questioning of religion, but it is apparent that others, like the villainous organizations in the books themselves, clearly do.

For the fully story on precisely why Pullman despises the Chronicles of Narnia, as well as a multitude of details on His Dark Materials, one needs only to read "Far From Narnia", an article by the New Yorker which examines Pullman in a far more neutral light two years before the year in which the movie itself is released.