by Jon McCartney
GUEST COLUMNIST
I don't mind if what you believe is different than what I believe. I also think people should be willing to openly discuss and compare what they believe, and then thinking adults can make up their minds.
On the other hand, I do not believe adults should be teaching religion or philosophy to children without their parent's permission, and certainly adults should not be selling religious beliefs under the guise of bedtime stories. But that is exactly what is currently occurring on the big screen.
There is a new movie out called "The Golden Compass." If you have children, and if you believe in God, make certain you and your children do not see this movie. I say that for a number of reasons.
First, the promoters of the movie have a very evil and hidden agenda. They hope you will embrace this movie in the same light as "The Lord of the Rings," or "The Chronicles of Narnia." They want you to see the talking animals and the exciting battles, all with a child main character. They want you to see an exciting journey that is leading to some unknown but hopeful end.
In order to pull that off, they had to water down the first book in Philip Pullman's trilogy -- His Dark Materials -- because in essence Pullman teaches that God is a fake and a liar. Since Pullman and his promoters know that the end goal of killing God is not going to go over with a lot of people, particularly when it involves the condoning of killing children for the purpose of advancing knowledge, it glorifies cruelty and ridicules virtue.
Their hope is to make enough money with the first movie in the "planned" series so they can release unwatered down versions of books two and three. It is in these movies that they plan to bring to the minds of children hooked on the story and characters the full force of Pullman's beliefs.
Pullman desires to impress on the minds of our children that there are no absolutes, that all morality is subjective, and that we have the absolute right to make up our own rules. He desires to promote that cruelty is good, and that the weak should die, and in fact, that we should help them to die and get them out of our way.
As I pointed out earlier, I believe people can embrace whatever beliefs they want to. I believe they even have the right to share those beliefs with others. But I don't believe we should condone or support someone falsely conveying those beliefs in a way that hides them, in an effort to try and "hook" us, hoping to keep some of us to the end.
If what you believe is worthy of belief, do not be ashamed of it. Do not try to hide aspects of it or pawn it off as something it is not. If what you believe has to be hidden, you should rethink what you believe.
In Pullman's trilogy, beginning with "The Golden Compass," he promotes a belief that the one who calls himself God is no different than us, and that he was just the first to figure out how to get power, and started to do stuff in the universe. He didn't really create anything, but he told us that he did, so he calls himself the "Creator."
Pullman goes on to explain in other ways how God is a fraud, and how he has wrongly taken other "titles" he doesn't deserve. He goes on to say that the best solution for the problems of the human race is to kill God. Since he is not really God he can be killed.
Interestingly, in an interview, Pullman admits that his purpose in writing the series was to discredit and destroy Christianity. My question is: If Christianity is so bad, why do you have to employ unethical and deceitful means to get your story out? Many people today do not accept Christianity, but they do not find it necessary to deceive you to get you to hear their viewpoint. They are quite upfront about what they believe.
I believe that Jesus Christ is a historical reality. I believe He is God the Son who lived and died and rose from the grave, as according to the Bible, and that faith in Him and His finished work on the cross is the only way to receive the gift of eternal life.
I do not believe I have to sell you appealing ice cream, laden with poisonous ideas that you never knew were there. Neither do I believe I need to scam you to make money to promote my beliefs. How sad that some people operate that way. How sad that some believe they need to operate without ethics in order to promote supposed truth.
If truth cannot stand on its own, it isn't truth. If truth cannot stand the light of day, then it is birthed of darkness.
I generally don't care what people go to see. But in this case I believe you should be warned that "The Golden Compass" is selling fake goods to steal your money for another agenda, that of inscribing an evil philosophy on the minds of your children.
Jon McCartney is pastor of the First Baptist Church located at 580 S. Main St. in Tooele.