Musings from The Golden Compass...

So if you've been seeing any movies lately or you are a movie buff of any level you will undoubtedly know about the new movie thats coming out called The Golden Compass. However you may or may not know about the controversy surrounding it. There is a big to do over the movie. The books that the movie is based on where written, according to the author, to be the parallel of the Narnia books. He says that where as the Narnia books espouse Christianity, which is about as true as saying Dune espouses drug abuse and desert living, his books are pro atheism.

That being said you can understand how "The Church" has decided to boycott the movie. I found this....disquieting. One of the things that I have yet to fully come to terms with is peoples inability to draw lines and stick to them. Its a movie, and the makers of the movie have gone to lengths to take out any sort of religious propaganda. So what are you afraid of, are you scared your kids might read a book? Then make sure they don't read the books its that simple. Besides I've read plenty of books that espoused views that where not held by me, it didn't really change the way I saw things. I just thought "that was a good story". Besides, they're kids. There going to go, watch the movie and enjoy it for what it is, entertainment. On top of that most people go watch the movie simply because they don't want to read the book.

In the end though there is something more deep seeded I feel to this argument. I think most of those parents boycotting the movie would readily agree that they wouldn't take their kids to see any R rated films. Most I think would even say they don't like R rated films because of violence. I also think that you would find that many of those self same parents took their kids to see The Passion, which is a movie about watching Jesus get a beat down then tortured to death. This begs the obvious question, which I hope is the overarching question of this entire post. "Where do you draw the line?" and more importantly "Will you stick by that line?"

I think anyone would readily agree that an easy measure of a man is whether or not he sticks by his word. You won't take your kid to a movie because the author is an atheist? Well you might as well stay home from now on and never watch another movie unless its produced by In Light Broadcasting. Most writers of books and movies are atheists, "*gasp* say it ain't so!" I think you should draw the line and say thus farther and no more and stick by it. If you find that you start making exceptions to the rule then its time to reevaluate the line you drew. Is the line not in the right place, or is it simply your just not strong enough to stand by what you said?

I can think of a story which typifies this. Me and some of my friends where at an Applebees once. My friend was recounting a rather odd story. During the story he made mention of a necklace someone was wearing made out of fake penises. Now he had no trouble saying the word penis. But once it came to the point in the story where he was describing the fact that a certain female person had her genitals pierced he refused to say the word clitoris, or vagina for that matter. It bothered me to no end. Now I'm not one to go around yelling penis and vagina, but lets face it if I'm trying to describe something and it involves me talking about genitalia I'm not shy about naming either organ. The thing that bothered me was that he either draws the line at not saying either word or has no problem saying either word. Same thing with cussing. If you don't like it thats fine whatever, just don't go around saying that "shit" is ok to say but "fuck" is taking it too far. Once me and some friends where playing Guitar Hero and my friend, who's house we were in, said "shit" (for sake of understanding we will say his name was Jeff) . A few minutes later my other friend, lets say his name was Brian, said "fuck". Then Jeff proceeded to get mad at Brian for having said "fuck" in his house. After I recovered from my brain aneurysm, I thought how can you cuss in your house and then get made cause someone else cussed in your house? He said it was because what Brian had said was worse than what he had said. Personally I think if he had said either word in the presence of his mother it would not have gone over well either way.

Someone once said "be cold or be hot but don't be lukewarm", words to live by if you ask me. I'm not saying I'm perfect where this is concerned but I'm trying. I can at least see the value in reevaluating my lines when I see discrepancies between what I preach and what I do. Personally I'd rather live what I'm preaching and not preach what I'm not living.

So as you think about taking your kids to see the movie, think about all the times you've taken them to see movies that had atheistic writers, think about harry potter and how that had wizards and witches in it and about how you could argue that it "encouraged" witchcraft, and lord of the rings with all of the violence and the wizardry in that, then think about that little line that you've mentally drawn in the sand. Personally I'm going to go see that movie, heck I'll probably even go out and get the books and read em.