A Tantalizing Tale

Plugged In Magazine (from Focus on the Family) has published a great article on how the new movie The Golden Compass is a slick device designed to turn children into atheists.

The ploy is to get children to watch the movie (which has been revised to remove a lot of the atheistic themes that would otherwise turn families off), and then to buy the book, which contains rather concerning prose like this little ditty, spoken by a witch:

"There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the people of Bolvangar did—not in the same way, but just as horribly. They cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls; they cut them with knives so that they shan't feel. That is what the church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling."

The book is tailored especially for children with tantalizing plot devices like noble armored polar bears and animal "friends" (called daemons in the book) that accompany characters throughout their lives. But as Philip Pullman, the author of the books on which the movie is based, stated, "My books are about killing God."

The last time I was in Wal-Mart the book was prominently displayed near the checkout lines, along with all the other Christmas gift items.