gold compass interpreted
I should preface this and any other writings by saying I haven't seen the movie (and don't plan to) and I haven't read the books (plan to do that) yet.
That said...from my narrow research on the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, the author of this article is glossing over the fact that the series does trash Christianity. It does attempt to kill God (apparently it turns out to not really be God). Whether or not it fulfills the other agendas the op-ed writer brings up is not the question. According to her it's a novel (b/c she's actually only talking about The Golden Compass) about children learning to think for themselves and buck restrictive, "didactic" authority, and not be slowly immersed into learned "group-think" by parents and authority figures who think they know best.
I don't think anyone on my f-list has children, but I know at least a few of you have worked with children. At what point do they, the kids, know best for themselves? At what point can you thrust them out into the world and go "Here it is. Figure it out." and have that work out for all parties involved? I'm not saying kids are idiots. People often make the mistake by taking that extreme too. But the truth is that by virtue of having had more experience, an adult should literally know more than a child. It doesn't mean a child knows nothing, can't empathize, isn't insightful. It does mean that you have to know the kids you're dealing with and work with them accordingly.
And the writer's point aside....Even if what she says about Pullman's novel is true, it doesn't make his work any less anti-Christian. The two are not mutually exclusive. And isn't it funny how often ppl will criticize Christians (and those of other religions) for teaching their kids their belief system from an early age, accusing ppl of faith of a sort of brainwashing, but will in turn teach their children that religion is the opiate of the masses. If it's wrong to raise my child to share my beliefs, why isn't it wrong for you to teach your child the same?
That said...from my narrow research on the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, the author of this article is glossing over the fact that the series does trash Christianity. It does attempt to kill God (apparently it turns out to not really be God). Whether or not it fulfills the other agendas the op-ed writer brings up is not the question. According to her it's a novel (b/c she's actually only talking about The Golden Compass) about children learning to think for themselves and buck restrictive, "didactic" authority, and not be slowly immersed into learned "group-think" by parents and authority figures who think they know best.
I don't think anyone on my f-list has children, but I know at least a few of you have worked with children. At what point do they, the kids, know best for themselves? At what point can you thrust them out into the world and go "Here it is. Figure it out." and have that work out for all parties involved? I'm not saying kids are idiots. People often make the mistake by taking that extreme too. But the truth is that by virtue of having had more experience, an adult should literally know more than a child. It doesn't mean a child knows nothing, can't empathize, isn't insightful. It does mean that you have to know the kids you're dealing with and work with them accordingly.
And the writer's point aside....Even if what she says about Pullman's novel is true, it doesn't make his work any less anti-Christian. The two are not mutually exclusive. And isn't it funny how often ppl will criticize Christians (and those of other religions) for teaching their kids their belief system from an early age, accusing ppl of faith of a sort of brainwashing, but will in turn teach their children that religion is the opiate of the masses. If it's wrong to raise my child to share my beliefs, why isn't it wrong for you to teach your child the same?