The Golden Compass

     Tonight I watched a pretty good fantasy movie: The Golden Compass. Now I have never read the books and had only heard about the movie from friends and reading reviews. That said, I enjoyed the movie. It was a bit slow in places, but I did enjoy it. Adoring the fantasy genre as I do, it was a pleasure to see a well-made fantasy. Granted, these are more common since the debut of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
     Having heard from so many church friends and leaders that you shouldn’t go to see this movie because it talks about killing God and people personal demons, I looked for this in the movie. Not once was killing God mentioned. Nor did people have personal demons, per se…they had daemons, animals that held their souls. While the daemons had independent thought, they were still in symbiotic relationship with their humans. If the humans suffered, the daemons suffered and vice versa. So, I didn’t see anything that would should have kept anyone from seeing this movie because of religious reasons.
     As I said before I haven’t read the books. I did, however, pick up the first book of Philip Pullman’s The Dark Materials trilogy from the library today. Truth be told, I’m looking forward to reading it. But then again, I’m constantly explaining to all my friends that “Magic is magic, no matter if it’s in Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings or Disney’s Cinderella. It’s all magic no matter how the story is couched!”
     Am I going to let my kids watch the movie? YES! Am I going to let my eight-year-old read the book? Yes, if he wants to; it’s his choice. If he has questions, that’s why I’m here. In the end, it comes down to personal beliefs. I don’t see the harm in reading it, even if the religious people say I shouldn’t.