have you received this one?

This email has been making the rounds lately. I know several people who have received it.

“There is a terrible, anti-Catholic movie called the “Golden Compass” coming out in early December, aimed at children and labeled as a family movie. This movie is based on a series of books by an atheist British author (Phillip Pullman) whose goal in writing the books is to be the “Anti-Narnia” series and to lead children into atheism.The main villains in the series of books are the Magisterium, Cardinals, and the Pope, and includes a heroine that is a young girl who sets out to kill God. The truly sick thing about the movie is that they have made it APPEAR as if it is an innocent film, with exciting effects and a fairytale story. They have removed from the movie the appalling anti-Catholic/Christian themes from the book. The goal of the movie is to hook unsuspecting families into viewing the film so that children will then want to read the books (and probably buy merchandise) . Nicole Kidman stars in it, and Scholastic Books is behind it.I heard about this from Bill Donahue of the Catholic League who was on “The World Over” on EWTN. The goal is to let as many people as possible know about this horrible film and to have it bomb at the box office. The makers of the movie are hoping it will be as big as Harry Potter or the DaVinci Code. Let’s pray that it won’t! Please tell as many people as possible to avoid this terrible film. Thanks!”
We actually discussed this email this morning at our book club since this email is really “out there”. Here is some food for thought…. a few points we discussed:

This is “Hollywood’s” interpretation of this book.

Viewing a two hour movie is not going to turn children with a spiritual upbringing into athiests.

Creating controversy about a movie is the very thing that will push a movie into a box office hit.

This is a form of censorship….in a country where we are supposed to value free speech & free press. Should we throw all books we don’t like into a pile and light a match? Shall we burn Phillip Pullman( the author) at the stake?
I don’t subscribe to that mindset and I teach my children to judge for themselves by way of critical thinking.

I am Catholic and my children attend a Catholic school. I strive to teach them values by real life examples. I don’t feel threatened by a work of “Fiction” or a “Hollywood” movie.

A lot of young leaders in the Catholic church today currently subscribe to extremely conservative values, which I don’t share. We need more tolerance & compassion in this world-not less
“The goal of the movie is to hook unsuspecting families into viewing the film so that children will then want to read the books (and probably buy merchandise).” This is nothing new…… sorry to say, but this is one of the goals of all “family” movies…..Disney has perfected this into a fine art form from Happy Meals to the merchandise in their own Disney stores.
Furthermore, who is Bill Donahue of the Catholic League… a little research on Wiki revealed this:
William A. Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has made 23 guest appearances on TV news programs in 2004. Donohue uses his appearances primarily to attack gays and progressives. He has referred to the “gay death style,” remarked, “God forbid we’d run out of little gay kids,” claimed that Senator John Kerry “never found an abortion he couldn’t justify,” and claimed that “Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular … Hollywood likes anal sex.”
Hear the sarcastic tone in my voice when I say that isn’t he just an example of Christian tolerance & compassion?
These types of emails drive me crazy. Who writes these things? Being the cynic that I am, I bet an anti-Catholic wrote this to help the movie become a hit as a way of flipping the finger at them.
So ridiculous.