More on the same

Click here to read Christianity Today's take on this. I agree with this point:

Then again: "If the first film was a film in isolation, I would say it's no big deal," says Tony Watkins, managing editor of the U.K.-based website www.culturewatch.org and author of Dark Matter (Damaris/IVP), a book that analyzes the trilogy from a Christian framework.

The first book is pretty mild, as I said. The real athiest stuff comes in the second and third book. That's when they "Kill God", only it isn't really God. But that doesn't happen in the movie. The movie is based on the first book only, and it seems like people are making a big deal out of it to me. In the article, Nicole Kidman says that if it were anti-Catholic, she wouldn't be in it, because she was raised Catholic.

My favorite comment:

"To clarify, Pullman has regularly stated that he believes in a theory known as 'The Democracy of Reading' meaning that he presents the story the way he intended and readers are free to draw their own conclusions from it, regardless of whether or not they are the ideas he himself believes in. As a fantasy writer, it is a fact that personal beliefs will infiltrate the story because without them, it would make the plot meaningless. I must say, the universal morals presented in these books are something I hope every parent would want their children to learn: kindness, patience, love, optimism, etc.. This is the real "agenda" behind the series, to take the lessons we learn through childhood and use them as we grow to make the world a better place for all. That is what The Republic of Heaven is, making this life matter and be just as important as whatever may come after... It has nothing to to with whether or not God is alive or dead. I believe that these stories apply to any religious camp. "