"Question authority. Just not our authority."
A ZENIT reader contacted Coke to express his concerns about the soft drink manufacturer's support of "The Golden Compass":
Here is the response I got: "We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
"The Golden Compass movie is a story about friendship, love, loyalty, tolerance, courage and responsibility. This movie also provides an opportunity for Coca-Cola to help raise awareness about climate change and the perilous state of the polar bear.
"We do not believe that this fantasy movie is an attack on any religion. We would never support a film that intentionally antagonized or condemned any faith."
Didn't Al Gore already make a fantasy movie about climate change and polar bears?
Meanwhile, Michael Sragow, the Baltimore Sun movie critic, has this to say about "The Golden Compass":
Advance controversy has focused on the story's anti-Catholic bent. In our world, the Magisterium refers to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, and in the movie's world it's like the Catholic Church of the Spanish Inquisition. Weitz expunged the word church from the story: "I thought it would be unnecessarily provocative and hurtful to certain individuals."
Which, if you think about it for about a nanosecond, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Not that I, as a Catholic, would encourage anyone to think. Magisterium forbid!
But he denies that this deletion in any way dilutes the impact of the story. "The Magisterium stands for arbitrary authority and dogma of any kind," and the way Weitz views Pullman's trilogy, the author's main beef is with "the abuse of religion and the misuse of the idea of God for political ends."
Which, of course, explains the endless remarks in the His Dark Materials trilogy about communism, fascism, radical Islam, and such. What's that? Nothing of the sort in the books? Just lots of comments about Christianity, the Christian God, the Bible, priests, etc., etc.? Well, I'm sure it's all an innocent mistake and nothing specific should be read into it. Indeed, it would behoove us Christians to quietly accept the tolerant authority and polite dogmatism of Weitz, Pullman, and Co. on the matter.
To Weitz, Pullman's writing draws on diverse spiritual influences ranging from early Christianity to New Age mysticism, with their emphases on salvation from within. It's as reverent to qualities of soul as it is dismissive of organized religion and bureaucracy.
Which, it now occurs to me, must be why Pullman once told the Sydney Morning Herald, "My books are about killing God." And: "If we're talking on the scale of human life and the things we see around us, I'm an atheist. There's no God here. There never was. But if you go out into the vastness of space, well, I'm not so sure. On that level, I'm an agnostic." Apparently, if God is a disorganized and non-centralized being who exists out in the vastness of space, he's a keeper. Otherwise, he's toast. Brilliant! Forget your brains; save the bears!