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At it again
I’m not a big fan of religion - any religion, I make no distinction’s - because I see it as a arbitrary construct by man that places “the church” between humans and their God. Let me make it very clear I do not want to stop anyone believing in any God they wish to; that’s for each of us to decide. What I’d like to see is for religion to stop trying to tell us what we should be doing, saying and thinking and just let us get on with it.
I’ve already commented on the recent case of a Jehovah’s Witness mother who died giving birth because her religion forbade her to accept a blood transfusion. Now, today, we have the (admittedly not as tragic or heart-wrenching) case of Philip Pullman being attacked for being pro-atheist and anti-Christian. It seems that the trilogy of books His Dark Materials are a thinly veiled attack on religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular - at least according to America’s Catholic League. Their spokesperson is urging people not to see the film (premièring today in London) that is based on the first novel, and wants parents to keep their children away from the books.
The Golden Compass joins a long list of films that have upset people (who often haven’t even seen the film) based on the portrayed attitude to religion. Prime examples that spring easily to mind are The Last Temptation of Christ and Monty Python’s Life of Brian; but what everyone seems to forget with all of these things, and which seems to have been forgotten once again, is that we live in free society (supposedly) where we can believe what we like: if I want to believe the earth is flat, that’s up to me. If I want to believe in God, that’s also up to me. And so is not believing in God.
What the Catholic League should be doing is saying to people who go to see the film or who read the books, “OK. That’s one point of view. But we’ve got another one which we think is better. Let’s tell you about it”. Isn’t that the Christian thing to do?
Only if we encourage debate and the exchange of ideas and belief systems can we possibly hope to live in a peaceful world. Getting all territorial over what is, at the end of the day, just a transient entertainment seems the wrong way to go.
Comments
2 Responses to “At it again”
I think you know what to do....
Wolfs Stuff
Wolfs Helpers
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I agree with your post. Whenever religious groups protest about a film, all they usually end up doing is giving enormous free publicity to the film, undermining their cause.
PS. I love this phrase in your blog: “All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they’re made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they’re probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don’t take the world so seriously.”
Robin’s most recent blog post: Our Illustrious Leader
@Robin:
Thanks for stopping by, Robin. Glad it’s not just me that can’t see the sense in some of these religious protests.
Glad you like the disclaimer!