I have gotten emails almost daily over the past few weeks on this movie The Golden Compass so I thought I would share some thoughts about it:


1. Media is very powerful. I think we can use movies for good or bad. However sometimes I think we do overemphasis the impact one movie can have on our culture. We have seen in the past with movies such as Stigmata, Dogma, The DiVinci Code and now The Golden Compass they create all kinds of hype but very little influence. I think there is a big possibility that these concerns about Atheism and God Killing may very well be an extremely successful marketing ploy to generate hype about a sub-par movie. I have heard more about this movie more through email campaigns to boycott it then I actually have from critics or any other type of Acclaim. I would be very interested to see where these e-mails started.

2. Movies are 99% bad. There are tons of movies that come out every week that would be way more dangerous to our kids then this one. This movie at worst could prompt us to a conversation about how everybody does not love God or have a relationship with him the way we do and that the number one goal of the church is to make sure that more people know about Jesus and his love for them. The odds are that in any movie you go see someone will get killed, there will be inappropriate sexual relations, there will be alternate lifestyles represented along with inappropriate language. Not just the The Golden Compass
3. Parents should raise Children not movies. When my daughter is born in March, I am not going to let the culture raise her. I’m determined to disciple her myself. I am going to be a bigger influence in her life then a 2 hour movie. Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

4. The Church should have ten thousand times more influence then this movie. If the Church is truly scared of this movie it is not because of the power of The Golden Compass but because of the perceived weaknesses of the Church. We have a message that is exponentially more life changing and hopeful then anything any movie will ever offer.
So with all that said I think it would be good if we as a church responded. I think we should use this as a platform to promote what we are for: Parents raising their children in a way that is pleasing to God who loves them more then they could ever imagine, not what we are against: The Golden Compass.


These are just some thoughts. I may be way off base but I would love to have a discussion about it, I hope this is a good starting point.


Ephesians 3:16-19 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”