The religious right doesn't want you to see this movie. The Catholic Church has mounted an expensive organized campaign against the film. What better reasons to take the kids to the theater this Friday?

This mystical spiritual epic is based on one of a trilogy of children's books by Philip Pullman. It takes place "in a world where people's souls exist outside their bodies in the form of animals called daemons, and a global evil threatens to dominate all thought and belief. That evil is embodied in a political/religious dictatorship referred to as the 'Church' or 'Magisterium.' " (Kansas City Star) The author never calls the organization "Christian," but the Catholic League may feel the similarity is too close for comfort. "It's not just atheistic," said Kiera McCaffrey, of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. "In these books everyone associated with Christianity is a torturer of children, a liar, power mad." (Kansas City Star)

Director Chris Weitz said that the film would make no direct mention of religion or God, two of the key themes of the books - a decision attacked by fans of the trilogy…However, Weitz reassured fans…that religion would appear in euphemistic terms. (imdb.com)

Pullman is a 61-year-old Brit - the grandson of an Anglican parish priest - and is an honorary associate of the Secular Society (a British organization that promotes secularism)…But he maintains the His Dark Materials books target not any individual religion but rather totalitarianism in all its forms, from communism to theocracy.

While the "Magisterium" of his novels may resemble the Roman Catholic Church (it has bishops and monks and an executive committee called the Vatican Council), Pullman never describes its theology or identifies it as Christian. Instead he presents it as an authoritarian entity that attempts to control all aspects of individual's lives through assassination, kidnapping, torture and strict control of information.

"It doesn't matter to me whether people believe in God or not," Pullman has written. "What I do care about is whether people are cruel or…kind, whether they act for democracy or for tyranny, whether they believe in open-minded inquiry or in shutting the freedom of thought and expression."

"Good things have been done in the name of religion and so have bad things; both good things and bad things have been done with no religion at all. What I care about is the good, wherever it comes from." (imdb.com)

Focus on the Family joined the Catholics in fearful censoring of this work of fiction. Adam Holz, associate editor for Focus on the Family's Plugged In magazine…called the series "heretical."

"Pullman has been openly hostile about C.S. Lewis, and has been pretty clear about his desire to offer an alternate fantasy series based on what he would describe as humanist principles," he said. (citizenlink.org)

Yes, it's true that Pullman's books promote such humanistic values as opposition to organized dogma and totalitarian concentrations of power, and support of intellectual curiosity, kindness, love, courage, and courtesy…for the Catholic League and other opponents of the film, being critical of religion or just being atheist is analogous to being immoral. We know that that just isn't so.

For Pullman…his books are a positive Humanist response to the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia and their thin, black-and-white Christian morality. (American Humanist Association)

Go see this movie with your kids. If you like it, tell your friends, buy the books and support Pullman and his novels against hostile anti-humanist campaigns.