The Golden Compass Will Destroy Your Children

That’s according to religious people. Hollywood Wiretap reports that the Catholic League is up in arms because The Golden Compass is taken from a book whose author promotes atheism, even though New Line Cinema has indicated that they’ve removed most of the religious themes (and thus likely made it less interesting).

Bill Donahue, president and CEO of the Catholic League is a major talking head who likes to make the rounds on the news channels, and he’s a strange dichotomy. He looks and talks like he might be your energetic and affable favorite uncle, but all he says is stuff like “These books denigrate Christianity, thrash the Catholic Church and sell the virtues of atheism,” as if there were no such thing as free speech in this country.

To be fair, Donahue says he’s not worried about the “farily innocous” movie, but he’s more concerned that the movie will lead to book sales, and he wants that stopped. Oddly enough, it seems Donahue hasn’t learned yet that the more noise he makes about a film, the more free publicity he gives it. Why has no one on the crazy religious side figured that out yet? Oh, right, “crazy.”

I say it’s worth watching just to see Sam Elliott tell a kid “I’d hire myself an armored bear.”