'Golden Compass' draws ire of the Catholic League
Watchdog group says film pushes an atheist agenda
By Chris Kaltenbach Sun reporter
October 24, 2007

The leader of a conservative Catholic watchdog group is imploring people not to see The Golden Compass - a children's fantasy based on the first book of British author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Pullman's work, says William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, promotes an atheist agenda that is profoundly anti-Church.

True, he hasn't seen the movie, which comes out Dec. 7, and he has little reason to doubt the filmmakers' claims that it considerably waters down the book's more controversial aspects. But the possibility that the movie could persuade some unsuspecting parents to buy the book for their children makes him furious.

"It's selling the virtues of atheism," Donohue says over the phone from the league's New York office. "The real person we want to get on this is Pullman. I don't want to see these books flying off the shelves at Christmas. I want them to be collecting dust." the rest image