Is It A Sin To Read The Golden Compass Books?

[rachael]

[quote name='Farsight one' post='1626595' date='Aug 14 2008, 12:37 AM']Haha. Wow. It seems that I got a little over zealous. I don't know what I was thinking. You're right - I can't know that they're poorly written. [/quote]
Maybe you were tired?

[geetarplayer]

Should the intentions of the author affect the reception of the work? Possibly. It depends on how effective the author was in achieving his goals. And if his intentions are to undermine Christian faith, I would be very wary of that book indeed.

-Mark

[MakeYouThink]

Yes, it is the unwritten 12th commandment, thou shall not read the Golden Compass Books or watch the Movie!

You need to recite about a thousand hail Mary's right now!

Sorry,

I had to do that.

Read the 10 commandments. I am pretty sure that you only have to live by them. All these little things makes being holy way to hard. Christ's yoke is suppose to give you rest. It shouldn't be worrisome, where you have to question if watching a movie or reading a book is going to make you go to hell!

Edited August 15, 2008 by MakeYouThink

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='MakeYouThink' post='1628288' date='Aug 15 2008, 06:11 PM']Read the 10 commandments. I am pretty sure that you only have to live by them. All these little things makes being holy way to hard. Christ's yoke is suppose to give you rest. It shouldn't be worrisome, where you have to question if watching a movie or reading a book is going to make you go to hell![/quote]

Not trying to get way off topic here, but...
You should check out the Catechism - I am actually reading through the section on the Ten Commandments right now. Something which seems as straightforward as "You Shall Not Kill" is much deeper - for instance, abortion and euthanasia are a huge part of this Commandment.

You should give credit to the OP. We must look after the purity of our minds, hearts, and souls. Some people who are questioning their faith shouldn't read this book, since they might be influenced to believe that the Church is evil. Others, who are firm in their faith and know about the author (and his religious history, or lack thereof), should have no problem.

And the OP was asking if it was sinful, not if it would would send her to Hell.

[MakeYouThink]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1628298' date='Aug 15 2008, 05:21 PM']Not trying to get way off topic here, but...
You should check out the Catechism - I am actually reading through the section on the Ten Commandments right now. Something which seems as straightforward as "You Shall Not Kill" is much deeper - for instance, abortion and euthanasia are a huge part of this Commandment.

You should give credit to the OP. We must look after the purity of our minds, hearts, and souls. Some people who are questioning their faith shouldn't read this book, since they might be influenced to believe that the Church is evil. Others, who are firm in their faith and know about the author (and his religious history, or lack thereof), should have no problem.

And the OP was asking if it was sinful, not if it would would send her to Hell.[/quote]

All I would say then is that they pray about it, and trust they're instincts. Didn't God say we are fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are the works of his hands, that we knoweth right well?

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='MakeYouThink' post='1628327' date='Aug 15 2008, 06:58 PM']All I would say then is that they pray about it, and trust they're instincts. Didn't God say we are fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are the works of his hands, that we knoweth right well?[/quote]

We were created with free will. Just because we know what is right doesn't mean we always do it.

[MakeYouThink]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1628374' date='Aug 15 2008, 08:15 PM']We were created with free will. Just because we know what is right doesn't mean we always do it.[/quote]

That's why we need to remind ourselves where disobedience leads, nothing but pain and misery!

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='MakeYouThink' post='1628376' date='Aug 15 2008, 08:18 PM']That's why we need to remind ourselves where disobedience leads, nothing but pain and misery![/quote]

Which is exactly why the OP was questioning whether or not she should read the books.

[Christie_M]

Thank you for he input. We saw the movie on DVD with little background of the controversy and saw nothing bad in it. All refrenced to the Magisterium we took as if to an evil empire or something. The movie really doesn't have religious references. I liked the story well enough to ge the books from the library.

My daughter's friend got upset at her because he thought they were very anticatholic and sinful to read. Mind telling you he has no problem with Harry Potter.

In our family, both my husband and I like to read both sides of a controversy. It comes from our days in college and the debate team, "Know your oponent's view throughly".

As far as the Davinci code, I saw the movie, it was somewhat entertaining but didn't read the book since I'm very much familiar with all the conspiracy theories it brings into the story as well as thier background and it just wasn't believable to me.

After the first book, I'll get ahead and read the others so we can discuss all this issues. Thanks again for the comments.

[Christie_M]

Sorry, this is Margarite, I wrote the previous post, I forgot ChristieM was using her profile.

[Nihil Obstat]

Speaking of the Da Vinci Code, by the way, I was SO BORED watching the movie. I've heard the book was entertaining... although I also heard it was awful, but in any case, the movie literally put me to sleep.

Off topic though.

Reading the Golden Compass, I think I would recommend, as a general rule, to read some Catechism as breaks. Just a little bit... and then keep in mind everything you can find wrong with GC.
It shouldn't be hard. Phillip Pullman's atheism isn't that solid.

[Deb]

I read the series before I was called to God so I never picked up on anything anti-Catholic. I didn't know what the magesterium was. I thought they were against organized religion, but was not offended by anything. I thought they were very well written, imaginative and I loved reading them. I have thought I should go back and reread them now that I am Catholic and see what I think.
I read so many different genre of books then that none of it stayed with me for very long, regardless of the intent of the author.

DaVinci code I found so boring. I wasn't religious when I read that either, it was just boring.


I can't believe it would be a sin to read the books. Turn the terminology that is directed at the Church into something else in your mind and go.

[Nihil Obstat]

Speaking of that 'banned books list' someone mentioned, I think it's a bit of a misconception. I believe that there is some sort of list of books that 'aren't recommended', or something along those lines, but I don't think they 'ban' things.

[Deb]

Agreed. The Church does not ban books.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Deb' post='1630598' date='Aug 18 2008, 01:22 PM']Agreed. The Church does not ban books.[/quote]
Am I right in thinking that there is some kind of 'watch list' though? Maybe it's in relation to schools... I remember that some schools pulled the Golden Compass for a while. Oddly enough they hadn't even noticed it up until the movie came out.
In my grade eight book club (at a Catholic school no less) we read this book and discussed it. Did we even mention the anti-Catholic overtones? No. That was dangerous. It's very lucky that I figured it out on my own.