COMMENTARY: ‘Tis the season to be jolly, not paranoid

c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) ‘Tis the season to be jolly, not paranoid, kids. Whether it’s retailers allegedly “taking the Christ out of Christmas” by using (the ancient Christian) “X-Mas” or the clerk at The Gap who says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” there always seems to be some menacing sky-is-falling force gathering […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) ‘Tis the season to be jolly, not paranoid, kids.

Whether it’s retailers allegedly “taking the Christ out of Christmas” by using (the ancient Christian) “X-Mas” or the clerk at The Gap who says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” there always seems to be some menacing sky-is-falling force gathering against the Baby Jesus on the eve of his birthday.


This year, the greatest threat to Christmas seems to be a movie. A children’s movie, no less, the most nefarious of all holiday-related hazards.

“The Golden Compass” is a fantasy film, complete with shape-shifting talking animals and armored polar bears. It follows the adventures of a young girl, Lyra, as she battles the forces of evil to rescue her kidnapped friend, Roger, from a powerful vaguely-religious cabal that amputates children’s souls.

The story is based on a trilogy of books called “His Dark Materials,” by British author Philip Pullman, who is, according to every news report I’ve seen, an “avowed atheist.”

I haven’t read Pullman’s books, which by all accounts include explicit anti-religious, if not particular anti-Catholic, themes. I have, however, seen the film, and if those themes were present, they flew right over my head, not unlike the heroic witches who prophesied the birth of Lyra, a child who would someday decide the fate of the world.

The movie is a jumble of heretofore-unknown characters and existential ideas that don’t quite hold together and that are entirely lost amidst the fury of big-budget special effects. The message of “The Golden Compass,” if there is one in its celluloid incarnation, was lost on me. I would venture a guess that any child who would see the film would also miss the point _ whatever it is.

Even the director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ film office didn’t find theological fault with the film, saying the heroism and self-sacrifice portrayed by the film’s protagonists “provide appropriate moral lessons for viewers.” Earlier this week, however, the largely positive review was removed from the bishops’ Web site without comment. Hmmm …

Even before its Dec. 7 release, various Christian groups issued warnings against “The Golden Compass,” calling it a sugarcoated primer for anti-religious ideas that would surely lure children to atheism. The New York-based Catholic League called for a boycott and produced a 23-page treatise deconstructing its implicit moral and religious dangers.

Frankly, were it not for the public outcry from Christian groups, “The Golden Compass” would not have hit my radar, and I certainly would not have paid $7 to see it.


I truly don’t understand why some Christians feel so threatened by fictional stories _ whether they’re told in books, video games, on television or in the movies. If they believe the Christmas story told in the Bible, whence comes their fear?

The Bible tells us that in order to love a broken world back to wholeness, an omnipotent God decides to come to Earth, not as a king or a great warrior, but in the form of a helpless infant born in a stable to dirt-poor unwed teenage parents from an oppressed religious and ethnic group.

Signs and wonders announce the Christ child’s birth _ miraculous movement in the heavens, angels appearing to shepherds in fields, three mystical magi traveling from the East with exotic gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Prophesies foretold are fulfilled. Good triumphs over evil and love over hate, all through the birth of one baby boy in a backwater town in the Middle East more than 2,000 years ago.

I defy Hollywood to come up with a more powerful, enduring tale than that one.

Christians would be better served telling and retelling the real Christmas story, without wasting time on brickbats and boycotts. Make big-budget films about it, write powerful books, make beautiful music and create enduring artwork that reflects the spirit of that story, the greatest one ever told.

Jesus didn’t get defensive about ideas and stories that paled in comparison to the one he was telling. His followers shouldn’t be either.


So, next year, when December rolls around and nervous Nellies begin shrieking about the latest Operation Secular Menace threatening to upend the true meaning of Christmas, stick your fingers in your ears and repeat after me: Fa la la la la la la la la.

(Cathleen Falsani is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and author of “The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People.”)

A photo of Cathleen Falsani is available via https://religionnews.com.

KRE/LF END FALSANI

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!