Every now and then, something comes along that people get up in arms about. For example, some Christians were really anti-Harry Potter because of the magic and, more recently, because of the creepy tidbit about Dumbledore.

Obviously, if magic bothered me I wouldn’t be writing. And if the books contain hints so vague about Dumbledore’s gender preferences that I didn’t even notice them, so what? The books are more than whether or not the wise old mentor used to wear flamboyant purple suits.

Tunnel vision that refuses to see anything but the problem really bothers me, because the people who have tunnel vision often refuse to acknowledge anything positive, as if praise would make them a traitor to their own cause. They aren’t “convicted” if they bend even the littlest bit. And that way of thinking can grow to be very dangerous, especially if it morphs into a hatred of other people.

But you do have to step back and decide whether or not to support things. Even with Harry Potter, I made a choice, to support the book in spite of its flaws. I may not read them to my kids as early as I would have, but I still think the books are worthwhile.

The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy, written by Philip Pullman. Pullman has stated clearly on his website that “if [God] is keeping out of sight, it’s because he’s ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they’re responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I’d want nothing to do with them.” He is powerful and well-respected in the atheist community and has publicly stated that His Dark Materials is a rebuttal against the “religious propaganda” of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia.

I got two emails from older friends about how Pullman’s The Golden Compass is anti-Christian and we shouldn’t go see the movie. But, having had experience with overblown rumors¹, and wondering if this was just another scare like what people tried to start with Harry Potter, I asked someone who had read all three books — my husband.

Alex paused and said, “I loved the first book. It’s your basic fantasy adventure, and it’s really well written. It’s the best of the three. (I loved the polar bears the most.) But the books got worse as I went, less entertaining, and I only read the last one for the sake of completion. They get much more obviously anti-Christian as you go.”

I asked, “How so?”

“Well,” he said, “there’s an old and impotent creator character named ‘God’ that the kids kill. Then they become the new Adam and Eve.”

“So we’re not going to go see it.”

Alex shrugged. “I’ll probably watch it if it comes on TV, but if the movie does well in the box office, they’ll make the other ones.”

Which, considering that they kill God, isn’t exactly the cheeriest result.

So I’m sure the first book was great and the movie will be amazing. And I’ll leave it to you to decide if this is a moral issue for you. But we’ve tossed in our lot — we’re not giving money to this enterprise. I think Mr. Pullman is a man who has been embittered by bad Christians, and I feel sorry for him because I’ve met bad Christians too. But I think he’s going about cleaning up the Christian community in a way that smacks too much of the people who hate Harry Potter — you can’t hate the entirety for a few bad parts.

With that said, Yes, the Christian community could stand to kick a few people² out. You can’t claim to hate other people and call yourself a Christian, for example. God hates sin, not sinners. He loves people. And Christians who say otherwise are giving God a bad name, making people like Pullman hate us, and aren’t Christians at all. They’re posers — bigots using twisted theology as an excuse to hate.

I could go on about this, but I’ll just lay down the summary: I’m not supporting The Golden Compass, though you can do what you think is right. I agree with Pullman that some Christians suck, but disagree that the entire community is rotten. And God loves people, just not some of the things we do.

¹Snopes.com is a non-partisan resource for verifying the accuracy of rumors (or “urban legends”). It offers even more information on the controversy surrounding The Golden Compass.

²I’m so sorry for linking this. It’s an awful site no one should ever have to look at. I just need you to know exactly what I mean.