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PULLMAN'S CARICATURE OF THE CHURCH

Phillip Pullman not only relishes in undermining the Christian faith by attacking the creator of the universe, glorifying Satan and demonic possession, but he also shows his hatred for the bride of Christ, the church. Pullman's Satan figure, "Lord Asriel," hates everything about the death Jesus Christ died to save humanity from their sins and is depicted as hating the church:

"Well, Lord Asriel has never found himself at ease with the doctrines of the Church, so to speak. I've seen a spasm of disgust cross his face when they talk of the sacraments, and atonement, and redemption, and suchlike. . . Lord Asriel's been nursing a rebellion in his heart for a long as I've served him, that's one thing I do know?"
(Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife, p. 40)

Pullman depicts Lyra's mother, Mrs. Coulter (who is strongly identified with the church), as one who relishes in torturing children. Pullman depicts the church in a fashion that resembles the times of the inquisition as though this represents the true church of Christ. He has the Vatican located in Geneva, conjuring up pictures of the persecution that took place upon non-conformist under John Calvin. Moreover, Pullman adds elements of Nazism to his caricature of the church wherein there are wicked priests involved in human experimentation. The truth of the matter is that historians and theologians alike know that the inquisition was political and not Christian and in no way reflected the teachings of Christ or the early church. In fact, for the first three centuries of church history, Christians were fed to the lions and persecuted to death by pagans and occult practitioners. Unfortunately, Pullman's young audience may not know enough about history, the scripture and Christianity to make a distinction between true Christians and counterfeits.

Don't expect Pullman to accurately show them the difference because he relishes in fantasy and abhors the truth. Christ taught his followers to turn the other cheek and that if one rejected the saving gospel His followers were to wipe the dust from their feet and proceed to the next home. He taught His disciples that His kingdom was not of this world and that they were to be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. True Christians are known by their obedience to Christ's commands and the fruit they bare to His glory. Counterfeit Christians use Christ's name for political advantage yet refuse, like Pullman, to submit to His Lordship and moral teaching. Never mind that the most infamous and heinous crimes against humanity have been committed by Darwinian eugenicists and occultists like Adolph Hitler. In fact, over a hundred million people have been murdered in the last century by atheists like Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot.

The reason why people like Pullman reject God is because they want to be able to commit wicked and perverse acts and believe that they will somehow escape accountability before God. The Bible states:

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good." (Psalm 14:1).

This truth comes out repeatedly in Pullman's trilogy but perhaps never as poignantly as in the life of his character Mary Malone, who renounces God so that she can continue to have illicit sex. Malone says, that if there is no God then there is "no one to punish me for being wicked," and she further states:

"And I thought: am I really going to spend the rest of my life without ever feeling that again? … And I took the crucifix from around my neck and I threw it in the sea. That was it. All over. Gone."

Malone's desire to live an immoral life leads her to conclude, "The Christian religion is a very powerful and very convincing mistake, that's all." When all is said and done the Golden Compass is utterly devoid of a moral compass and will lead many of its young readers away from God.

In, The Subtle Knife, Pullman has one of his good characters exclaiming that the church "…tries to suppress and control every natural impulse." Here again we see satanic philosophy at its core taught in Pullman's trilogy. The theme of Anton's LaVey's Church of Satan is to indulge any and all so-called natural impulses. God's Word states that there are impulses that we are prone to that are "unnatural" and destructive (Romans 1:18-31). Could you imagine how many potential Jeffrey Dahmer's are having their consciences seared by reading Pullman's satanic trilogy? Would any parent dare encourage their children to follow all of their so called, "natural" impulses? How many pedophiles now justify their rape and murder of children based on Pullman's kind of argumentation? How is Pullman to discern the difference between what is moral or immoral, natural or unnatural without any reference to God or a higher authority?

To further poison the hearts of innocent children toward the things of God, Pullman has one of the "good" witches tell the sisters that the church takes little children and, "cuts their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls, they cut them with knives so that they shan't feel. That is what the church does, and every church is the same…" (Phillip Pullman, The Subtle Knife, p. 45) If Pullman is drawing from the Jewish teaching of circumcision, which had nothing to do with not feeling and did not include "girls," he is misrepresenting it like everything else he caricatures. Moreover, Christian teaching makes it quite clear that circumcision is not advocated for Christians (Galatians 5:1-4). The "good" witch states, "That is what the church does, and every church is the same," yet I know of only one church that advocates cutting of sexual organs of boys and girls and that would be certain satanic churches.

The truth of the matter is that Satanists who have championed similar views to Pullman have proscribed to their followers things much worse than what Pullman would have his young readers imagine of Christian churches. For example, Aleister Crowley, the most highly regarded Satanist organizer of modern times, wrote much about carrying out the very rebellion of which we find many elements in Pullmans' trilogy. Crowley must have greatly impressed Pullman and possibly helped inspire his trilogy, as he, not Christians, advocated the molestation and abuse of children. In Crowley's, The Vision and the Voice, he states:

"The supreme Rite would be to bring about a climax in the death of the victim…Even better would be to slay a girl, preferably a willing victim. After violating her, she should be cut into nine pieces...the arms are then to be flayed, and burnt…it should be disclosed to no man" (Aleister Crowley, The Vision and the Voice, York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1998).

God only knows how many of the recent abductions are the result of the teachings of Satanists and the lawless culture that Pullman and others are advocating - all in the name of freedom from the authority.