In December 2004 I bemoaned the fact that god was to be cut from the film versions of His Dark Materials. The first film will be released in a couple of months’ time and I see (via MediaWatchWatch) that the cuts from The Golden Compass aren’t deep enough the satisfy the Catholic League who have called for a boycott of the film. Apparently children who see the film could be encouraged to read the books and would therefore be introduced to the full force of Philip Pullman’s dangerous atheism.
Perhaps we should have a campaign to donate copies of the books to local Catholic churches.
Update: More from the Observer and the National Secular Society (I didn’t mention that I’d joined the NSS, did I?). I’m particularly appalled by the quotation from Nicole Kidman:
I was raised Catholic, the Catholic Church is part of my essence … I wouldn’t be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic.