• "I am all for the death of God."


• "My books are about killing God."


• "I am of the Devil's party and I know it."


• "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief."

• Though much of Pullman's trilogy involves kid-pleasing romps through mystical worlds with talking animals and magical witches, the underlying theme is no simple fantasy. In the fictional universe of His Dark Materials, there is no real God; rather there is a high angel called the Authority, who purports to be God. The Church does the bidding of the Authority, repressing physical pleasure and subverting the will and wisdom of the people. Lyra, the protagonist, is a second Eve. Through her Fall, mankind will once again be knowledgeable and free of the restraints imposed by the Authority and the Church. Thus does Pullman turn the Biblical account on its head.


• In both the book and the movie, the evil institutional force is called the "Magisterium." In real life, the Magisterium is the teaching body of the Catholic Church, i.e., the pope and the bishops in communion with him. So there is no doubting Pullman's desire to paint the Catholic Church as evil.


• Will and Lyra stumble upon God himself. He is not an imposing force, however. Rather, he is encased in crystal and being terrorized by ghoulish beings called cliffghasts. The children release God from the case, and he dissolves into the air like the dead. The war over, and God and his agents gone, Lord Asriel's followers can now settle down to building the Republic of Heaven on Earth.


• Dr. Mary Malone's job, however, still is not done. She is able to play the serpent by telling Lyra and Will about the joy she experienced when she quit being a nun to pursue a relationship with a man, and the pleasure - both physical and mental - that accompanied her decision. Dr. Malone opens the children's eyes to erotic love, and they soon confess their feelings for each other. Lyra and Will kiss, and in doing so, they become conscious of the pleasures of the body. Though the children are blissful for a short time, they soon learn that they cannot live for long in worlds other than their own, and every path between worlds but one will have to be closed.

• "Best of all is American Atheists and the U.K.'s National Secular Society. They are furious about being undernourished. The leader of the latter was quite revealing when he said, 'We knew from the beginning that the producers of this film intended to leave out the anti-religious references. We think this is a great shame.' Exactly our point - it's Pullman's trilogy, not the film, that really sells atheism to kids."


• Similarly, Mark Morford of SFGate.com calls Pullman's books 'aggressively anti-Christian,' but he is also chagrined that the movie denies him the red meat that Catholic bashers feed on.

• "In yesterday's Boston Globe, the film studio's house theologian, Donna Freitas, said Pullman's books 'are deeply Christian in their theology.' Then how does she explain why the English atheist organization, the National Secular Society, loves Pullman's books? And how does she explain Pullman's statement that he agrees with his character Mary Malone who, in The Amber Spyglass (the third volume of his trilogy), says, 'The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake'?


• "In the current Newsweek, Pullman lashes out at me saying, 'To regard it [his storytelling] as this Donohue man has said - that I'm a militant atheist, and my intention is to convert people - how the hell does he know that?' That's easy - I just quote him: 'I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.'


• "In his books, Pullman refers to 'Dust' as an invisible substance with mysterious qualities. To Dr. Spin, Freitas, 'Dust is the Holy Spirit.' Really? Then why did the screenwriter, Chris Weitz, tell Hanna Rosin of the Atlantic Monthly that the producers of the movie told him to take the following line out of the film: 'Dust is sin'?
  "Weitz recently said it is 'wrongheaded' to say Pullman wants to 'kill God.' Yet Pullman has admitted that 'My books are about killing God.'


• "Both Weitz and Pullman confess that their primary goal is to see that 'The Golden Compass' succeeds so that there will be a film version of books two and three. Weitz has said that the producer, New Line Cinema, has been concerned about the movie's 'perceived antireligiosity making it an unviable project financially.' Thus, the need to water down the anti-Catholicism. Pullman says he needs to be careful talking about his motives lest he 'talk the other two films out of existence.' To which I say, 'Keep talking and insert foot.'"

We live in a time when radical secularists will stop at nothing to advance their agenda. It is one thing to be indifferent toward religion, quite another to unleash an anti-religion crusade. This is exactly what the new atheism is all about - a dogmatic plundering of religion, especially Christianity, done in the name of tolerance. What makes Philip Pullman different from all the other militant atheists is his determination to proselytize children. Though the movie version of The Golden Compass promises to walk very carefully on the subject of religion, the fact remains that parents may be seduced into buying Pullman's books, thinking they are innocuous.

They are anything but. Our interest is to alert the public to Pullman's goal, and we feel confident that the more informed parents are, the more they will reject his message. There is little doubt that if a movie were about to open that was based on a trilogy of children's books that were undeniably racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim or anti-gay, there would be an uproar from the civil rights organizations that represent these communities. Moreover, it wouldn't matter a bit if the film version was mild in comparison to the book. What would matter is that kids were being taught a vile lesson in a back-door manner.

The time has come to draw a line in the sand. If this movie fails to meet the expectations of its producers, it will inexorably lead to a collapse of interest in Pullman's books. By any estimation, this would be an important marker in the culture war. It would also make for a very Merry Christmas.