Evil Afoot

SIGH. There must be a dearth of lost souls to pray for these days.

I subscribe to the mailing list for each of the boys' PTSA. They're pretty good about only using mass emails for relevant information and I usually only get one a week, sometimes not even that many.

The PTSA President at the Middle School is a friend of mine. Our boys have played baseball together for years, and I served on the PTSA under her when she was President at the elementary school.

She is a very, very sweet person. But she's very high strung. Normally high strung women annoy me, and I avoid them like the plauge. But she is the kind of person who is so genuinely nice and selfless that I can't hold it against her. She is a Christian, and she knows I am not a Christian, but so far, this has not impacted our friendship in any significant way.

Yesterday I got a mass emailing from her about The Golden Compass. In case you didn't know, it was sent from Satan to corrupt our children and bend them to his evil purpose. Or something like that.

I found it highly inappropriate and presumptuous. I provided my email to receive information about school issues, not to be subjected to hyper religious handwringing.

But I let it go. Because it's not worth being branded as Satan's concubine, and because I know she really means well. She really does think that seeing the movie will put our childrens' immortal souls at risk. And that worries her. A lot.

I deleted it and thought no more about it. But I opened my email this morning to find a veritable FLOOD of indignant exclamation and postulation. The entire fricking PTSA and all those on the mailing list were roiling with outrage. Which is fine. Be outraged. I don't really care.

But fer the love of Mike Brady don't REPLY TO ALL when you express just how outraged you are. I am getting literally, hundreds of emails about this very serious crisis.

Now I have to unsubscribe until all this blows over and resubscribe at a later date. Not only that, I have to weed through all these stupid emails to make sure I haven't missed something important in all the dogmatic melee.

Honestly, I don't know what this particular movie is about. But there are plenty of movies that I find offensive; those with gratuitous violence, those that objectify women, those that promote and/or glorify mysogeny, misanthropy, racism, classism, hedonism. There are movies that make me wonder about why someone felt compelled to make such a movie. There are movies that make me wonder at the depths of depravity to which the human psyche is capable of sinking.

My solution to that is very simple. I don't go see them.

People, if you find this movie morally and/or religiously offensive, DON'T GO SEE IT.

Also, have people not figured out that the best way to guarantee the success of a book or movie is to make a big fat stink about it? Do they not realize they are only lining Satan's pockets by whipping the public into such a fervor?

It's been that way since Hester Prynne, folks. No, since Adam and Eve. But the scarlet letter upon her breast only served to remind people of fornication every single time they saw it. The church, seeking to humiliate and examplify, only made people hornier than they already were, and more likely to commit a moral indiscretion.

Nothing has changed. Nothing makes people want to do something more than having the church or it's followers deem it to be sinful.

And then, of course, there is the fact that it's only a movie. For the life of me I cannot understand why people get all up in arms about fairy tales and flights of fancy. And I cannot understand why Christians need to find evil in such things when there is plenty of very real evil lurking around every corner.

I almost feel compelled to take my children to see it just on general principle; to demonstrate that I will not be swayed or cowed by religious hysteria and fear mongering. And that I will not let my children miss out on the very little magic that is left in this world for fear of an imagined and exaggerated evil.

Here's an interesting article about the movie.

I wonder if those who live outside the bible belt have to put up with this kind of crap.

And my friend? Sigh...I don't know. She thinks she is doing a good thing. I can't fault her for that. But I don't want to be on the receiving end of her brand of altruism. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell her without sounding truculent, judgemental and defensive.

So I will let it go. Just like I can choose not read a book or see a movie, I can choose not to be pandered to.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this issue, whether you are Christian or agnostic or atheirs. I'm genuinely interested in any and all points of view.