Nothing like keeping an open mind amongst religious schools. I guess a school is no place to learn, right?
Ontario School Board Bans Fantasy Book
BURLINGTON, Ontario, Canada (AP) — A Roman Catholic school board in Ontario ordered the popular fantasy book “The Golden Compass” taken off library shelves at dozens of schools Thursday after receiving a complaint about the author referring to himself as an atheist.
Similar concerns prompted a Catholic organization in the U.S. to urge parents to boycott a movie version of the book starring Nicole Kidman.
The board for Catholic schools in Ontario’s Halton region said a complaint was lodged after British author Philip Pullman stated in an interview that he is an atheist.
“We have a policy and procedure whereby individual parents, staff, students or community members can apply to have material reviewed. That’s what happened in this case,” said Rick MacDonald, the board’s superintendent of curriculum services.
The board, which oversees 43 Catholic elementary and secondary schools, has not released the identity of the complainant. It also removed two other books in Pullman’s “Dark Materials” trilogy as a precaution.
While “The Golden Compass” was first published in 1995, attention was drawn to the book by the film, which opens next month, MacDonald said.
It seems the Dark Ages are just around the corner. Church leaders should be ashamed of themselves for their behavior. They want to ban books and movies because young people may get confused, and may end up thinking outside the box of religious mind control. What are they really afraid of?
They’re afraid of losing control. If they can’t get their talons into the children when they’re young and impressionable, then it becomes much harder for them to do it later on in life. The worshipper base has a direct relation to the power that the Church has; if people sotp beleiving in the Church, they lose their power, ja?