British author Phillip Pullman has publicly denied allegations that his work, including The Golden Compass which is being adapted onto the big screen, is anti-Catholic and promotes atheism.
The movie, slated for a Dec. 7 release, is based on the first book from Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, in which a young girl's quest to uncover the reason behind her friend's disappearance concludes with the killing of a character named God - who turns out to be a phony.Christian groups such as the Catholic League have criticised the movie and charged the intentional removal of anti-religious themes as a ploy to encourage kids to read Pullman's pro-atheism books.
The Catholic watchdog has even published a brochure, entitled "The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked," as part of a PR campaign aimed to expose atheist elements of the series.
In his appearance on the "Today" show Thursday, Pullman implicitly denied that his work is selling "atheism for kids" when "Today" host Al Roker brought up the accusations made by the Catholic League.
"Well, you know, I always mistrust people who tell us how we should understand something. They know better than we do what the book means or what this means and how we should read it and whether we should read it or not," said Pullman.
"I don't think that's democratic," he continued. "I prefer to trust the reader. I prefer to trust what I call the democracy of reading - when everybody has the right to form their own opinion and read what they like and come to their own conclusion about it. So I trust the reader."
But Pullman's answer did little to convince Catholic League president Bill Donohue who said he was appalled that the author would continue his charade instead of directly answering to the accusations.
"The last thing Pullman trusts is the people," Donohue said in a statement Thursday. "That is why he tries to sneak his atheism in back-door to kids. If he had any courage, he'd defend his work, but instead he continues to do what he does best - practice deceit."
Donahue also doubted Pullman's claims that the he just intends readers to get a "good experience of a good story," pointing to a comment made several years ago by the writer.
"I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief," said Pullman in an article by The Washington Post, adding that C.S. Lewis, the Christian author of Chronicles of Narnia, would describe his books as the "Devil's work."
