Oh Be Careful Little Eyes

O be careful little eyes what you see

O be careful little eyes what you see

There's a Father up above

And He's looking down in love

So, be careful little eyes what you see

As a child, I remember singing that song. It goes on to say be careful little ears what you ear, little hands what you do, little feet where you go, little mouth what you say. How we live our life is strongly influenced by what we see and hear, and then where we go and what we participate in.

This principle should apply to what we watch on TV and the movies we watch, along with many other aspects of our life. I am not saying a Christian should necessarily avoid all secular music, TV, movies, etc - unless they feel called by God to so. But we must use our ability of discernment, which is given to all believers through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when deciding what to expose ourselves, and our children, to.

What we watch and what we filter out will often depend on the individuals role in their family and the church and the level of their maturity and understanding of Scripture. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that being spiritually mature and knowledgeable in doctrine and Scripture gives you free reign to watch filth.

However, sometimes a film comes along that portrays Christianity or God in a manner that can be dangerous to the church and the spiritually mature and doctrinally sound leaders need to watch or at least be very aware of the film so they can teach their flock and warn them of the dangers.

I recently became aware of one such film that I recommend Christians, especially parents and church leaders, be cautious of. It is called the Golden Compass. Some of the animations looked similar to the Narnia movies, particularly the polar bear, and the movie seemed interesting so we began to watch it.

It wasn't long into the movie when I realized something wasn't right.  Everyone in the movie had a "demon" that followed them around and interacted with them...and some of the demons were portrayed as cute fuzzy playful animals. They also seemed to promoting the rebellious characters in the movie as the heroes.

So I did a little research. Turns out, the movie is based on one of the books in trilogy by Philip Pullman called "His Dark Materials." A quick overview of the book would go like this...God isn't really the creator...He just somehow came out of the "dust" and was the first angel...He told all the other angels to follow He created them...and when He got old and weak he faced a rebellion from the other angels and from mankind.

By the time the trilogy is over, God is dead and two of the characters of the story re-enact the story of the garden of Eden, only this time it saves the universe rather than condemns it. One thing that makes the story so deceptive is the fact that it does make you think of C.S. Lewis and the Narnia story...but that is no accident. Pullman despised C.S. Lewis and said of the Narnia books are "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I have ever read," with "no shortage of … nauseating drivel."

Not convinced that Mr. Pullman is an enemy of Christianity? What if I told you another of his books is entitled "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ"? One of the press statements about the books reads like this:

In Pullman’s work, Jesus is a charismatic, honest speaker, who believes that the kingdom of God is imminent. Christ, on the other hand, has an eye to posterity, to the need for an organized church and to the requirements of history. “He knows that human beings, being what they are, need structures, they fall into bureaucracy. He knew that the kingdom never was going to come,” said Pullman. See this review and others here

It is important for us to remember that not all things fun, not all things popular, not even all things made for children are things we should watch, listen to, or expose our children to.