Regionals

Camille (red decided) and Gabe (camo decided) each win second place in forms. Gabe also got third place in sparring.

11172007_Regional Tournament

The Golden Compass

This post stems from an email I received. You may want to read the email below first.

Maybe I'm just late to the party on this one. I received the email from a Christian friend and I usually don't fwd these types of emails but (they always say that, but they do), since this involves children and we are in the middle of a war of ideas and all...

This is about an English author and a new Hollywood children flick based on his books.

The comments by the author mentioned on Snopes caught my attention: "My books are about killing God." I thought, well that's a statement worth looking into, perhaps worth passing on to other Christian soldiers. Children book authors usually aren't that vocal. I thought I'd learn more about this guy. Turns out he says his books aren't aimed at children. Of course.

On his website http://www.philip-pullman.com the author replies to the question: "Do you believe in God?" in saying " I don't know whether there's a God or not. Nobody does, no matter what they say. I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away. Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them."

OK, normal atheist stuff so far. I can't believe in something that I do not see or can't prove with my five senses. It's fascinating to me how Pullman confuses his readers' minds with the way he uses the term "dæmon." Maybe it's the French in me and I don't understand how else the term is used in the English language. Read on and you tell me.

"Dæmons" are seemingly part of his fictional fantasy (or reality). About Dæmons he says: "I don't want to say anything about them which will give away some of the plot of the final book, but I will say that the dæmons is that part of you that helps you grow towards wisdom." Wow, what a strange choice of words even for a fantasy world. I guess a child could easily decipher through that. Dæmons - wisdom, you know a good word association when you see one.

Wait, maybe this is not just fantasy, he further claims: "readers have told me that the dæmons, which at first seem so utterly fantastic, soon become so familiar and essential a part of each character that they, the readers, feel as if they've got a dæmon themselves. And my point is that they have, that we all have. It's an aspect of our personality that we often overlook, but it's there. That's what I mean by realism: I was using the fantastical elements to say something that I thought was true about us and about our lives."

Without reading the material he is saying that dæmons are part of the human make-up and they help you grow towards wisdom. I cringe. He is onto something though I'll give him that.

Oh I get it now - among his motives for writing are "#1 Money, #2 to make his name known and #3 the sheer pleasure of craftsmanship: the endlessly absorbing delight of making things" he says. There you have it, another narcissistic talent brought to a theatre near you and your family Dec. 7th. After all, in a world where God does not exist, who cares about the impact his writings have on his readers, however old they are. Who cares about using our creative talents to promote true ideas for a greater cause than ourselves. Let's make the world an even more confusing place as long as our tubby empty-selves are satisfied to the brim.

And then you have Hollywood, throwing millions at this "œuvre d'art." This all makes me want to speak French. Darn, I love Nicole Kidman as an actress though. I'm really torn on this one. Might have to go see it so I can criticize it better. Nah, get behind me, dæmon! That would be too much wisdom.

Franck
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor.10:3-5