Demonic Danger - The Golden Compass

In her book entitled, Consuming Kids, psychologist Susan Linn shows us the bombardment of advertising dollars that are being invested to reach a major consumer group of our population – our children. Linn says that the billions being spent on this market is directly competing “with parental values for children’s hearts, minds and souls.”

One such marketing tool is the movie industry. Movie trailers with interactive web sites take your child on a fantasy adventure while waiting for the films release. This is followed by flooding the market with action figures, books, clothes, and toys accompanying fast food meals join in the advertising blitz to influence our children.

The Golden Compass uses this type of marketing to encourage a child to discover their personal demon who will guide them on life’s adventures. Freddie Highmore who plays the voice of Lyra’s daemon, Pan, believes that his character “is really the mirror image of Lyra. I think having a demon is like wearing your heart on your sleeve. It’s your heart working side-by-side by you.” He went on to explain, “I think the demon is the voice inside your head, your gut feeling saying, ‘well, maybe you shouldn’t do that.’ And that’s what the demons are except they just express it out loud. And they’re invisible – they’re out there.”
Is this the values that every parent wants to allow their children to learn? Doing what the web site encourages, that is, finding the name and character of your lifelong personal demon, will have a profound impact on their “hearts, minds and souls.”

Even those experienced in the occult warn that the conjuring up of spirits and demons can lead to demonic possession for the inexperienced. In the United States where God and Christian values are increasingly under attack, the idea of a devil or demon is considered mythology. But to the countries and tribes who believe in the power of the spirits they call upon, this action is not a game.

According to Christianity, demons can take up residence in a person where the Holy Spirit does not reside. Where there is a spiritual vacuum in the soul combined with an event that invites the spirit into that person’s life, demonic possession can occur.

Part of the ministry of Jesus was the casting out of demons. Here is one such account from Matthew 8:28-32. (RSV)

"And when He came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs met Him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?" Now a herd of many swine was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged Him, "If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine." And He said to them, "Go." So they came out and went into the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the waters."

The Bible says in Revelations 16:13-16 that demon will have an influence in our world in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ.

"And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet three foul spirits like frogs; for they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. "Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!" And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon."

Please understand that I am trying to warn you of the dangers inherent when one calls upon a demon to be their guide through life. Phillip Pullman’s series “His Dark Materials” and the official web site for “The Golden Compass” do not have your children’s best interests at heart. Rather, the material being marketed is design to capture and imprison your “children’s hearts, minds and souls.”