Questing for Validation

In a comment to yesterday's post about the Reverend Buzz, Rebecca of Carpe You Some Diem wonders:

I don't understand why people think that keeping church and state separate means having a totally Godless existence.

I think one explanation is that in spite of public protestations of deep and abiding faith, many religious folks are scared of having it yanked out from underneath them. They constantly seek public validation of their beliefs as "correct" in order to bolster their faith. Thus you have places like Illinois, that recently introduced a mandatory "moment of silence" at the beginning of the school day. It's prayer by another name, and the faithful are desperate to have it, but they'll disclaim any religious motivation. Same thing with getting the 10 Commandments in schools or court houses - they'll loudly disclaim that it's about "tradition" and legal "foundations," but it's really about making sure their God gets the prime real estate in the state's organs of power.

For another example, see this interview (via Pharyngula) from Fox News with professional victim Bill Donohue and Father Jonathan Morris, who are upset about the forthcoming movie The Golden Compass. The movie is an adaptation of the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. The trilogy is a work of fantasy for kids (the first volume won the Carnegie Medal in 1995 and was named as one of the ten most important children's novels of the past 70 years) that has the audacity to involve anti-religious overtones. Think of it as an atheist equivalent to C.S. Lewis's Narnia books.

The film adaptation has Donohue and Morris in a tizzy for precisely that reason - they think that such ideas are too advanced for the film's PG audience:

[Host John] GIBSON: Father Morris if a movie is pushing atheism, should it get a PG rating?

MORRIS: Well, this is the point John, you know coming to the belief that there is no such thing as transcendence, there is no such thing as heaven, there is no such thing as destiny, that's a big deal. Now if that's an issue that adults come to in a very serious way, it should be presented in a serious way among adults. Putting a PG rating on it I think is saying this is a conversation that's worthy of kids. And that's my problem with this film.

* * *

MORRIS: . . . Now, again, we have to be careful that there isn't ideology pushed. These books by Pullman, is — they're fiction of ideology. And ideology is a big thing. It distorts minds of kids.

I don't necessarily disagree with the dangers of ideology, but is Morris so short sighted that he can't see that he pushes an equally dangerous one? Why is it OK for PG audiences to be subject to Lewis's pro-Christian allegory but not Pullman's pro-rationality one?* I'll make them a deal - I'll support a push for a PG-13 or R rating for The Golden Compass if Donohue and Morris will agree to the same rating on religion in general.

It's got nothing to do with ideology per se, it's got to do with Morris, Donohue, and their ilk protecting the next generation of consumers of religion (who, it appears, are fairly sick of the whole thing) from a competitor. It's ideological protectionism. Trade barriers for the mind. Their so fearful that somebody may actually think for themselves and reject their particular flavor of dogma that they want to limit exposure. They need public acceptance - validation - of their beliefs.

C'mon, guys - you afraid of a little competition?

* To be complete, it looks like the Left Behind movies got PG-13 ratings, but I'm not sure that really counts if nobody outside of Kirk Cameron's family actually saw them.