Atheists beware!Our friend Jeff Emanuel reports that atheist parents who took their kids to see The Golden Compass thinking that they could have some good, committed atheist fun, were outraged that the preview for Prince Caspian was shown before the film.

Prince Caspian is the forthcoming second installment in the series of films based on C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books—which Philip Pullman utterly despises for their Christian content. Pullman is the author of the "His Dark Materials" book trilogy, the first volume of which provided the story for The Golden Compass.

As Comics Nexus reports:

Parents at a 12:50 showing of "The Golden Compass" in Fort Worth’s Eastchase district were both shocked and appalled to find that the movie was preceded by a trailer for the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the novel "Prince Caspian", which some parents fear may cause their children to read a series that promotes spiritual belief and "denigrates Atheism."

"I just can’t believe this," said Leah Jones, mother of three and proud atheist. "I can’t believe that they would allow children to be exposed to this kind of thing without warning!" . . .

While [Don] Billohue said he’s not concerned about [Prince Caspian], which he described as "fairly innocuous," he charges movie makers for engaging in a "deceitful, stealth campaign" to promote the book. "This is not about censorship," insists Billohue. "This is about the values we don’t want our children being taught."

I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the story, but the author appears sympathetic to the atheists’ views, so it may well be true. Certainly if it is a hoax, it is convincing by virtue of being so thoroughly plausible.
 
In any case, it’s quite amusing to see that according to these angry people the values that built this society can only be promoted through a "deceitful, stealth campaign" and shouldn’t be taught to our children.