Corbett's ID*: From Pulpit To End Zone

THERE WAS A GNAWING in the pit of my stomach. At 3 in the morning. And it wasn't from The Missus' cooking.
No, the cause of this severe case of stomach acidity started in the pulpit on Sunday. Now before you think I'm criticizing my pastor's preaching -- heaven forbid -- it was the subject matter he brought up, which deserves at least a few groans.
It involved three words: 'The Golden Compass.' There I've said it.
In the past, the Ol' Columnist has attempted to lay waste to such deplorable flicks/books as 'The DaVinci Code', but TGC apparently goes beyond and like another questionable legacy, known as Harry Potter, it spreads its anti-Christian theme among the younger generation.
Now, I'm certain our resident movie genius will have his own take on TGC, but for me, this film with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig is unadultered trash without ever seeing it. The reason for making such a statement is that it's based on Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials.
Pullman makes no apologies and he's already been quoted as saying: "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief."
While there have been a battery of ground wars throughout the planet, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan -- there has been a spiritual conflict between the forces of good and evil. And it has become more and more evident with the barrage of books and movies denouncing a person's faith and trying to "crucify" their beliefs.
Of course, it's time that congregations of believers stood up and declare themselves rather than let the likes of Pullman drag them down into a pit of burning embers.
Atheists have been spewing their "faith" among the naive, now being led by Pullman, who apparently believes the "afterlife consists of bodies breaking into particles and being recycled into the material world," while the tenets of the Christian faith are being forgotten and being dismissed as "fantasy."
One of the strongest critics of Pullman's books and the film was Focus On The Family's Adam Holz, who called them "a deliberate attempt to foist his viciously anti-God beliefs upon his audience."
Holz also went on to claim that other messages in the story had praise for "witchcraft, evolution, divination, homosexuality and premarital sex."
Meanwhile, Terry Sanderson, president of Britain's National Secular Society, criticized TGC and its director, Chris Weitz, for removing the "anti-religious elements from Pullman's book." Sanderson told The Guardian: "They are taking the heart out of it, losing the point of it, castrating it." Pullman, incidentally, is one of the society's honorary associates.
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AND SPEAKING OF RELIGION: Some people will use any excuse to be complete jerks. So it's not a sophisticated word, but it fits the British government with their weak response to those Sudanese sword-wielding criminals after they threatened the very life of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons over a teddy bear. Has the world gone completely insane? If it had been called George, would all the Georges of the world seek revenge by calling for a marshmallow-tossing revolution?
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INJUSTICES IN THE SPORTS WHIRL: Perhaps you missed it, but everyone from Rocco Roman to Pierre Vercheval were inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in September. And there have been 12 commissioners from Syd Halter to Mark Cohon, but still two of the most illustrious players in league history -- Dick Thornton and Mel Profit -- have been left out in the cold. Why? Could it be they were unafraid to voice their opinions concerning what they considered were "Mickey Mouse" tactics in running the league? Sorry for bringing up your name, Mickey.