So Why Is A Teacher At A Catholic School Linking To This?
I report, you decide

Last night, a friend of mine and I were discussing how one of the teachers at a local Catholic school was linking to a certain author on the schools website. Well, I went to this particular teachers section on the school's website, and from there, to her links. Sure enough, I found the following;

Author Phillip Pullman's homepage. He writes a very interesting series of
books in the vein of Harry Potter. http://www.philip-pullman.com/about_the_author.aspTo be honest, it seemed pretty ho-hum stuff to me until I found the following in my e-mail inbox this morning;
PLEASE NOTE AND PASS ON TO THOSE ON YOUR ADDRESS LIST: BE SURE TO ACCESS HE "SNOPES" WEBSITE MENTIONED IN THE ORIGINAL EMAIL. IT DESCRIBES THE MOVIE "THE GOLDEN COMPASS" SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE ON DECEMBER 7. IT IS A VIRULENTLY ANTI-CHRISTIAN FILM BASED ON NOVELS BY A BRITISH AUTHOR, PULLMAN, AND AIMED AT CHILDREN. ALL CHRISTIAN GROUPS SHOULD BE ALERTED TO THIS LATEST ATTACK ON RELIGION, AND PARENTS SHOULD BE ALERTED TO THIS LATEST ATTACK BY ORGANIZED ATHEISM.This particular e-mail went on to claim;

The movie has been dumbed down to fool kids and their parents in the hopes that they will buy his trilogy where in the end, THE CHILDREN KILL GOD, and everyone can do as they please.My, my!! Isn't that just slightly disconcerting? Well, said e-mail suggested swinging over to Snopes.com to verify if all this bruhaha is just another internet email fraud.

Well, according to Snopes, it aint. Here's some of what Snopes has posted; (emphasis mine)

The Golden Compass, a fantasy film starring Nicole Kidman that is scheduled to be released into theaters on 7 December 2007, has been drawing fire from concerned Christians. The film is based on Northern Lights (released in the U.S. as The Golden Compass), the first offering in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy of children's books, a series that follows the adventures of a streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears, and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God.

The series' author, Phillip Pullman, is an avowed atheist who has averred that "I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words 'spiritual' or 'spirituality.'" Critics of Pullman's books point to the strong anti-religion and anti-God themes they incorporate, and although literary works are subject to a variety of interpretations, Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that "My books are about killing God." Things are starting to get curious, aren't they? Well, fellow bloglodytes, I thought I should check on some of these rather incendiary claims. And I most certainly did discover that Pullman stated in a 2003 interview with Steve Meacham of The Sydney Morning Herald; (emphasis mine)

"I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak. I'm a great fan of J.K. Rowling, but the people - mainly from America's Bible Belt - who complain that Harry Potter promotes Satanism or witchcraft obviously haven't got enough in their lives. Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God."Interesting, huh? So I decided to see what The Catholic League had to say about all this. (emphasis mine)

New Line Cinema and Scholastic Entertainment have paired to produce ‘The Golden Compass,’ a children’s fantasy that is based on the first book of a trilogy by militant English atheist Philip Pullman. The trilogy, His Dark Materials, was written to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism. The target audience is children and adolescents.

Each book becomes progressively more aggressive in its denigration of Christianity and promotion of atheism: The Subtle Knife is more provocative than The Golden Compass and The Amber Spyglass is the most in-your-face assault on Christian sensibilities of the three volumes.

Atheism for kids. That is what Philip Pullman sells. It is his hope that ‘The Golden Compass,’ which stars Nicole Kidman and opens December 7, will entice parents to buy his trilogy as a Christmas gift. It is our hope that the film fails to meet box office expectations and that his books attract few buyers.It certainly is obvious that Pullman and his works are not only non-Catholic... they're militantly anti-Catholic. And this takes me back to my original question; why is a teacher at a Catholic school linking to this?