Philip Pullman

In all the brouhaha last week over the incendiary comments made by Barack Obama's pastor the media seemed to forget to partake in their traditional Holy Week Christian-bashing excercise.  There were a few entries in the "Easter Hit Parade," like the Comedy Central show "Root of All Evil" which my boss, Brent Bozell, wrote about in a column recently, and an episode of "Law and Order" which featured another Christian-stones-someone storyline.

I suppose it's good news that there was less faith flagellation courtesy of the liberal media, and yet at the same time it's sad that I was expecting to find it at Easter time.  But the fact remains that Christmas and Easter are generally times when the media attacks on Christians are more pronounced.

For atheists it's a different story.

"The Golden Compass" did not produce box-office gold during its first weekend.

While ranked #1 for the weekend, the movie which opened in 3,528 theaters, was lavishly produced and promoted, only took in in $26.1 million, according to Boxofficemojo.com. Studio New Line Cinema was hoping for returns in the $30 to $40 million range.

"Compass" drew the ire of many Christians because the movie is based on the first book in a trilogy called "His Dark Materials" by avowed atheist Philip Pullman, who has said publicly that his books are about killing God. In "USA Today," Rolf Mittweg of New Line Cinema conceded that the "religion controversy might have had an effect."

Believe it or not, "climate change" and the "perilous state of the polar bear" is being used to justify a global giant’s campaign to help market an upcoming movie.

Coca-Cola is among the many corporations that is participating in a promotional partnership with Time Warner to market the upcoming movie 'The Golden Compass,' which is based on the first of Philip Pullman's 'God-killing' trilogy of novels, 'His Dark Materials.'

Author Rick Kephart wrote Coca-Cola, telling them that group of villians in the novels is called 'The Magisterium,' which is the name of the Catholic Church's teaching authority. The response Kephart received from Coca-Cola tried to change the subject to the "hot topics" of climate change and polar bears, of all things.