What's Intent Got to Do With It?

I was reading an article about Archbishop Burke of St. Louis and his order that Catholic schools in the Archdiocese remove the His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass) series from the schools.

That is not what this post is about. At the end of the article, there is a quote which proved how confused the commenter is about faith and morality:

The Reverend Bruce McCoy, of Canaan Baptist Church in Oakville, said the controversy really just comes down to what the writer's intent was.

While I have no doubt that Philip Pullman intended to use the trilogy to subvert the faith of young children, in all honesty, intent has very little to do with it. One is not permitted to commit evil even if he has a good intention.

Image this: A drunk driver kills a family, but the judge lets him off because he didn't intend to kill anyone. When's the last time this happened and if it did would it be right?

Here is another one: A company uses cheap foreign labor to manufacture children's products resulting in the death of several infants. They didn't intend to kill or hurt anyone.

Ready to let them off the hook? I didn't think so.

I don't care what Mr. Pullman's intent was. The only thing that really matters is the outcome. His books have the potential to harm the faith of young children whose "GPS system" is just being set. I want my children's "GPS" to be set to heaven. Where Pullman intends to set it isn't the issue, the issue is where he sets it to.

Rev. McCoy sounds like a typical relativistic Christian. There is no good or evil, it all depends on intentions and circumstance. Well, I am here to tell him and everyone else who will listen that that point of view is BULL!

Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18:6:

‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.

That is more than enough for me.