I do not agree with the person who stated that books for young people should be written responsibly. In the first instance, who decides what is responsible? In the second instance, why do we keep trying to shield our children from the big bad world when most of them have already experienced much of what we don’t want them to (for example, just think of the recent sex and fighting videos distributed via cellphones).

What I would rather recommend is that we arm our children with knowledge. Teach them about what is out there and allow them to explore on their own but equip them with the tools to remain strong within themselves so that they can make reasoned and lucid choices of their own.

I was fortunate in that I was not only allowed, but encouraged to read as widely as possible when I was a child. What that instilled in me was the instinct to question and analyse and not just accept at face-value whatever was fed to me. This strengthened, not diminished, my faith and taught me to respect the opinions of those who differed with me.

Christian fundamentalists have as much right as anyone else to express their views. I have the choice of listening to them or tuning them out. However, they step over the line when they threaten violence and when they want to control what other people read, hear and see.

One thing I’d like to know: how many of the people howling about this movie and its allegedly anti-Christian values (and how intriguing that it’s always about the Christians – the god figure portrayed in the books could just as easily be the Jewish or Muslim notion of G-d): how many of you have read the books? In other words, how can you make bland assumptions if you haven’t actually read the books for yourself?

If you prefer not to read them because you feel they will offend you, that’s absolutely fine. But how can you call for a mass boycott of the film and the books? This is not a Christian country, not sure if anyone has registered that lately? We live in a secular society, so why should the many be dictated to by the few, relatively speaking?

I get very frustrated with people who bang on and on about how offensive books or movies are, when the simple solution is not to read or watch them. You can choose not to let your kids read or watch them, too, but you can’t presume to force that decision on scores of other people!

Equally, of course, all you naughty non-Christians aren’t allowed to criticise or mock the Bible unless you’ve read it, at least twice. But not back to front, because that’s satanic.

The problem with fundamentalists is that there is only one or the other, but never both. And they see any dissension with their views as a physical attack on them, which is what makes them so dangerous.

There are two reviews of The Golden Compass by critics who work for organisations affiliated with the Catholic Church, by Peter Malone of Signis and Harry Forbes & somebody Mulderig of the Office for Film & Broadcasting, a body of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Both reviews are utterly sane and non-hysterical — and fully in accord with Christian thought.

Christianity is in a poor state when Pullman and Cliff and Maas are condemned, instead of their line of reasoning being engaged with. Freedom of religion implies also the freedom to follow none, or to state one’s oppose to one or all religion(s). Take that away from Cliff, Maas et al, and you create a powerful argument for that right being surrendered.

(As an aside: I would venture that Maas will not be missed by most readers of Rapport. He is an ignorant, egotistical, boring little man with no insight and nothing of any importance to say, apart from cheap sensation-seeking. His few columns in Beeld before the Satan piece in Rapport, were even more inane and pathetic than the one which did lead to his deserved demise.)

These reactions are ironic because they come from the adherents of a new religion: political correctness combined with the New-Age la-la looney tunes of a blind belief in the “benefits” of multiculturalism.

Just like Christians, the PC brigade base their beliefs on something that is neither scientifically provable, nor subject to rational inquiry. You dare not, for example, question whether multiculturalism is a desirable thing. You dare not question why France is burning, because the multicultural fundamentalists will crucify you by hysterically crying while screaming their holy mantra : “racism!”

Exactly like Christians and Muslims, they become very irate and are wont to declare a Jihad when anybody blasphemes against their silly belief systems.

Let me supply an example: when James Watson recently dared to say something about race, intelligence and genetics, a Jihad was declared against him by the wild-eyed PC fundamentalists, and the poor old man was browbeaten into a public retraction. This Jihad wasn’t declared on any scientific basis, you understand, but because his utterances dared to question the non-negotiable, religious dogma of our age, the extremely silly dogma that “we are all the same”.

Those who dare question the religion of political correctness, and clast the great icon of multiculturalism, are shouted down by a shrill voice of condemnation.

So to all of you PC creatures who are railing against the Christians because Christians have blasphemed against your own religion, you are no better than the most wild-eyed Bible or Qu’ran basher.