Dear wordpool members,

I appear to have this post/apology/explanation banned from the wordpool group by the moderator. I am saddened and aghast.

Personally i think that this kind of censorship is so much more outrageous and insidiously offensive than anything i wrote in that post.

I merely attempted to demonstrate how some one not familiar with certain reliogious ceremonies (eg A child) could perceive them as strange and frightening.

It was not my intention to offend either people's religions or sensibilities.

If that was the case then i do unreservedly apologize to those that may have taken offence.

In my defence i think that it illustrated a very important point to bear in mind whilst creating material that is absorbed by eager and fresh young minds.

The point was not to have a dig at a particular, or indeed any religious group (i could have drawn various other examples from any number of different faiths). Rather to illustrate that we must not forget that when writing for children they may not share our same frame of reference.

I had hoped to convey that images and methods a lot of adults take for granted in their everyday life due to their religious backgrounds (for example the representation of the torture and crucifixion of Christ and the eucharist) may seem terrifying and bizarre to a a child that had never been exposed to such disturbing images and confusing concepts before.

I make no apology for suggesting that it could be deeply disturbing for a young child to walk into an imposingly large building and come face to face with a 10ft high representation of our lord suffering on the cross.

The relevance to the the topic was that i found it difficult to stomach that a representative in the higher echelons of any religion  could make such ridiculous and blinkered comments about a series of books that are so innocuous.
He failed to differentiate between reality and fiction where literally millions of children succeed to their benefit every day.
To suggest that the Harry Potter books could lead to Satanism is embarrassingly pathetic and not worthy of such debate.

Although my original post appears to have been slightly 'off target' for some. (I thought that it would provoke thought and discussion about the perspective of children as innocents, not rampant condemnation and gagging censorship.)
I am aware that if i ever come close to suggesting that something in religion seems 'a bit silly' in regard to anything (Let alone a child's viewpoint) i am invariably bombarded with complaints whereas points of view based on religious standpoints criticising others views are deemed acceptable and go unchallenged. Am i the only one that thinks this is not healthy for a free and unbiased basis to educate our children, especially with regards to the medium of books.

This is not about religion it is about the impression we make our on children's psyches.

This is all incredibly relevant and important to all of us children's writers and indeed the children themselves, albeit a touchy subject it is not one that should be ignored.

Again I apologise to those that were offended and did not understand the issues addressed.


I will henceforth keep the discussion to kittens, ponies, princesses, congratulating each other and all the other things to do with childrens literature that apparantly are so much more important than risking blinding our children with our own predjudices.

Shame

Yours very sincerely,

Titus Kodzoman

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