It was time for my evening break at work so I decided to do something very exciting and check out my favourite news site, none other than BBC. I stumbled upon an interesting article [1] about a new film based on the best-selling book ‘The Golden Compass.’ This is when I had the first déjà vu of the day. I actually realised that it was the book banned by an Ontario School Board and reported in the WhattheFAK site [2] a few days ago.

So, Hollywood decided to make yet another movie based on a book. That's fine, I thought, and I may watch it eventually. But, as I started to read the BBC story, I felt that the author Philip Pullman seemed to be defending himself and his work from the Catholic Church's assessment that the book is atheistic and denigrates Christianity (awesome news, if you ask me, and I am even tempted to fly to the premiere in London). Anyway, this revelation kicked off a series of sensing déjà vu a second, third, fourth, fifth time........

I felt like Neo in the film The Matrix and his déjà vus. All of a sudden I realised that history repeats itself as often as every few months or so. Religious establishments are fighting hard via any means possible to exterminate our rights and freedom to choose our own reading and viewing material. In the 21st century, people still listen and believe religious BS which often prompts violence (how Christian, indeed) merely to 'convince' us that it is in our own interest not to read this book or watch that movie. They think they simply know better. Sorry, but Neo has escaped and it is he who knows better. He knows, together with a selected few, what religious establishments are trying to do. He even has several examples for you.

In 2005, the Catholic Church fought hard to stop people from watching the 'Da Vinci' code [3]. The movie was classified as extremely dangerous since it depicted Opus Dei as the villain and hinted that Jesus had sex with Magdalene. Good for him. I mean how wasteful not to have some fun if you had such powers. It is like being the most powerful man on Earth (the US president, I think, these days) and cannot even get a BJ. That would suck, literally.

Anyway, the church urged all the 'true' Christians not to watch the movie even if they had read the book. (For the record, although I enjoyed the book as a piece of fantasy, I thought that the movie really sucked and I would not have watched it but the church told me not to therefore I had to). Hmm, perhaps a marketing agreement between churches and Hollywood to increase ticket sales through controversy.

This occurred during the same year the death order declared on British author Salman Rushdie by Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guards was still valid [4] - 16 years after issuance. I am sure that you all know the story. The order was issued after publication of Sir Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses," condemned as blasphemous. The poor author went into hiding when the 'fatwa' was first ordered. What was his sin? Did he kill anybody? Did he steal from anybody? No, he simply wrote a book. He couldn't have forced anyone to read it against their will so what was the problem? But, of course, religious establishments are the same anywhere. They unite in their cause to keep us in darkness.

The funny thing is that the publicity generated by the 'fatwa' only increased knowledge of the book's existence and surely prompted more readings. If you want free publicity for your book or movie, try to have them banned in the eyes of religion. The best publicity is the controversial negative kind.

It seems that 2005, was, indeed the year of religious bigotry against free speech. A Danish newspaper [5] published some cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed. The reprocations were propagated all over the world. We had protests across the Muslim world, (resulting in more than 100 deaths, altogether), including setting fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Syria, storming of European buildings, and desecrating the Danish, Norwegian and German flags in Gaza City. An otherwise unknown newspaper became the centre of the known universe - all because a cartoonist had the 'stupid' idea to portray the Prophet in a cartoon.

And while I am talking about cartoons, have you even come across the web site 'Christians AGAINST Cartoons (CaC)' [6]? Yes, you read it right. There is a Christian site against cartoons. The C.a.C. (not caca, OK?) site even recommends nice cartoons for the true believers. I bet that South Park is not one of them. Indeed, in 1999, another 'great' site, the 'ChildCare Action Project' [7] reported that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a vulgar movie. I personally found it very funny and witty especially for those who can appreciate that type of humour. Needless to say that that movie was not for kids; it was for bright adults. Why, then, on earth were any kids allowed to watch it? Shall we blame the parents? No, blame Canada, since they are not even a real country, anyway. Remember, they're just the big US state that hangs 'up there.'

One of the most known cases of religious bigotry against art, took place in 1988. At that time, the movie 'The Last Temptation of Christ' was released. The worldwide havoc caused by religious fanatics was unprecedented. Everywhere within Christendom there were rallies [8] and even riots. At that time, I was still in a Greek high school. I clearly remember the vandalism and violence of the peace-loving Greek Orthodox Christians. They could not just have rallied and expressed their opinions. They had to literally enter the cinemas and cause damage. The story was on the news for weeks. I personally had an argument with a priest's wife who condoned such actions. How Christian was that? And all that for what? Because the movie appeared to show Jesus having sex with Magdalene. It seems that Jesus' virginity is a very delicate matter for Christians. Unfortunately the protesters failed to see what the movie was all about. The personal battle of the author through his writing on Jesus about good and evil. It was even greater shame for the Greeks to create such havoc since the book's author, aka Nikos Kazantzakis [9] is considered to be one of the most influential and respected Greek writers of the 20th century.

Of course, I cannot finish this story without mentioning the worldwide phenomenon 'Harry Potter.' Personally I have not yet read the books, and I have not been impressed with the movies so far. However, I have to say that such books are detested by the Catholic Church since it promotes wizardry. (So what exactly were the Jesus miracles again?) Anyway, in 2006, the Vatican's chief exorcist has gone one step further and condemned J. K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as downright evil [10]. Well, if Jesus can walk on water why can't Harry cast spells? Sorry, but I bet that Ms Rowling is a better author than all of the Bible's editors put together. Perhaps it is time to treat Jesus miracles in the same way as we treat Harry's spells: purely fictional!

I hope that I was able to convince some of our readers there is ongoing bigotry by the major religious establishments against freedom of speech and personal choice. I will continue to ignore them and watch and read whatever the fak I like. I only hope you do the same. Only together we will be able to break the religious spell which has lasted for thousands of years.