READERS are aware that C MacArt has a driving social conscience.

What is more difficult to understand – though religious fanatics are surely the hot topic of the moment – is his habitual and total focus on religion per se for atrocity illustration without reference to the good religions do and without mention of the copious examples of non-religious horrors perpetrated by the secular atheist regimes of Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and the current Human Rightsabusing regimes of North Korea and China.

Could he explain to readers the reasons behind the familiar restricted selected choice without any reference to those obnoxious political regimes – if only to preserve a reasonable balance? Or is he not bothered about that?

And could he further comment on how any human being, himself included, qualifies to “throw the first stone” (his choice of phrase).

Is he aware, somewhat ironically and inconsistently, that this very choice of phrase comes first and foremost from the lips of Jesus Christ himself ?

Michael Baldasera, Darlington.