One of the commenters on my blog thread on this topic put the books in a perspective that I find I prefer to look at them: This is a fantasy world of parallel worlds. What if, in this world, Lucifer won the War in Heaven and became the "Authority," the being in this world that set itself up as God? (Note that the overall message of this trilogy is that agency is essential, and I think that is a principle few would disagree with.) Then overthrowing this "Authority" would be essential for life to be worth living.
To quote the commenter, "If, on the other hand, [my kids] think that the God Pullman describes is the God they learn about at church, then I need to do a much better job at teaching them who God is."
There are ways of looking at Pullman's work that doesn't include deciding that it's the worst kind of literature ever and that no kid should be exposed to it. And then perhaps enforced censorship could be pulled out of the discussion.