I haven’t read them, but I know they’re evil…

Ahhhhh yes, I love it when stupid, ignorant, uninformed people try to argue! I recall a Christan’s argument against Halloween, and how it had to be evil because “it took place at night, in the darkness, where evil people practice their evil.” I remember thinking, “hmmmm. so much for a candle light Christmas-Eve service.” Someone should tell her to READ THE BOOKS!

I agree that if something is evil, disturbing, or unuplifting, one shouldn’t be required to keep reading it, BUT enforcing it upon others is communism at its worst! As a leader in her house, she does however, have the authority to prohibit her own children, but outside the home, she has no business.

Furthermore, if she is in fact just taking other people’s words for gospel truth, she is teaching her kids that BLIND FAITH is okay. This misguided doctrine could lead her children down many evil paths. Leaders and parents should teach their children how to figure out for themselves what is good or bad when possible. Since there is no immediate danger in reading the books, why not take the time to let her children learn discretion on their own while the stakes are lower. If they can’t deal with that kind of influence in their lives now, how are they going to deal with the real world pressures of school, peers, fashion etc…later? Does the lady want to raise her kids in a fricken bubble?

If this lady is truely Christian, than she believes in Satan, who is just as evil and dangerous as dementors and Lord Voltemort. She would also believe that Satan is everywhere, constantly tempting mankind! One cannot simply BAN Satan. So, maybe she should learn how to better deal with Rowling’s ficticious evil characters as field practice.

This lady is falling into the same trap as the Ministry of Magic when they tried to deny the return of LV. In trying not to cause a panic, she is leaving her children in essance unprepared to meet the threat that lies out there waiting for them. Not only is this poor misguided lady ignorant, but she is trying to raise her children blissfully ignorant as well. “Wow Mom, thank you so much for not teaching me to look both ways before I cross the street. Your the best!”

Though it is POSSIBLE that a small few MIGHT choose to turn to witchcraft, it is fruitless to speculate at what people MIGHT choose. Should we not make movies using young children because they MIGHT let fame and fortune corrupt them? Should we not make movies or write books about people who steal or kill, because the reader MIGHT committ these atrocities? Those who will seek power will seek it, and they will try to get it either one way or another! Most people however, just live out their fantasies via these kinds of books and leave it at that. Some people even learn powerful life lessons through them. This lady doesn’t see that, nor is she being consistant.

Why doesn’t she ban Star Wars because the hero uses magic in the form of “the force” while she is at it? Why not ban Chronicles of Narnia because there is an evil witch in the series, not to mention a couple of “good” magicians, and magical tools that are used by the Pevenie children? (The horn, the healing cordial, and the magically guided bow and arrow set given to them by Father Christmas.)

The only possible danger posed in the Harry Potter series, as far as I’m concerned, is that the distinction between “evil” magic being used to do “good” things in order to accomplish an even greater “evil” isn’t addressed, as far as I’m aware. (ie…the white witch making the turkish delight for Edward in “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” in order to butter him up and get him to bring his siblings to come and visit her so that she can destroy them.) I personally am teaching my children about that evil tool called deception, as any good parent should. Therefore, if parents do their job, their children can be safe from this trap, but only if they CHOOSE to be. As for those children not instructed by their parents concerning the reality of this weapon, they probably are going to have to learn it on their own anyway.

The point that the HP series does make very clear however, is that our choices are what define us. This caution, or lesson, puts the ball back in the reader’s court, as to what he/she is going to decide to do in life. Additionally, if an essentially “good” person WERE TO decide to persue witchcraft, but then later on decided that it was a wrong choice, the mistake would be rectifiable. The power of redemption, I believe, is one of JKR’s other lessons yet to be revealed later on in greater detail.

This all comes down to the age old argument that is brought up over the control of video games, TV, and movies over children. Do are children need direction? Yes! Do they need limits while their minds are developing? Yes! However, do we lock them up in a room and hinder their exposure to the temptations of the world? No! This is not only impossible, but dangerous. If this lady is Christian, then she believes that Satan is real. What does he want then? He wants to drag us all down to the depths of hell with chains. In otherwords, restrictions to our free agency because we have made wrong choices. ie…consequences such as addiction to drugs, being in prison, and loosing our lives etc… This lady is being extreme and is no better than the Devil himself by trying to placing shackles on school children’s liberty. Surely there is a better approach than this.

Harry Potter’s delema of Voltemort taking the prophecy literally is no different than Satan’s attempts to bring us down despite the prophecies of his destruction by prophets of the bible. He takes it seriously, and because he does, he leaves us with one of two choices. Defeat him, or be defeated. It all comes down to choice again in the Christian mind set. Hiding is NOT an option, as this lady would have you believe, though arming ones self is advisable with the weapons of knowledge and wisdom. Strategm, not avoidance, is key in a war if you want to win.

The only valid point that could be argued in our legal system in the banning of HP books in schools would be the separation of church and state, assuming they define the use of magic, witches, wizard etc… as part of the Wicken religion. If they were to do this though, the waters get even murkier. Would there be much left for our schools to use to teach our children? If that were the case, then we may as well hand the schoold all over to religion. Why do this, when the lady can just send her own kids to private school through her own affiliated faith?

This lady, in her attempt to be noble and helpful, is rediculous! I’m temped to see if the O’Reilly Factor would be interrested in covering the injustice of it all. I should like to read to her the scripture in Jude 1:10 where is says “But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.”

Demonic Activity? Haven’t heard of it. There are Dementors, but its not like Rowling’s saying “Look here, its a demon, do you want to be a demon when you grow up?” I’d say there’s more chance of becoming satanic from reading the Bible!

Let they not read it who do not want to.Why ban others from reading it?!?

Like I’ve said in another post:it depends on the way one interprets Harry Potter Books.Just like a half-full glass is either half-full or half empty.:)

I love reading these things they just make me laough. You want to ask the person what they’re on. I mean really I’m a Lutheran and I don’t think there is anything wrong with Harry Potter (obviously). I’m not sure where she got that the books contain lying cheating and stealing. I mean sure they’re mentioned but that’s life no one’s perfect. Yeah and the part about the books not having morals, heh, Harry Potter has PLENTY of good morals.