Casting Out the Harry Potter Demons

May 3rd, 2008 · 13 Comments · Defense Against the Harry Haters

by Travis

We’ve had a good amount of discussion here about the term “fundamentalism” as it applies to Christian anti-Potter crowd. There’s been some disagreement about what the term means. This post might help clarify what I mean when I use the term. Some time ago, I began writing some satire of fundamentalism at my other site. In one of those satires, I wrote the following. The scene takes place as the pastor of a fundamentalist church (”Pastor Funk”) has made a house call to try to evangelize “Fred” -

“I see that there’s a copy of Harry Potter on your bookshelf,” Pastor Funk said. “Did you know the Bible says that witches should be killed? Did you know that there really are demons, and that witches are always conjuring up demons, and that if your children continue to read books influenced by the occult, you could bring demonic influence into this very house?” …

“Here’s a few gospel tracts about the evils of Harry Potter….”

Fred glanced over at his book shelf. Six Harry Potter novels were neatly stacked there…but wait…did he just see one of them move a little? No, his eyes were playing tricks on him. But then again, he and his wife had just finished reading the series to the boys for the third time, and the boys were acting very oddly lately. Chuck, in his last hockey game, had accidently shot the puck into his own goal. And Bill had spilled milk on the floor three times this week. Could demons be turning them into little mentally deranged boys who couldn’t perform simple tasks?

Alas, my satire has become reality. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone went undercover at a “Christian” retreat of a very popular, nationally-known church, and the retreat’s leader (Fortenberry) told the following story:

Fortenberry told a story about a nephew of his who called him up one night. “Both of his kids had fallen on the ground in respiratory distress, half-conscious, writhing around, gasping for air,” Fortenberry said. “And I said to my nephew, I said, ‘It isn’t something they’ve done. It’s something you’ve done.’ ”

The crowd murmured in assent.

“I told my nephew to look around the house,” Fortenberry continued. “I said, ‘Do you have a copy of Harry Potter?’ And he said yes. And I said, ‘That’s your problem.’ So I told him to go get that copy of that book, tear it in half and throw it out the window. So he does it, and guess what? Both of those kids stood up completely recovered, just like that.”

He snapped his fingers, indicating the speed with which the kids had jumped up in recovery. The crowd cooed and applauded. I frowned, wondering for a minute what life must be like for a person mortally afraid of toothless commercial fairy tales. It struck me that Phil Fortenberry’s nephew was probably more afraid of Harry Potter than Macbeth, which to me said a lot about this religion and about America in general.

Scary.

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Tags: fundamentalism·Harry Haters

13 responses so far ↓

1 Johnny // May 3, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Yes scary and very sad.
2 reyhan // May 3, 2008 at 2:23 pm

It seems that truth is wilder than fiction. I started wondering if Taibbi had made the whole thing up, so I read the article.

Wow.

In the circles that Taibbi writes of, Harry Potter is seen as demonic, but based on what was said during the retreat, that description applies to a lot of things, including incest, sexual abuse, astrology, lust, cancer, handwriting analysis, intellect, anal fissures, philosophy, pornography, and disconnect (whatever that means). Taibbi ends by saying:

‘All that matters is being full of the Lord and empty of demons. And since everything that is not of God is demonic, asking these people to be objective about anything else is just absurd.’

Which sounds like there is no room for rational debate. But it’s possible that not everyone who attended bought the message whole. Maybe there were other people, besides Taibbi who kept their inner brows raised, or reserved their opinion about some of those “demonic” influences.

We can hope.
3 revgeorge // May 3, 2008 at 5:01 pm

These people…It’s almost as if they have more faith in the devil & his powers than they do in God’s salvation & protection. Good grief! I wonder if Jack Chick’s done a tract on Harry Potter yet; that’s bound to be as hilarious, if not totally off the mark, as his other ones.
4 Travis Prinzi // May 3, 2008 at 5:46 pm

revgeorge, yes, he has. I’ll look it up later tonight.
5 revgeorge // May 3, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Already found it, Travis. The link is

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/5012/5012_01.asp

Although my personal favorite is still the one about Dungeons & Dragons.
6 korg20000bc // May 3, 2008 at 6:14 pm

Oh yeah, “Dark Dungeons” by Jack Chick is the stuff of nightmares, especially if you’ve ever been a roleplayer.

I agree that demons are for real and actively working against mankind but the doctrine of fear that is being preached by these people smacks more of the demons than it does of God.
7 Casting Out the Harry Potter Demons // May 3, 2008 at 6:43 pm

[…] The Hogâ??s Head â?? A Pub for Potter wrote an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt: by Travis We’ve had a good amount of discussion here about the term “fundamentalism” as it applies to Christian anti-Potter crowd. There’s been some disagreement about what the term means. This post might help clarify what I mean when I use the term. Some time ago, I began writing some satire of fundamentalism at my other site. In one of those satires, I wrote the following. The scene takes place as the pastor of a fundamentalist church (”Pastor Funk”) has made a house call to try to evangeliz […]
8 RevJATB // May 3, 2008 at 7:00 pm

Travis,

Please read this post my wife put up yesterday. It details our run-ins with the fundies in our community, and how their children have traumatized our kids and told them that our whole family is going to hell (I am a PCA pastor, BTW).:

http://thesmocklady.com/blog/one-daily-battle-of-an-outsider-family-in-a-small-town_776/

I posted a little bit about it earlier this year:

http://www.knowtea.com/?p=378 and also here: http://www.knowtea.com/?p=418
9 Travis Prinzi // May 3, 2008 at 10:32 pm

RevJATB, thanks for the links. I’ve read and commented. (I’m a PCA too, by the way).
10 Johnny // May 5, 2008 at 2:02 am

Jack Chick and these other people rely on fear and misinformation to drive their message. David J. Meyer is another example. He wrote a track on Harry Potter and its so-called dangers (like leading you to the occult). Here’s the link to Meyer’s article and my rebuttal:

http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract7.html

http://beholdaphoenix.blogspot.com/2007/06/harry-potter-what-does-david-j-meyer.html

Like all the examples above, many people read stuff like this and believe it. They have more faith in the devil as revgeorge said. Christian teachers who teach fear (as well as those who taunt others) should be called into account. Christians who spread misinformation should know they are consorting with lying and falsehoods. These actions are not Christian because God has not given us a spirit of fear and God does not lie. It simply gives the rest of us Christians a bad name.
11 Professor L // May 5, 2008 at 9:12 pm

Jack Chick . . .what a guy!
I’m used to his rantings against those of us on the other side of the Tiber.
So he’s picking on Harry Potter now?
12 Jonathan // May 5, 2008 at 11:23 pm

So what are Christians to make of tales like Fortenberry’s? If they believe that Potter books are harmless fun, do they presume that Fortenberry is full of it?
13 reyhan // May 5, 2008 at 11:50 pm

Jonathan,

I don’t think you really need an if … then statement there. Meaning, whether HP is harmless fun has no bearing on whether Fortenberry is full of it. The truth of one statement has no impact on the truth of the next.

However, the likeliest scenario is where Fortenberry’s grand-nephews are running around and chasing each other and wrestling, as boys do, and they fall to the ground out of breath, still wrestling. Their father, who’s been telling them to cool it for a while, is exasperated and tells his uncle, who’s on the phone, that the kids are out of control. The uncle says it’s all due to the books on witchcraft he’s been allowing the kids to read. At his wit’s end, or just angry, the nephew tears up Potter. The kids eventually get exhausted, or bored, or interested in what Dad’s up to, and get up off the floor.

It’s called illusory cause and effect.