Since the seventh Harry Potter book is due to come out in July, and since I have nothing else of consequence to write about, let us enter into a conversation regarding the so-called evilness that is Harry Potter.
Point 1: People, please. Do you really, and I mean honestly, have nothing better to do with your time than to protest the school and/or library board of your local municipality over their selection of these books? Wouldn't it be easier for all of us if you went ahead and took your medication and got some sort of useful hobby, like knitting?
Point 2: Do you want to suck all the fun out of childhood? I guess you don't remember daydreaming during social studies or long-division, wishing you could fly or magically disappear or eat really cool candy or turn someone into a toad. Honey, we have a word for these kinds of fantasies and daydreams. It's called FICTION. If you want to protest something, protest the non-fiction books about the occult, of which I'm sure your local library is filled (actually, I'm kidding here - don't protest them. We also have words for things like that: "democracy" and "open society" come to mind.)
Point 3: Here's what I don't get: no one ever protests the Wizard of Oz anymore. Is it because we've come to accept it as part of our whimsical childhood canon? Is it because EVERYONE and I mean everyone in the western hemisphere has seen the movie about a scillion times, and has come to regard the witches and wizards and other magical creatures in the book and movie exactly as they were intended to be regarded; i.e. as figments of a writer's imagination?
Point 4: I guess what I'm saying is: CHILLAX. Unless your children are developmentally disabled, and even if they are, come to think of it, they will get that this stuff is meant to be a fun little release from reality, and not meant to be practiced at midnight with the local witches' coven.
I think the real problem here is not that people are afraid their kids will somehow get sucked into the occult by reading these books, but that those very same people seem to believe the occult is REALLY weaving an evil, book-purchasing spell around our children as we sit idly by. I'm not saying the occult isn't real--or more to the point, that people don't believe the occult to be real; what I'm saying is that people do not have the power to cast spells on other people. Get a grip. MAGIC DOESN'T REALLY EXIST. And you call yourselves Christian?
Oh, and here's a Point 5 for you: You cannot argue that Harry Potter embodies sin and bad value systems and whatever else you want to say. He embodies standing up for oneself, practicing what one believes in, and fighting the herd-mentality of society that causes people to support things they know to be bad and wrong. (I'm sure there was a more eloquent way of saying that but I'm a little sleep-deprived right now.) These are values every good Christian should stand up and applaud!
I don't get people.
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I agree 100%. I think the parents that don't want Harry Potter "warping" their kids are that way because they want all the warping action to themselves!
I'm constantly confused as to why any parent who claims to love their kids would want them to act like a robotic scale replica of the parent. If Harry Potter really is twisted and evil (which I agree is like saying Wizard of Oz is twisted and evil), why not let your kids see that evil, talk about it with you, and decide for themselves what to do about it? If you forbid them that book, you just increased its appeal 3000% to any normal kid.
Sure, young minds are highly impressionable, but they're also highly intelligent and curious. With the right guide (i.e. the parent) a kid can and should explore all kinds of ideas and views. I'm not saying expose them to pornography or something they're obviously not ready for, but anyone who doesn't think the HP books are kids' books has a few issues themselves. Sure, the HP books have evil wizards and crap and sometimes people die in them, but here's a news flash: there's death and evil in the real world too! All a kid has to do is turn on CNN to get a dose of death and evil more highly concentrated than any HP book can offer.
One last thought. Some parents are so afraid their child will be "led astray" from the parent's values and beliefs. There's a word for children who rebel against their parents' values and beliefs and set out looking for their own...it's "normal." I've seen kids who blindly follow their parents' dogma...they're a far cry from what I call "normal" and I wouldn't trust them to change the oil in my car, much less run the country when I'm older.
Thanks for letting me squawk.
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