Hey, my high school world history teacher claimed that he was the smartest man in the world. I wonder if he was Cecil Adams…
I didn’t know it either until I started dating an Australian, and to be honest I’m not sure if it’s really true or if the Australians I know are taking the piss and just trying to make me look silly; I do know they call their conservative party “Liberal” though, it caused endless confusion for me for a little bit. So I’ve tried to quantify it with “as far as I know” and “in my experience” until someone with more intimate knowledge on the subject comes along.
Er. I am going to try to be on topic now though. I just watched a news report about the whole Harry Potter = evil and must be banned business, and all I can really say is that, the only reason I have seen so far to support the banning of these books and this movie is because it goes “against the Bible and Christianity” in its portrayal of magic.
What about those children attending school who come from non-Christian families? Why should they be denied the ability to check out HP from their school libraries just because some Christians think the books are evil? I’m afraid I just don’t understand this line of thinking. I’ve always thought to myself that the only person one can govern is oneself, and to a limited degree, one’s family. If it’s bad in your opinion by all means don’t read it, and if you feel you need to shelter your children from it, fine; but don’t presume to make the rules for the rest of the people in this world, because some of them don’t believe that way, and it is arrogant, rude, and in my opinion against everything our Constitution stands for, to try to limit other peoples’ lives because of your beliefs.
Of course the children can still go get the HP books from their public libraries, but this kind of mindset still bugs me. “I don’t like it therefore nobody else should either” - feh!
I remember a joke on the Simpsons in which Ned Flanders is reading Harry Potter to his children and ended it with “…and he burned in hell for eternity for practicing witchcraft.” I laughed because it’s funny. It’s funny because it’s ridiculous. I never thought people actually saw Harry Potter as a threat to Christianity. I can see the headlines now:
“NEWEST HARRY POTTER BOOKS CONVERTS ALL CHRISTIANS INTO PAGANS. POPE PROCLAIMED CHIEF DRUID.”
I know I’m going to hate myself in the morning. I try and stay away from the Pit. But . . .
Forget the witchcraft angle, what about the ending? The owner of the Sorcerer’s Stone and his wife use it to stay alive, right? So they decide to destroy it, thereby committing suicide, right? Remember that scene at the end where the head wizard Dumbledore (sp?) tells Harry that they destroyed the stone but have saved just enough elixir to wind up their affairs and then they’ll die but that they were OK with that? C’mon, didn’t that creep anyone else out, even slightly? Kind of cold-blooded for a kid’s book, don’t you think?
Not quite, dumbledore quite explained it as being a release, and all the other things death brings to a couple several hundred years old. I mean, wouldn’t you want a “vacation” by then?
They were supposed to be holding a protest outside movie theaters here in Memphis like it was a fucking abortion clinic! (which is just as annoying!)
Oh, I tell you, it makes me proud to be from Tennessee!
And Memphis, by the way, has one of the highest drop-out rates in the nation. So those morons don’t have to feel quite so lonely.
So glad I homeschool…my daughter used HPATSS for her very first book report this year.
My favourite Harry Potter attacker is Bob Larson. In a radio rant, he raved that it was horrible that children were being given role models that practice magic, and bragged that when he was a kid, his role models were all biblical figures like Moses. What the hell?
Good sorcerers and bad sorcerers. What’s the diff?
No leftwing and rightwing mean the same in Australasia and in Europe. National, Liberal, One Nation are all rightwing conservative parties while Labour is leftwing. No such thing as a leftwing conservative.
And I’m going to have to ask my Very Own Aussie why he refers to Communism as a “rightist” policy and Capitalism/Free-Market as a “leftist” one … all the time … I suppose it really is them taking the piss then …
A “vacation?” Yoikes! On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia. Here these fundamentalist lunatics are worried about “idolatry” when Harry Potter is really pushing a secret agenda featuring assisted suicide ala Dr. Kevorkian! I can see it now, the forthcoming book “Harry Potter and the Angel of Death” – Harry helps his step-parents, the Dursleys take a “vacation.” I can hardly wait!
Obviously, a private Christian school does not have the same worries as far as “What about the non-Christian students that attend?” If non-Christians attend a private Christian school, they are certainly aware that material presented will be slanted towards the Christian viewpoint, as interpreted by the administration of that school.
But - in light of the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ pleasantly positive review of the film, I;d ask the OP for a cite. What Catholic school, specifically, do you claim did this?
YWalker: *Our incredibly repressed school librarian kept the copy of Catcher in the Rye under the counter because he thought it was too dirty to have out on the open shelves.
I made sure I checked it out at least once a year (even though we had a copy at home) just to drive him nuts. He always looked at me with a sad expression and asked “What’s a nice girl like you want with a book like that? Why don’t you get something better, like some nice Zane Grey?”*
Golly! Had your repressed librarian ever actually read any Zane Grey?
Truth Seeker: *Here these fundamentalist lunatics are worried about “idolatry” when Harry Potter is really pushing a secret agenda featuring assisted suicide ala Dr. Kevorkian! *
Nah, it’s more an issue of refusing artificial life support. The six-plus-centuries-old Mr. and Mrs. Flamel aren’t planning to commit suicide at the end of HPATSS, they’re simply going to voluntarily stop taking the magic immortality elixir, and so they will consequently die of old age.
Well first of all Rick log on to cnn.com and read it for yourself. I believe there are two catholic elementary schools in Tennessee doing this. Sucks. Banning books and supressing as childs imagination is just plain wrong. Step into the 21st century bub. (no you rick)
As for the Leftist Conservative Weasels…Sorry. I was ranting and raving, and very pissed, my mistake. I am an advocate for childrens rights and I got a little caught up. so->for the record.
This is why I love going to a fairly liberal high school. Every year the library hosts a “Banned Book Month,” where they take all the books that are traditionally banned and put them out on a table for everybody to be able to borrow more easily. Sad to see that Harry Potter will soon be on the table as well, though.
Kimstu, that’s HILARIOUS! I never did take him up on his recommendation and read any Zane Grey. I thought they were all just shoot 'em up western stuff — I didn’t realize they had all the purple prose along with them.
You might want to go here. They’re calling Harry Potter “The book that is preparing children for the arrival of the AntiChrist.”
Check out the second paragraph.
Oh, great! I stand corrected. Harry isn’t advocating assisted suicide, he’s advocating witholding life-sustaining medicine from old people when they start to become a burden on society! And people were upset about Bush’s prescription drug plan. Where’s the AARP when you really need them?
Perhaps I read the book wrong (although I really don’t think so)…but, it’s not a suicide thing, any more than “no extraordinary measures” orders are suicide. I mean, let’s suppose you could take a shot every three months and live indefinitely. Finally, you decide to stop getting shots and let nature take its course. It’s a decision for a natural death, not at all like, say, putting a gun in your mouth.
In closing: if a person’s beliefs are so fragile that a children’s book threaten them, those beliefs should be re-examined.
But not by a nine-year old! Harry Potter is clearly part of a vast conspiracy aimed at undermining the basis of our society as was the infamous Rudolph Christmas special that has been subverting young minds since 1964. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=48886&pagenumber=2. Wake up, America!
So I’ve tried to quantify it with “as far as I know” and “in my experience” until someone with more intimate knowledge on the subject comes along. 
