This is kinda funny cuz my boss (a hardcore christian) mentioned this today. She said “i can’t profess my religion is public schools, but they let kids see movies about witchcraft?” I thought that was funny cuz you have to be an idiot to think anything in Harry Potter is how people really practice witchcraft. I think it’s even funnier that preachers tell people that it is real AND they beleive it LOL.
No. They have defined Satanism. You simply reject their definition, (as do I). Their definition is that anything that appears to have a magical or spiritual effect that does not come from their view of God is from Satan.
I find that definition extremely limited and limiting and I do not believe that the Scriptures they quote support their interpretation. Noting that I disagree, however, is different than claiming that they “never defined” their position.
I certainly hope there is a Satanic element to the “Harry Potter” series. I believe it is terribly unfair not to allocate equal time for Satan.
**tomndebb wrote:
No. They have defined Satanism. You simply reject their definition, (as do I). Their definition is that anything that appears to have a magical or spiritual effect that does not come from their view of God is from Satan.
I find that definition extremely limited and limiting and I do not believe that the Scriptures they quote support their interpretation. Noting that I disagree, however, is different than claiming that they “never defined” their position.**
I do see your point, but think that it conceeds too much of the arguement to the Fundamentalists, by allowing them to “capture” the debate with such a vague definition as to allow anything no mentioned in the Bible to be satanic.
From that viewpoint, differential calculus could be argued as being satanic since it’s not mentioned in the Bible, yet clearly gives you “powers” (of understanding) and “abilities” (to accurately describe some aspects of the physical universe). You have to undergo a period of intense training and understand books of arcane lore to grasp it.
I’m not willing to let them “win” the debate by being able to define the terms so loosely.
ssj: This is kinda funny cuz my boss (a hardcore christian) mentioned this today. She said “i can’t profess my religion is public schools, but they let kids see movies about witchcraft?”
I hope you reminded her that of course, she can profess her religion in public schools, every day if that’s what she likes. She just can’t expect the school to provide any kind of official sponsorship for her profession of her religion, such as an official school prayer.
I think we’re looking at different perspectives. My point regarding whether they have defined their objection is an attempt to understand their perspective within the context of the OPs “Why?” At no time do I concede that their belief is correct.
If someone of that belief were to try to have Rowling’s books removed from my local library or the libraries at my kids’ schools, I would eagerly point out what I perceived to be the errors of their position. As I noted, I do not agree with their position, their general beliefs, or their particular interpretation of Scripture on this subject.
If we are seeking to discover their motivation, I am willing to put forth their position. If we are looking to prevent their censorship, I will raise all the appropriate objections to it.
I am totally with Brea here.
How the heck do you quote here?
Well, this will have to do:
“As a matter of fact, there was no reference to Deity at all that I can recall. Unless you count the love of a game
called Quidditch a religion.”
That answered my point, satan is not mentioned ANYWHERE. The kids do not jump around naked shouting “heil Satan”.
It is ridiculous!!! Devil worship?? Magic is not about that at all.
It is the made up reason that christians used to kill any woman or man who did not convert to christianity. The people with the old religions did not even know about ‘satan’.
How can someone worship something they know nothing about?
It would be like someone coming up and telling me that by not eating a chicken heart when I cook a chicken means I am worshipping the devil of waste or something dumb.
This drives me crazy, I want to scream at all the freaks who point fingers yelling devil worship at anything they don’t know about. AGHGHGHGHGH!!!
How the heck do i find the ‘smilies’ here??
Eosine, scroll to the top of this screen and look for the blue Question Mark next to the hypertext faq, then click it. It discusses smileys and other spiffy items. In the section on using HTML (which we do not), there is an additional link to vB codes that explains bolding, underscore, italics,
and other mysteries of vB code.
Dumbasses. They’re all dumbasses. This site calls Harry Potter “The book that is preparing children for the arrival of the Antichrist”. This place,has headlines, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone: Why it is truly satanic”. And Another on why HP is satanic.
DUMBASSES. What they need to do is just not read the damn books if they’re so witch-crafty. Leave our kids’ imaginations alone. They’re just jealous that they couldn’t come up with an idea for a book like that.
Hey, I don’t suppose that someone would want to send a message to Pastor@RefugeBaptist.Org (he’s one of the anti-harry potter people) and show him this thread and this thread.
I would do it, but I would rather not have my e-mail showered with “You devil worshipers! You will go to Hell!!” kind of stuff.
Piece of cake…
"The figure entered the carpenter shop, covered in a hair coat, with a great unkempt beard. Jesus was frightened, and Joseph and Mary were almost huddled in the corner.
‘Jesus! Yer God!’ the hairy apparition bellowed."
Heck, replace the Hedwig with the dove, Ron Weasley with Simon Peter, Hermione with Mary Magdalene… let’s see…maybe Voldemort with Satan, of course. Snape would be the High Priest (Ananias?) and…hmmm…can’t think of a Dumblebore figure…
Well, that’s close anyway. 
jayjay
Yeah, and next thing they’ll go after is the Narnian Chronicles written by C. S. Lewis , an icon of a fundamentalist group I once associated with, and these guys were fundamental fundamentalist Christians.
[/QUOTE]
weird
LMFAO. Omg that was so funny. I can’t beleive there are people who actually think like that. Potions=drugs lol.
Actually, Jesus turned water into perfectly good wine. That makes Christians prone to alcoholism, not cannibalism. The last supper was clearly supposed to be “in remembrance” not a literal miraculous changing of wine to blood and bread to flesh.
Be careful not to think of anti-Harry-Potterism as a “Christian” thing. I am a Christian who has not read the books, but I want to see the movie mostly for the special effects (on video, I’m cheap). Most of my friends are Christians and have read the books and don’t see a problem with them. In fact, it seems that most Christians are annoyed at the people who make Christianity look like a bunch of fuddy-duddies who turn their nose up at anything remotely imaginative. Interestingly, I think the Left Behind books cause far more spiritual issues than Harry Potter ever could.
I believe Brea was referring to communion. Many Catholics believe that the wafer and wine really do turn into the body and blood of Christ in their mouths. (Ewwwwwww!)
But only in essence – the physical particulars remain the same.
Don’t ask me to explain it. 
Oh, and a thumbs-up to the rest of Dale’s post. (Incidentally, you should see the movie, Dale – it’s wonderful. But that’s a topic for another thread.)
You know what I find funny about this quote is the fact that they also let kids see movies about Christianity (but those movies bomb at the box office).
She does, however, have a severe case of mixed apples and oranges.
JOhn.
Mind if I try?
The two (philosophical) terms to bear in mind here are “substance” and “accident.” “Substance” is what something is; “accident” is what it appears to be. Ordinarily, the two are the same–something that appears to be made of wood is actually made of wood. But during the consecration, the bread and wine, while retaining the physical characteristics of bread and wine, become the body and blood of Christ. Hence the term, “transubstantiation.” And it’s one of the central mysteries/miracles of the RCC.