# Stupid coworker and her Anti-Harry Potter lying self **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 15, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500 "2004-06-15T17:01:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/21 "2004-06-15T20:38:11Z")
I **really** like the fact that the article from _The Onion_ spells ‘Cerberus’ as ‘Cerebus’. Aardvark fans rejoice! ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/22 "2004-06-15T20:41:40Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Really? I thought Wicca was pretty much based on nothing at all, and is a modern invention, despite the claims of its followers. OK, that’s kind of what you said, but then the history of Wicca itself is still pretty bloodless. But **Buttonjockey308** didn’t say Wicca, but “a pagan religion like Wicca” > [@](#): > > [minirant]These fanatical Christians never own up to their history, never admit that more people have died in the name of Christianity in the past hundred years, than will EVER die in the name of a pagan religion like Wicca. [/minirant] Wicca’s history may be bloodless, but pagan religion most surely is not. The “Oh, aren’t we better than the Christians” attitude inherent in that post from someone following an even sillier faith just tripped my irony meter. It’s like a Tarot card reader sneering at an astrologer for his credulity. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/23 "2004-06-15T20:53:09Z")
> [@Hamish](#): > > It’s also struck me as funny, and a little scary, how eager the religious right is to believe we’re looking for converts left, right, and centre. We’re not. They have us confused with themselves. It ain’t about _you_, Hamish. If current world geopolitics have taught us anything, it’s that people are always more interested in lining up and being good and doing what they’re told when you have two things: 1. A strong authority figure to lead you in the path of righteousness. 2. A big bad boogeyman who will get you if you don’t shape up. Now, I have known many Wiccans. I have also known many of the Nameless, that religious group who Shall Not Be Named, but is absolutely certain that Harry Potter is a snare of the devil. The Nameless are fairly common in this part of the country. Went to school with quite a few. Now, I’m not saying that Wiccans are any smarter or better or anything than the Nameless. In fact, I’ve known some Wiccans who are major flakes. But in general, Wiccans are more willing to stretch their belief systems than the Nameless are. They’re willing to listen… and to think. They are least apt to mindlessly accept doctrine spoonfed to them by an Authority Figure… as opposed to most Nameless, who are not only perfectly prepared to accept and trust Accepted Doctrine, but are often quite willing to fight to defend that doctrine, even when confronted with logical fallacies in it. In short, Wiccans believe what they believe for totally different reasons than the Nameless believe what THEY believe. The Nameless believe it because Frank Said Jesus Said It, and Jesus Was God, and therefore God Said It, We Believe It, and That Settles It. In short, once you get that Harry Potter thing jammed in there, getting it loose can be more trouble than it’s worth… truth or no truth. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/24 "2004-06-15T21:13:58Z")
“Tongue of toad Newt so greeny Turn this dude Into zucchini!” Little Evan ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/25 "2004-06-15T21:14:08Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > But **Buttonjockey308** didn’t say Wicca, but “a pagan religion like Wicca” Ah. For that I :smack: myself. Makes sense now. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/26 "2004-06-15T21:18:22Z")
Deathtongue Deathtongue! The beast rises tonight! ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/27 "2004-06-15T21:21:37Z")
I know how you feel, **Ca3799**. A lot of people at my workplace seem to be under the impression that I’m a quiet, unassuming person. In fact, I keep my mouth shut because just about anything I say will instantly brand me as a Godless Commie and make my work life hell. One day, I will no doubt break and speak my mind. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/28 "2004-06-15T21:27:22Z")
Sheesh **gobear** pedantic much? I never held blameless, paganism, it’s a got a damn bloody history, Wicca, however, does not. Not all pagans are Wiccans, but all Wiccans are pagans. Of course, the Wiccan religion is based on the vapor of an idea that some English kook had in the late 40’s, so what? Makes it no more or less silly than the religion based on the vapor of an idea that some Arab kook had 2000 years ago. As far as being superior, once again, never actually said it, and scarcely implied it, even still, as **Master Wang-Ka** suggests… > [@](#): > > But in general, Wiccans are more willing to stretch their belief systems than the Nameless are. They’re willing to listen… and to think. They are least apt to mindlessly accept doctrine spoonfed to them by an Authority Figure I’ve found this generally true as well, in fact it’s what attracted me to the path in the first place, so while I don’t believe that one religion is superior to the other, I believe that the ideals that drive their followers, in fact, are. (warning, blanket statement ahead) I believe that tolerance is superior to intolerance. I believe that love is superior to hate. I believe that questioning is superior to mindless acceptance. Now, the path of what I believe to be TRUE Christianity, that is to say what Jesus preached, is nearly paralell with the ideals of today’s Wicca, and more accurately, Bhuddism. The Big Giant Book© is a book written by men, not, IMO the Word of God, as is so widely advertised. I think that if there is one creator, (though I believe there are two) and there is but one God, one omnipotent being, then he/she/it already knows all the good and evil to exist, and will accept his/her/it’s creations back into heaven/valhalla/the lab after time on earth is through. Just one Pagans’ opinion though. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/29 "2004-06-15T21:30:49Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I think the Rowling/Wiccan claim was the basis of an _Onion_ article. > > Sometimes all you can do is laugh heartily in their face. Although I did get a private giggle over the picture of you standing in the middle of work, reading to the other cow-orkers the truth, since they refuse to see it for themselves. > > Strike another blow against ignorance!! When I was on the PTA for my son’s school this article was read aloud as a letter from a concerned parent. I hadn’t discovered The Onion prior to that point, but it was rather obvious satire. Which made the event all the more surreal. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/30 "2004-06-15T21:53:14Z")
> [@jarbabyj](#): > > Deathtongue Deathtongue! > The beast rises tonight! Ah, **jarbabyj** , I knew someone would catch the reference! Another Deathtongue song is still remarkably apt today, although it’s a different president they were speaking of \*Leper lover, Creature of the dark. Drip your disease, Leave your mark. Through the gutter Slime and stinky… George Bush is a Twinkie.\* ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/31 "2004-06-15T22:00:05Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Ahem, Wicca is just a 19th-century revival of nature worship carried on today by crunchy granola types and fat women with too many cats, but the British-Celtic religious tradition it claims as its forbear is drenched in the blood of humans and animals. Frazer’s \*_The Golden Bough_ is a good survey of pagan practices in ancient Europe. 20th century, but who’s counting? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/32 "2004-06-15T22:06:11Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Frazer’s _The Golden Bough_ is a good survey of pagan practices in ancient Europe. And why didn’t anybody tell me _The Golden Bough_ was a collection of anecdotes, rumors, and quick cuts taken out of cultural context giving it more in common with _Ripley’s Believe It Or Not_ than a standard, dry anthropological field study? I’d’ve read it a lot sooner if I had known. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/33 "2004-06-15T22:10:35Z")
**Baker, jarbabyj,** you’re all a bunch of _Boingers!_😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/34 "2004-06-15T22:12:54Z")
> [@Dewey Cheatem Undhow](#): > > Actually, believe it or not, that Onion piece _prompted_ many of the Wiccan/Satanism accusations: > > [Archive.org copy of original Onion piece](http://web.archive.org/web/20000815214418/http://www.theonion.com/onion3625/harry_potter.html) (It is no longer available from the Onion site directly). Next thing you know, the nitwits will be accusing JK of [pedophilia](http://www.onion.com/news/index.php?issue=4024&n=1). ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/35 "2004-06-15T22:21:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Gigi still insists she heard what she heard. I asked her if she was certain it was Rowling on the radio or someone on the Christian Braodcasting network repeating some information as Rowling clearly denies the charge. When I last saw her she was trying to integrate the conflicting information somehow. I told her she can believe what she wants to believe about the HP books and movies, but she should reconsider spreading the rumor that Rowling is a Wiccan who is actively trying to convert innocent children, because it is simply not true. Well, don’t keep us in suspense. Let us know when her head explodes in the effort to reconcile the truth with utter bullshit. I really, really wanted to say something about bearing false witness, but **Left Hand of Dorkness** said it first. I really think that you should ask her if she follows the Ten Commandments, and ask her about spreading hurtful lies, and then hit her with the zinger. But I’ve been told that I have a real nasty streak. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/36 "2004-06-15T22:39:47Z")
> [@MinniePurl](#): > > I just don’t get it. Even the Pope is ok with Harry Potter. What do they think will happen? Something horrible, like a kid picks up a stick, points it at something and says one of the spells… and discovers it doesn’t work? Yeah, but these people are usually the types who buy into the whole, “Vatican as the whore of Babylon, Catholics worship saints and are trying to rule the world” schlock. I actually know though of people who are Baptists and other variations who usually are down on Harry Potter…who are actually big fans of HP!!! Go figure! ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/37 "2004-06-15T22:39:50Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > I’ve found this generally true as well, in fact it’s what attracted me to the path in the first place, so while I don’t believe that one religion is superior to the other, I believe that the ideals that drive their followers, in fact, are. (warning, blanket statement ahead) I believe that tolerance is superior to intolerance. I believe that love is superior to hate. I believe that questioning is superior to mindless acceptance. See… wanna hear the funny part? The most singularly intolerant person I know is Wiccan. You can set your watch by the intervals of his diatribes against Christianity. And meanwhile, the Christian folks I know… they’re more of the “Whatever floats your boat, partner” type. They also have skeptical, questioning minds… whereas the first fellow will believe any story of the supernatural almost automatically, and likewise refuses to place any belief at all in science or the scientific method. Maybe I live in Bizarro World, huh? ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/38 "2004-06-15T23:38:39Z")
Great idea! Make up some totally ludicris idea(not the rap guy) about satanists whatever invading a school or some such. Make it truly bizzare, like including the above mentioned Barry Manilow. Watch the story spread… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LVgeogeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b19c9b/32.png) [@LVgeogeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVgeogeek)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/39 "2004-06-15T23:39:10Z")
I have found that the majority of the nutjobs that think the _Harry Potter_ movies promote devil worshipping are the same people that think the _Teletubbies_ push homosexuality on children and _Disney_ movies are nothing but porn in disguise. If the church (whatever one it is) told these nutjobs shit was pudding, they would eat it up happily and ask for more :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500/40 "2004-06-15T23:51:28Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > See… wanna hear the funny part? The most singularly intolerant person I know is Wiccan. You can set your watch by the intervals of his diatribes against Christianity. worked with a couple pagans that invited me to a samhain do when I was there…they were baffled when I brought mrAru who is a confirmed Catholic Light [episcopalian, all of the pomp, half the guilt] Especially since they handed out song sheets, and he knew the tune to Lord of the Dance and a bunch of other ballads that got reworded into hymns … all from the folk songbook that churches used in the 60s and early 70s… I was told regularly at work for the next 2 years that the marriage wouldn’t last, ‘mixed’ marriages _never_ do. I seem to remember that next feb is going to be our 14th anniversary, and 15.5 years together total [not counting when he and former mrArufiancee lived with exmrAru and I.] Of course I have a very catholic friend who also worked with me at the same place, and we told people we had an agreement. I wouldn’t feed him to the lions if he didn’t burn me at the stake=) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-coworker-and-her-anti-harry-potter-lying-self/250500.md?page=3)