Why do people forbid their chidren to read the HP books?
I doubt that J.K. Rowling thinks that Hogwarts and wizardry actually exist, she just writes a fantasy series.
Because, according to the prominent religions here in the U.S., anything that’s fun or feels good is a sin. Ergo, reading an interesting fantasy book is wrong, and you’ll go straight to hell, young man.
I like the Harry Potter books and I encourage my children to read them. I was gifted with a box set in hardcover and I like them very much. Why do people hate anything? I’ve heard of parents flipping out over Barney, and the Teletubbies. People interpret things differently. I taught preschool for 7 years and I was amazed at what set some parents off. Some of them hated Christmas songs. Others hated Oreo cookies. Some hated the concept of talking animals like Mickey Mouse. It’s their choice what they expose their children to or shield them from. The child will one day make his/her own choices and I’m sure Harry Potter books will still be around for that child to find a good read.
So you think that a God wouldn’t want us to be happy?
Interesting hypothesis. . . .
There are any number of right-wing Christians (and I think you’ll find that it’s mostly coming from that corner) who think the very mention of witchcraft and sorcery is a siren-song that will lead their poor children straight to Satan. There are several Christian novels that address witchcraft, magic, and new age subjects, but they’re always shown as causing their practitioners eternal damnation at the end. Harry Potter is different because magic, per se, is innocuous. It’s not good or bad. How you use it defines its morality. This is anathema to the aforementioned right wing Christians.
An Onion article that claimed that Rowlings was an avowed Satanist and that 14 million children had already been led to the Church of Satan didn’t help at all. While 99% of normal people recognize that the only thing in the Onion you can take seriously is the date, there are people who actually believed this article to be true in the Christian camp. And more unfortunately, took to circulating printouts of the article among their congregations. Now, if it was mistaken for fact while nestled within the satirical framework of the Onion’s website, you can be sure these folks aren’t fact-checking when they get a little printout that’s distributed in all seriousness by someone they know.
Reader’s Digest just had a distraught woman write in about the Harry Potter books after they ran an article on Rowling. The next issue, she wrote again castigating the editorial staff for cutting the sections of her letter that mentioned the “avowed Satanist” and “14 million children” “facts” and cited the Onion article as their source. The Digest explained (more politely than I will) that they were simply trying to make her look like less of a total idiot.
So yes, Virginia, this is one of the reasons thinking people tend to look at the right-wing Christians with pity and scorn.
Why do you think I’m a young man?
A good friend of mine, a devout member of the JCLDS church (Mormon but they don’t want to be called that anymore) managed to find image files for Barney shooting targets. After a stressful week at work, a few .45 cal rounds into the “purple pedophile” and he feels much better. I think Winky Tinky is next. Mind you he doesn’t hate the content, just the repetition that is brain numbing to adults. I don’t have to watch them so I have no beef with them.
As for HP the bible has some pretty clear old testament prohibitions against witchcraft, fortune telling and the like. There is no distinction between good and bad magic. Some folks feel that fiction with such content is just as bad as doing it. Keep in mind the OT also says it’s an abomination to touch the skin of dead pig. So much for Baylor’s football program. I’m just glad my parents didn’t flip overy my KISS records though a few relatives knew I was going to hell in a handbasket.
Citing an Onion article? BAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Just to bring the information available to the table…
There was this thread that included this link to Harry Potter is Witchcraft and its connection to Satanism
A little further back, there’s the Harry Potter-Antichrist Jr. thread.
All which provide pretty good debate on just this topic, in case you want to do a little background reading on the discussion that’s gone on before.
-Doug
Both of those articles seemed to have been written by people who can’t understand that adults and kids need to read fantasy books occasionally. J.K. Rowling is a great author. Her evil characters always get their just desserts, and her good characters are always heroic. I don’t see why people should be complaining that instead of sitting in front of the tv all day, kids are actually reading and exercising their imaginations. The wizards and witches at Hogwarts just utilize their knowledge to make their lives easier.
alloran,
Yep, I would agree with that observation. In my opinion that’s the sort of lack of understanding that causes many negative reactions to fundamental christians and often gets generalized to all christians, which is no more warrented than the opposite assumption.
-Doug
Also, I think that the church may be subconsciencely :mad: about gradually losing power on the modern world. Just a thought:D
Kids may think that they can work spells, and that’s okay, but I seriously doubt that any kid would actually try to work a spell. Of course toymakers may try to make “authentic unicorn tail-hair wands”, and other fake ingredients, but that would be a lot of fun for kids.
It’s better to read HP than watch some mindless t.v. , but I still say those books are crap. Of course, that’s only because lots of other people love them. I seem to hate any kind of popular fad with young kids these days.
As a re on shooting barney…I sometimes play the game “Pokémon Sniper” to releive some tension on those o so cute targets.
Well, I hate the HP books because they are poorly written and the characters are weak and inconsistent. After reading the first two books to see what all the noise was about, I couldn’t stand it anymore.
They have. And no, I don’t have a link. However, I myself have tried them out, if for no other reason than sheer morbid curiosity.
A few years ago there was a movie that came out and in one scene two football players basically played chicken with their heads on the street. Two other kids, outside of the movie, tried this same thing and both were killed.
Lesson: people are stupid.
No comment.
:rolleyes:
HOW DO YOU FIGURE THAT THOSE BOOKS ARE POORLY WRITTEN!!?!?!
Um . . . without getting into a GD on the relative meanings of smilies, it seems difficult for these to coexist as they do.
alloran, seeing as you’re a relatively new poster here, perhaps it would benefit you to go here and learn about the various meanings.
Unless you did, in which case I’m kinda mystified by your use of them here.
And please don’t shout in GD. More people will respect your side/opinion/take/whatever if you handle things in a more civil manner.
When I do that, it means that I doubt the validity of that statement.
Seeing as you’re all of 56 posts old, it would not surprise me if very few people other than you knew that:)
And in GD, when you doubt the validity of a statement, 'tis far better to say why rather than just post a string of smilies.