Suffice it to say that my mother was not happy. She had just recently found God again (no offense to the religious folk in the class) and according to her Good Book, Harry Potter was going to put me on the Highway to Hell.
Now I saw this online a few weeks ago and knew I needed to save it for the first week of discussion. What is this woman doing? Telling these people that a fictional character is the enemy of her God?
This is part of a sermon I found posted on Tumblr denouncing Harry Potter and his magic as Satan's work.(Jesus Camp, 2006)
I needed to be saved from the dark forces that were clearly taking hold of me. By this time, I had decided for myself that organized religion was not for me and had stopped worshiping. Of course, this was another sign of my descent into madness and witchcraft.
I'm not saying this is representative of all religions everywhere but I had my fair share of experiences as a child and it says a lot about the power and pervasiveness of this text and its fans that sermons like this have gone on and still do go on around the country.
In 2012, the Harry Potter series was the most banned collection of texts in the country. Meanwhile, fans of all ages, choose Houses, live the dream of going to Harry Potter world, cosplay to the extreme and create original content all of the time, in spite of being told no.
Telling children it's wrong to read Harry Potter is stupid. Don't make them read it if they don't want to but it's definitely a part of the fabric of our generation.
I know I desperately waited for my Hogwarts letter, realized I was in America and thus would be attending the Salem Witche's Insitute, concluded that it was an all gir's school and waited for someone to tell me I was magical
I agree that telling kids (or people in general) not to read Harry Potter is stupid. It's a fictional book...key word FICTIONAL. Nothing in the books are true or should be interpreted as being so. I can see how religious extremists could maybe be offended by the magic that is used, but they are narrow minded to think that reading a children's story is going to promote satanism. Come on, people.
ReplyDeletePsh, I don't know about you guys but I'm on the side of this woman. Harry Potter is an enemy of God and he should totally have been stoned. Then, Neville would have risen up and killed Voldemort and then everything would be super awesome. Also, Lloyd! You totally could have been a magical girl! THIS COULD HAVE BEEN YOU!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ5ziNOtoMU
YOU COULD HAVE BEEN A SOMEBODY LLOYD!
Don't feel bad. There's a running-joke / sad-truth in my family about one of my grandmother's brothers. He'd spent much of his life a raging alcoholic, and generally a not-nice guy. Then he found Jesus. We're still not sure which was worse.
ReplyDeleteIt's always a mix of amusing and concerning to see extremist in these situations. I think the most concerning part is discouraging children not to read. I understand the concern of promoting witchcraft from that perspective, but there is other subject matter that is mrs essential to the plot of the story like good and evil, loyalty, and standing up to adversity.
ReplyDeleteNothing irks me more… Well as an unabashed Christian I can say that I find this extremely aggravating. There is nothing instructional about this. There is no grace or mercy, only the desire to take the scepter from Christ and bash people on the head with it. Jesus dealt with plenty of people who were actually demon possessed and a lot worse, He healed and forgave them. Of course Harry Potter and many others would have been stoned in the Old Testament, but that’s the point. The law is there to prove we can’t keep it or be perfect and we all deserve something along those lines, and therefore Christ had to come and pay the price for us. There seem to be way too many who take the name Christian and forget Christ entirely.
ReplyDeleteI posted something that is my feeble attempt to explain a valid complaint about Harry Potter, but that does not mean we should have a book burning.