Here is the Onion article. I found it hilarious.

Harry Potter Books Sparks Rise In Satanism

According to Snopes.com, WorldNetDaily actually used a quote from the Onion article in one of their articles, then pulled the quote after Snopes reported on it.

Urban Legends - Harry Potter

I think I even saw the Onion article in a post to help prove the evils of Harry Potter over on TB2K, but I could be mistaken because I can't seem to find it now.

-- SteveOH (sroors@neo.rr.com), December 01, 2001

Answers

It's my understanding that the movie follows the books VERY closely. Some folks have even criticized the movie for that, but was the movie put out for the readers or the critics? I'm going to see the movie, and I'm disappointed that my kids were too old to have read the books. I'll also be seeing Lord of the Rings. I'm sure there's something that someone can conjure up to make Bilbo Baggins look like a bad guy. Pat Robertson might be working on that right now.

Great articles, BTW. I read them BEFORE I visited other fora, where I DID see some folks quoting from the Onion piece to state their position. Once it was pointed out that the piece quoted was from the Onion, however, the folks STILL felt the same.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

If you want a real good satire on the Harry Potter books (or, more correcty, the marketing therof) see the National Lampoon Web Site (www.nationallampoon.com)

-- E.H.Porter (just.wondering@about.it), December 03, 2001.

Just another example of those that would try to force their beliefs on everyone. Old tactic to smear something you don't like and call for banning. The sad thing is that they will probably scare some parents into keeping their child away from a wonderful FANATASY book. Thank god my parents didn't stop me from reading fantasy and science fiction when I was young.

I find it quite humorous that the people who despise this series are too dumb to recognize satire from reality. Maybe that is the problem. They have never been exposed to fantasy in writeen form so they don't know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Say did I just describe the TB2K crowd?

Well, I've got to go now. Shoeless Joe is calling for another game on the baseball diamond out back.

-- Jack Booted Thug (governmentconspiracy@NWO.com), December 04, 2001.

I lived in Kensington MD until three months ago. The town is now in the news because the city council decided to ban Santa from the annual tree-lighting ceremony. Two families, out of a population of 1700, told the city council that Santa would make them feel "uncomfortable."

Rather than the measured response that I would have preferred ("so stay the fuck home"), the council caved. The ceremony was attended by enraged Santas from all over as a protest.

-- Peter Errington (petere7@starpower.net), December 04, 2001.