Harry potter, saint or sinner?

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Does Harry Potter promote witch craft, wizardry or the workings of the devil? (wanting anyones opinions before 11.3.03 for school project.) Need everyones views, will give my own opinion on the 12th. Thank you.

-- Jodie Wilson (luv5_10@hotmail.com), March 03, 2003

Answers

Jodie, this topic was discussed thoroughly a few months ago here... does anyone know how to get to that thread?

-- Theresa Huether (Rodntee4Jesus@aol.com), March 03, 2003.

Harry Potter does not "promote witchcraft and wizardry" any more than the Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland or the Chronicles of Narnia, or dozens of other wonderful works of fantasy.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), March 03, 2003.

Further reading on Harry Potter. Enjoy.

-- jake (jake1@pngusa.net), March 03, 2003.

Thanks for that link, Jake...just to play Devil's advocate...or God's! ;)

My, but how heated some people will get over a book or movie, if anyone voices disapproval.

Pax Christi.

-- Anna <>< (flower@youknow.com), March 03, 2003.


Jodie,

Here's a thread that covers one of our previous discussions:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007WKR

Enjoy the reading.

Dave

-- non-Catholic Christian (dlbowerman@yahoo.com), March 03, 2003.



neither. a fictitious character. who has already made a lot of money.

-- two cents (two.cents@opinion.gov.us), March 03, 2003.

As I stated in the thread Dave Bowerman posted, I feel pretty strongly about this topic. But I am not logged on enough to this forum to handle a debate so I will simply state my opinions and let others comment.

First off, the Harry Potter series is more about good vs. evil, and less about witchcraft. Yes, Harry sometimes resorts to trickery to get his way, but mostly against evil (stepparents for one). But overall, Harry seems to be a moral individual.

Secondly, and more importantly, this series has led many children to learn the joys of reading for entertainment. And "some" of them have become avid readers because of this. I have never seen statistics supporting this, but I personally have been told by other parents that their children are now reading other fiction after reading the Potter series.

God Bless.

-- Glenn (Glenn@nospam.com), March 03, 2003.


I saw the 1st movie, but didn't read the book. The movie had a very this isn't real feeling to it. The characters were very over the top, they reminded me of the people in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I think the viewers watching it--even young ones would realize that it is all ficticious--because people don't behave like that in real life. The spells that were said were not incantations that summoned spirits to help, but globity-goop rhymes that were benign. I didn't get what all the anti-Harry Potter hype was all about. That's why I saw the movie--to find out. I still don't understand. I also don't understand why people say that "Harry Potter" is an evil influence when it seems so fake, but "Lord of the Rings" is O.K. for kids to watch. It seems hypocritical.

-- Sharon (delipasta@hotmail.com), March 04, 2003.

Oh my Gosh, what is happening to all the believers? For anyone who has children...are you ok with your kids watching this? Really? I think if you let your kids watch it and don't bat an eyelid, you're saying it's ok. Harry Potter blocks out God, and welcomes Satan. Don't say he's not. Jesus said if you're not for me youre against me. There are no two ways about it. Harry Potter plays with witchcraft. How can you let a child watch this, and being influential as children are, they are going to pick up what he's doing, wonder about it, and some even practice it. Is it even worth watching something like this that is so anti-God for the sake of giving kids reading material? Really, there is so much more to offer them. Try a kids Bible for instance and 1000's of christian novels which I read through my entire childhood and thoroughly enjoyed. Please, lets call for a higher standard of living!

-- (emilystepney@hotmail.com), March 04, 2003.

Emily, you aren't even Catholic, and it seems you have an unbalanced view of reality and fantasy. Harry Potter is not any worse than the wizard of OZ. If you are not secure in your faith to the point to where you can't read fairy tales, I wonder if your faith will stand the test of real life challenges.

For a stronger faith built on Rock, check out your local Catholic Church.

Joe

-- Joseph Carl Biltz (jcbiltz@canoemail.com), March 04, 2003.



I am not catholic, you're right. I am Christian. Not any denomination, I just love and worship Christ. I have been through a lot and I can see some ways Satan worms his way in. Do you think God approves of Harry Potter, people playing with sorcery? That is not what Jesus practiced, and so is also not what we should practice.

-- Emily (emilystepney@hotmail.com), March 04, 2003.

I suppose you oppose the cronicles of Narnia and The lord of the rings too, all which are allegories of our journey through life as Christinas on teh road to God.

joe

-- Joseph Carl Biltz (jcbiltz@canoemail.com), March 04, 2003.


I'm not inclined to take my children to see Harry Potter, nor to rent the movie. The Vatican's exorcist spoke out against it, for one. (Read the link provided at the top)

I purchased the books for my teenage son who just wasn't very interested in reading. Harry didn't do it for him. You know what did? Lord of the Rings. And there are definite Catholic themes in LOTR, which provide for interesting conversation. My son not only read all the books, but comprehended them in a marvelous way, and retained everything he read.

In LOTR, people's desire for supernatural power is shown to be a bad thing over and over again. In Harry, attaining powers is the goal.

www.petersnet.net/browse/1289.htm

This page describes the allure of wicca to young people: power. Knowing that that temptation is out there, particularly among young people, I would be more cautious now than I had been before. Still, it is anyone's choice as to whether or not to provide this as entertainment for their children.

Emily, welcome to the Catholic forum. May the Lord guide you, and bless your children.

Pax Christi.

-- Anna <>< (flower@youknow.com), March 04, 2003.


Dear Jodie, After all the hoopla about Harry Potter I decided to actually read the books to see what is in them. What I found is a very well written childrens story that I would let any of my kids or grandkids read and quite frankly would recommend it. It's the fantasy story of a sad little orphaned boy who doesn't know that he is a wizard until he is older. There are no evil incantations or petitions to Satan, in fact, Satan is never mentioned--nor is God. The "powers" that Harry Potter has are the ones that were born in him just as everyone of us has certain talents. The so-called dark side in the book is no more than what our kids face everyday which is that in every group of people there are bad ones and the trick in life is to learn to distinguish which are which. The book shows that even the picked on, bullied, different kids can learn to do well and achieve success in this world. I loved it. Having read all of the series (5 books), and having read an awful lot of Shakespeare, I can attest to the fact that there is more violence, sex, incantations to evil, trickery and just plain evil people in Shakespeare. Over the years I have found that in the closed-minded set in society, they usually do not read or listen to what it is that they view as offensive. They listen to rumours and inuendos spouted off by other equally small-minded persons and then quote these people as gospel truth. The saddest thing of all about all of this is that God gave all of us a brain and ears and exects us to use them instead of just spouting off about something we heard from a neighbor or on TV. Because of all this stupidity books like Huckebery Finn and Tom Sawyer are now off kids reading lists. I find this incredibly sad. Also, fairy tales, which all had a really good moral to the story, have been trashed and the generic version leaves a lot to be desired. In society's quest to shelter children it sometimes forgets that there is real evil in this world and one only has to pick up a newspaper or listen to the news to find it. Ellen

-- Ellen K. Hornby (dkh@canada.com), March 06, 2003.

I'm glad that there organizations like the SSPX who are still willing to weigh in on an issue like Harry Potter, even while the Vatican pussyfoots around it to avoid offending anyone.

-- jake (jake1@pngusa.net), March 06, 2003.


There are absolutely no Wiccan or Satanic themes in Harry Potter books. For the record, I'm not including Wicca and Satanism in the same cluster, as they are two different things, but thats off topic anyway.

Harry Potter witchcraft and wizardry isn't what is called witchcraft in real life, it is simply a work of fantasy. No one, no matter what they believe, can wave a stick of wood, say a few words, and turn someone into stone. It simply can't be done. Its a FANTASY book. F- A-N-T-A-S-Y.

If anything, its a Christian book: have you seen the Christmas scenes in it? Most religions don't celebrate Christmas, but the kids in Harry Potter were genuinely celebrating it.

There are no evil themes in the book, other than good vs. evil, where good always wins. I mean, its a childrens book. Sure, there has been a few deaths, but what villain in any story is going to go around, hugging his enemies? Even the wolf in the Three Little Pigs tried to eat all the Pigs: he didn't be friends with them.

Why can't people see books like this for what they really are: great works of literature for many ages?

-- Shane X (shane2000x@hotmail.com), March 14, 2003.


i think your crazy if you think harry potter promotes withcraft. not to mention i dont believe in witch craft i just want to know one thing where do i send a petitio to. gaint ithcraft then that meanif your as you actually think that a kid can wave a stick and say abracadabra tuna fish sandwich and become invisible. if you do then your crazy becaue i've tried it it doesn't work so give it up!

-- linda (akawamleh@pol.net), March 19, 2003.

a kid can wave a stick and say abracadabra tuna fish sandwich and become invisible. if you do then your crazy becaue i've tried it it doesn't work

try this one then....

Cross your arms in front of you, wiggle your nose, blink your eyes twice and say hullaballoo.

Did it work? Did you disappear yet?

No? Well, if you were crazy enough to try that, too, then you deserve my sarcasm.

-- Isabel (isabel@yahoo.com), March 19, 2003.


It's all a state of mind. If you think that Harry Potter is evil and satanic, then to you it is. Isn't it?

I guess it's just the way you look at things. You could look at Harry potter in a very positive way and it would be a fasinating, wonderful book. You would be looking at the good side of the books. Or, you could do what some critics are doing, and say Harry Potter is evil. Why do they say it's evil? Probably so they can be different, or maybe because they tend to look at it negatively. Why look at it nagetively? They may just be people that tend to look at most things more negatively than others... Or because their religion is paranoid and negative and tends to look at things at the wrong point of view. I'm not atheist, I just think organized religions don't always look at things the right way.

-- William (sirwilliamupdown@hotmail.com), March 20, 2003.


Oh you poor lost and misguided souls. Do your research. Check out J.K. Rowling and her months of study in witchcraft to make the book accurate. And look at her input to the movie. I can go on and on and on why we as Christians should not have anything to do with this and not one reason to read the books and watch the movies other that pure research.

-- Jason Templeman (master468@hotmail.com), March 22, 2003.

Jason, what part of it is accurate witchcraft? Being a Celtic Neo- Pagan, or wiccan, myself, coming from a Christian/Catholic family, I know that absolutely none of it is accurate. Where do your claims emerge from? Your own head? Someone's imagination?

-- Shane X (shane2000x@hotmail.com), March 27, 2003.

On my site JakeRinard.com we are having an extended debate on Harry Potter that is worth your reading.

-- http://jakerinard.com (ads@crimsonlight.com), June 17, 2003.

Check out www.snopes.com OR www.truthorfiction.com, both sites are for the debunking of urban legends. The stories about Rowling that are going around are discussed there. Apparently, a newspaper called "The Onion" out of Madison, WI is a spoof newspaper with fake articles that are published by the university students there to be funny. Many of them are hilarious. They printed a fake story about Rowling, linking her with Satan, as a JOKE. Now, the fundamentalists are passing around this article and saying it's from a real newspaper...well, it IS a real newspaper...in that it's printed on paper and has a readership. I find this hilarious!! It's just another example of fundamentalists taking things at face-value, without checking sources...per usual...and passing them around as unverified gossip. The fundamentalist church I grew up in (I am now a Catholic) told me that while a demon-possessed person was being exorcised, the demon admitted to writing "Jesus Christ Superstar"...the Harry Potter of the 70's. That yarn went around and around all of the churches in our circle. Of course, it was an urban myth.

Lastly, if my faith is so shaky that the mere viewing of images on a screen could corrupt my soul, then my faith isn't a very good one in the first place. The house upon the sand...or the house upon the rock?

P.S. If I say, "levitate" in English, French, or German, etc. will it work too, or does it have to be Latin...because if I could simply shout a command in any language, and have my house cleaned instantly, I want to know about it. Also, how come Satan only speaks Latin, was he a mute before it was invented? ha ha!

-- Victoria (tecdork99@pvfnet.com), June 22, 2003.


Has anyone here read the new book? I'm on ~page 500 or so and it's boring me to tears (I am tenacious enough to finish most any book I start though, with rare exceptions such an Ann Rice book (don't remember the name) that was so bad I threw it out (instead of giving it to the library). I can't believe that after three years this is what she came out with. She should have stopped while she was ahead. If she wanted to write 500 pages on a teenager's relationship, she should have subcontracted it to someone who was GOOD at it.

Also, I would go along with people who are "troubled" by her books a lot more with this one than the first or second, just seems dark. Although if she was being subtle and wanted to stress how BANAL evil can be she did a great job, well, assuming she also wanted to show how banal *good* could be...

Boring or Dark, but unfortunately, definitely not *enjoyable*!

The official Frank book review,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), June 23, 2003.


"Watership Down" was a book that took a good many pages before you saw its redeeming qualities, but it was a good book if you invested the time to get into it. This book, though, doesn't appear to have any upswing the farther you get in to it. It keeps grinding on an on without respite.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), June 23, 2003.


Really? I thought "Watership Down" jumped in the deep end right away. I just finished re-reading it to my little brother (actually, I started reading it, but he finished) and I've picked up a lot more of the implicit Christianity in it.

I think it treats supernatural gifts (i.e. Fiver's "second sight") a lot more reasonably than Harry Potter's chronicles. I mean, sometimes Fiver would get these impressions and sometimes he wouldn't. It's not something you can depend on or put faith in- you just have to trust Frith to protect you. ;) On the other hand, if spells didn't always work, "magic" would be pointless...

-- Catherine Ann (catfishbird@yahoo.ca), June 23, 2003.


Link.

-- jake (j@k.e), January 29, 2004.

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