Benedict XVI-New Pope Hits Out at Harry Potter Books

Contact Music News ^ | 4/24/05

[gopwinsin04]

NEW POPE HITS OUT AT HARRY POTTER BOOKS

The new pope Benedict XVI has blasted JK Rowlings Harry Potter books for 'undermining the soul of Chirstianity.'

His predecessor, John Paul II, had praised the mutilmillionairness for her Christian lifestyle in the past.

The former Cardinal Joeseph Ratizinger is grateful to 'Good or Bad' author Gabrielle Kuby for revealing the hidden agendas behind the popular childrens books.

He said, 'it is good that you explain the facts of Harry Potter, because this is subtle seduction, which is deeply unnoticed and has direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow porperly.'

[Miykayl]

typos, sorry.

I obviously did not mean "tree ring" but only "tree"

Also did not mean to repeat the first line of the post.

Laugh now, please.

[Not A Snowbird]

LOL! Glad I could help. :-)

[StoneColdGOP]

Knew it was only a matter of time before the silliness from the Vatican started up anew.

[kevkrom]

Tolkien's Ring cycle does not include 'magic,'

Oh really?

• The Ring itself is a "magic" artifact -- it makes the wearer invisible to normal eyes and extends the life of the bearer, and that has a will of its own, despite being an inanimate object.
• The chief Ringwraith is known as the Witch-King of Angmar.
• The barrow-wight casts an incantation to bewitch and freeze Frodo and his companions.
• One of Elrond's guards around Rivendell is to create a flood when any enemy attempts to ford the river. Gandalf throughs in a "few touches" by adding an illusion to the wave.
• Gandalf attempts to open the doors of Moria via one of many incantations and/or spells before realizing the proper password. Once inside, he uses magical light from his staff to guide the party and eventually tries to hold off an attacking force by casting a spell to bar the door.
• Galadriel engages in telepathy and fortune-telling. She also possesses a magical artifact that allows viwing distant (both in time and space) events.
• Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf possess magical rings of their own.
• The elves of Lothlorien equip the Fellowship with magical artifacts prior to their departure.
• ...

And this is all from Volume I.

[Miykayl]

Wow, I am pathetic.

Let's try one more time. I did not mean "tree ring" but rather only "ring". I think maybe I need to read my post before I actually post it, hmm?

[diamond6]

Huh?

Again I say.... huh?

[kevkrom]

The Build-a-Burger is right next to the Bohemian Grove pottery store and the Tri Lat cafe in the NWO mall.

I heard that next Saturday night, you could hear Chimpus Khan and the Perfect Rovian Storm play at the TriLat.

[Antoninus]

I still occassionally play D&D and still enjoy my fantasy metal quite a bit, I can speak from experience. It CANNOT be harmful to kids reading and playing such stuff, with or without family support and Christian teachings. There quite simply is nothing pro-satanic or pro-pagan in them.

These statements are intellectually dishonest. I saw the process in action as a kid and observed how people could get caught up in the escapism. As for the "pro-satanic/pro-pagan" elements, they are definitely there. I practically memorized the "Monster Manual" and "Deities & Demigods" books as a kid. I know what they contain.

(if you've listened to Iron Maiden then you know whenever there's someone treating with demons and such in their songs then something very bad is about to happen to that person).

In many cases, yes. But these same songs glamorized the "bad things" that happen. I mean, come on! Their mascot was a giant walking corpse who they "killed" repeatedly on stage to the screaming joy of their fans. There was a dark fascination with death and evil that pervaded their music completely absent any Christian undertones. I'm very happy to be rid of it. Palestrina and Tim McGraw has made for a much happier life.

No the problem is people that see something that isn't there and embarass their own faith by warning about non-existent boogiemen.

Riiiight. You just keep believing that and ignoring the testimony from people who've managed to escape from the dungeon.

Having been on the convention committee of a sf/f/horror convention for the past decade

That explains much.

Yes there are some that are hostile to Christianity, there are also some that are devout Christians.

You can count the "devout Christians" at any of these cons on one hand, and have fingers left over. Having been one of those fingers many times in the past, I commonly attended the "Religion" panels, particularly those which disussed Christianity. They ALL could have been entitled "Why Christianity S#cks" or "Why Christians are Morons." As I don't hide my Catholicism, I was called a "Nazi" on more than one occasion at these things.

About the only demographic you aren't going to find at a convention are people that don't like sf/f or horror, which makes sense.

Not true. The only demographic areas who still bother with these things are as follows: 1.) Pimple-faced teenage boys who are fascinated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer; 2.) Unhygenic teenage girls who are fascinated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer; 3.) Aging female hippy rejects from the 1960s who dress like Stevie Nicks; 4.) Aging male hippy rejects from the 1960s who are trying to score with 1, 2, and/or 3; 5.) A couple pasty-skinned middle-aged guys who spend 80% of their time playing computer games; 6.) Vendors trying to extract money from the above groups. That about covers it.

I have no problem exposing kids to these people, they're just people like anybody else, maybe a little wierder, but at least they're avid readers which puts them in what I consider to be a superior minority in our current society.

I thought that too--until I had a sequence of very disturbing conversations with different folks who couldn't resist telling me about their bizzare sexual practices. When this kind of thing started happening at every con, it was clear that this stuff wasn't for me.

[kevkrom]

The Build-a-Burger is right next to the Bohemian Grove pottery store and the Tri Lat cafe in the NWO mall.

I heard that next Saturday night, you could hear Chimpus Khan and the Perfect Rovian Storm play at the TriLat.

[Luna]

I don't have kids, but I tell parents how to raise their children. :) But only in my head when I'm out in public and the little tykes are running around misbehaving and the parents don't notice or don't care.

An English teacher of mine said that if evil is portrayed as evil, it's good. I've seen two of the HP movies, and it was a story about good vs. evil, and the evil was clearly defined. To me, it's no different than the Star Wars saga. Evil is shown as evil, and whether that evil is destroyed by magic or the force, it's destroyed. Magic can be symbolic of our own power to overcome evil. And of course, fantasy is just fun to escape into to get away from this uptight world.

[discostu]

There's nothing intellectually dishonest about it at all. Yes kids can get caught up in escapism, but they can just as easily get caught up in the escapism of an imaginary friend as the escapism of D&D, and at least in D&D there's the chance to learn some creative problem solving skills.

I still have my DD because it was the precious 1st edition that had Cthulhu and Melnibonian, before Chaosium got the game rights to both of those worlds and TSR was forced to take their pantheons out of the book. Yes D&D included stuff from various myths, but no where did it include encouragement to worship them in real life, there is no more pro-paganism in D&D than there is in Bulfinch's Mythologies.

No they did not glamorize "bad things", bad things were bad and the perveyors of bad things suffered. "Tell me why I have to be a power slave" "Can't you see it'll lead you to ruin" "this can't go on I must inform the law", that's not glorification. Yes they killed Eddie, of course Eddie is a demon, what's wrong with getting the fans encouraging you to kill a demon? Yes there is a dark fascination with evil and death in the music, like James Hetfield says "we can't all write songs about puppies and happy stuff", but songs can be about dark things and not be PRO dark things.

I know it first hand. Your kind drove me fleeing from Christianity because you were constantly trying to tell me I was a bad person because of my music and my games. It wasn't until I found a Christian that shared the same interests that I learned I could exist in both worlds. I escaped from the dungeon myself, the dungeon people like YOU put me in.

Sorry, my duty for the past 8 years has been setting up the panels and we've never had one of those panels. We have panels about creating a religion for you imaginary world, we have panels about earth bound religions surviving in space, and panels about religion in your character's lives. Go to the think in my bio page, the last couple of schedule are on there.

Very true. We also get scientists, writers, aspiring writers, artists, aspiring artists, successful business people, well read people looking for interesting philosophical discussions and a whole host of others. Funny how quickly you resort to crass generalizations and insults, very typical of the condemning Christians that drive people from the faith.

Yep there are wierd people in fandom, there are wierd people everywhere. Want to talk about people with wierd sexual practices, let's talk about some priests. Now it's unfair and rude to condemn all of Catholocism for the behavior of a few, and I won't do it, try doing me the same courtesy.

[Aquinasfan]

No, the protagonist has a genetic combination that allows him to control forces that are outside the realms of current science and explained in that universe as magical.

Doesn't he go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?

That sounds to me like a school of witchcraft and wizardry.

[Pippin]

Re #130

I couldn't have said it better myself! :o)

[Aquinasfan]

But with all the real evil in this world, it seems silly to go looking for more where it doesn't exist.

Just walk through the fantasy/sci-fi section of Barnes and Noble and you'll see that Harry is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are lots of kids engaging in occult practices. Read the reviews of the Ouija board game on Amazon. How do they become interested in this stuff?

[discostu]

He goes to learn to control the powers he already has. That's one of the big things that people that condemn HP always ignore, due to genetic pre-disposition Harry is a wizard whether he gets training or not, strange things happen around him as a result of his will before he ever even hears about Hogwarts. He goes to school to get the training necessary to control his abilities, if there was no such place as Hogwarts he'd still be a wizard, just uncontrolled and dangerous.

[SweetCaroline]

BUMP

[LIConFem]

"How do they become interested in this stuff?"

I don't know, but that's kinda beside the point. The question isn't what interests kids, but whether those interests prove harmful. I'm not even sure that kids who have an interest in wizards/magic/the occult/et cetera actually believe in any of it. Seems more likely that it's just childish fantasy. They may talk about it as though it's real, but such is the nature of fantasies.

As for actually engaging in occult practices, I can't really address that because I wouldn't know an "occult practice" from a sinus headache. But again, do a child's interests necessarily congeal into hard belief? Is pretending to be a wizard any more harmful than pretending to be Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman?

I haven't read the Ouija board reviews as yet, but I will and get back to ya.

[LIConFem]

Okay, I just read the Ouija board reviews and I have one question for you... Do you really think that those kids actually BELIEVE anything they wrote of their experiences? Isn't it more likely that they're just kids being kids?

Personally, by the way, Ouija boards have always given me the willies. But I think that's because I watched way too many horror movies as a child :)

[Tijeras_Slim]

I haven't been this dissapointed since Madame Pince put the entire "Left Behind" series in the Restricted Section.

[Miykayl]

That is funny.