Posted on 03/17/2008 7:44:22 AM PDT by Terriergal
By John-Henry Westen
EDINBURGH, March 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The newly released edition of the Edinburgh University Student newspaper, the oldest student newspaper in the UK, includes an interview with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. In the interview Rowling claims to have received death threats from Christians opposed to her novels, calling Christian 'fundamentalists' "dangerous" and comparing them by inference to Islamic fundamentalists.
Asked if there were not some Christians who dislike the book 'intensely', Rowling replied, "Oh, vehemently and they send death threats." Questioned about the 'death threats', she added, "Once, yeah. Well, more than once. It is comical in retrospect. I was in America, and there was a threat made against a bookstore that I was appearing at, so we had the police there."
While she said she could stomach critics, she had little time for Christian criticism. "But to be honest the Christian Fundamentalist thing was bad," she said. "I would have been quite happy to sit there and debate with one of the critics who were taking on Harry Potter from a moral perspective."
Many Christians who have opposed the Potter series have done so after reading comments by Christian reviewers pointing out their moral and spiritual dangers. The opponents, who have been relying on the reviewers criticisms, have often avoided reading Rowling's lengthy Potter narratives, and Rowling uses such cases to paint Christians as if they were insane.
"I've tried to be rational about it," she told the paper. "There's a woman in North Carolina or Alabama who's been trying to get the books banned-she's a mother of four and never read them. And then- I'm not lying, I'm not even making fun, this is the truth of what she said-quite recently she was asked [why] and she said 'Well I prayed whether or not I should read them, and God told me no.'"
The interviewer notes that at that point "Rowling pauses to reflect on the weight of that statement, and her expression one of utter disbelief." Rowling then continued, "You see, that is where I absolutely part company with people on that side of the fence, because that is fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is, 'I will not open my mind to look on your side of the argument at all. I won't read it, I won't look at it, I'm too frightened.'"
"That's what's dangerous about it, whether it be politically extreme, religiously extreme...In fact, fundamentalists across all the major religions, if you put them in a room, they'd have bags in common! They hate all the same things, it's such an ironic thing."
Michael O'Brien, one of the most prominent Potter critics, has carefully read and analyzed the Potter books critiquing the spiritual and moral problems with Rowling's works. O'Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com about Rowling's mockery of Christians who avoid her works.
"Regrettably, there is a strange new form of self-righteousness at work in the world-a psychological state of mind that is common to post-modernists such as J. K. Rowling," said O'Brien. "One of its symptoms is their inability to discuss on a serious level the truth or untruth of their cultural products. They avoid the real issues and instead take the 'ad hominem' approach-personal attacks against those who raise critical objections to the disorders in their books. From the vaccuum of real thought arises the dreary habit of classifying as a 'fundamentalist' any critic who bases his arguments on religious or spiritual grounds."
Added O'Brien: "This term is used against bomb-throwing terrorists, sweet grandmothers praying silently before abortuaries, and anyone who preaches the fullness of the Christian faith in church and media. It has become the utmost smear word, a weapon that is proving quite effective in silencing opposition. If you don't have an argument yourself, you just switch tactics and cry 'fundamentalist!' Supposedly all opposition will then collapse."
In previous interviews Rowling has said Christian criticism of her works come from the "lunatic fringe" of the church.
Prior to being elected Pope, then-Cardinal Ratzinger expressed an opinion opposing the Potter books. He sent a letter of gratitude to Gabriele Kuby who authored a work explaining the dangers of the Potter story, especially to young children. Made available by LifeSiteNews.com, Ratzinger's letter to Ms. Kuby stated, "It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly."
Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist of the Vatican also condemned the books warning parents, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil." Father Amorth criticized the novels for glorifying magic, which he explicitly refers to as "the satanic art", and for presenting disordered perceptions of morality in the supposedly heroic main characters.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05071301.html
Harry Potter Feature Page:
http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter/
Links to articles about when and where this was done, please? (Don't bother me with articles about parents wanting them banned from the public school library. They have the right to call for a ban in a library that their own kids have access to.)
I read the headline: “Potter Author JK Rowling Equates Christians Who Avoid Potter with Islamic Fundamentalists”.
If Rowling said that, she is a pinhead.
That explains the fatwa against her and why she’s gone into hiding.
Sorry, I get “URL Not Found”. Got a better link?
I’m anti Potter for impressionable children. Remember what the Jesuits said-—
Ignatius Loyola said 400 years ago, “Give me the child until the age of seven, and I will give you the man.”
Nor would I dream of forcing you to.
OTOH, I've made a point of reading every book and seeing every movie with my kids. (My Darling Daughter was 'into' Harry Potter before it was popular, and somewhat resents the popularity).
In some ways, the HP seires is, I suppose, a religious work, but mostly it is a fantasy war story. It is WWII, the WOT, a story of PEOPLE fighting evil with everything they've got.
The various magical plot devices are little different from the ordinance expended in a muggle conflict, they can be used by either side, for good or evil.
Like a shootin' war, it is played against a background of people who are oblivious, don't get it, or are keeping their heads down.
Like WWII, the good side ultimately wins, but the cost is very high. Like the WOT the cost of losing is unthinkable.
It has a certain moral clarity that any of the other current Hollywood products lack.
ya THINK!?!?!
I was annoyed with Dumbledore being gay... I’d never thought of him in a sexual context. He was just a mysterious powerful wizard, a force for good and a wonderful headmaster.
In the later books she made him a little more complicated and looking back, I think she intended that his brief bout of madness as a youth was connected to a passion he felt for another male, which led to lifelong regret.
I think he became asexual after that, at least in practice.
I'd rather my child learn to read...in such a way my child would at least be able to read Scripture and decide for him or herself about religion. Besides God, if He truly is all powerful, does not IMO need puny humans to defend either Him or His word!
Yup. My children were so upset at that totally unnecessary and unfounded announcement, they have declared they will not read any future Rowling books, although they love HP.
Better yet, I'll provide you with the name of a couple of Christian churches you may enjoy attending. First, you might try the Westboro Baptist Church where you can learn that "God hates fags" etc. Maybe you could join them in picketing dead American Soldier's funerals.
If that's not your cup of tea, there's always the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama says it's really a great loving Christian environment.
That painting is reminiscent of the style of “The Painter of Light”, Thomas Kinkade, who is a Christian. I wonder if it’s intentional.
You think Mother Goose is scary!? Well, she is, and the Grimm fairy tales are beyond Grimm. They don’t tiptoe around evil and are not sugar coated. Disney has to do some serious cutting to make fairy tales into movies.
Marion Chesney is one of my favorites. I don’t remember what authors I’ve checked out right now. There haven’t been many at the library lately, but last week I found two.
Yes. I was responding to the article. FR lacks a simple way to make that clear.
Once upon a time I registered "the Author of the Article" as a screen name for just this purpose. The Mod Squad promptly nuked the account.
*sigh*
They probably sensed that you were upset.
I don’t think children have any particular feelings about gays ... I didn’t know what a homosexual was until I was 35.
Oh so she thinks that's weird, but she doesn't find it kooky that she proclaimed that one of her fake characters is gay?
So you admit that you read the headline and NOT what Rowling said. The "pinwheel" would be the headline writer. What Rowling said was in the body of the article so there's no reason to suppose "if" she said anything.
Sally Martin is exceptional, but she only wrote four.
Numbered Kisses is my favorite.
Good ..... THanks!
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