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/
Oh, Mother Goose is way scary. I wasn’t arguing with you.
All those older things have been cleaned up for current readers.
Why not? God gave us free will and some use it for good and some use it for evil. How do you know the source of this power is not from God which he allows people to use according to their own free will?
A man shall be known by his works. If those works they do are good, maybe the power did come from God.
I project that the first answer I will get is that some of the work they do has nothing to do with advancing the good, but Jesus’s first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding. I don't see how providing free liquor so people can get drunk as advancing the good. It was just a fun thing for him to do, like some of the "fun" magic in Potter.
Obviously, and masterfully said!
But that was your feeling about an old lecher.
I see no gay thing here.
Other “Christian” parents have no right to tell the school which books my children can read in the school library. In this particular case, she could have requested that her kids not read it, but she wanted to ban it for mine as well.
That is an attempt at censorship based on religion. The public place it happens has no bearing on it. Public schools are paid for by tax dollars, just the same as the public library - and no where does it say that Harry Potter was required reading, making it even more egregious that she would want to ban it.
I censor books for my children, which is what a good parent does. But I don’t want to ban them for anyone else. And I don’t need some “Christian” busybody doing it for me, especially not for religious reasons.
In this way, some Christians are like Islamic fundamentalists. “I don’t want to read this, and you shouldn’t either”. It speaks to the censor’s opinion that people are too weak to handle ideas. It says that people are inherently bad and will do wrong if they get a stray whiff of a controversial idea.
It is why pop music, movies, and women’s faces are banned in some Islamic countries. They think, like this woman, that ideas and pictures and music can so harm a person that they must be banned.
Theologically, it is a very dangerous road to go down - to think that we are always so weak that we need constant supervision from the state or our “betters”. I do not require some self-appointed busy body to act as the Mutaween.
I am not that weak, and my children are not weak. God does not make junk and my family does not need the misguided help of some outsider to decide our reading materials for us. Christian or otherwise.
My original point, which you have not disputed, included the fact that the ALA reports that the Harry Potter books are the 7th most challenged books in libraries, period.
If you’d like to continue your line of reasoning, please explain the difference between Hamlet and Harry Potter. Should Hamlet be removed from public school libraries? Similar subject matter. How about Mother Goose? Would you ban that? The Bible? Would you ban the Bible for it’s controversial content?
Parents whether Christian or not have every right to tell the school which books should be in the library. Taxpayers have every right to decide how tax dollars are spent and how their public schools are run.
Well, this thread has struck a chord. I believe it has exceeded the Sunday Morning Talk Show thread.
I read and bought all the books.
I am now listening to them on CD. This is better than a sleeping pill. I don’t mean because they are dull, but listening to books on tape or CD is like watching TV at night ... it puts one to sleep.
But in listening to the books read (by an utterly fabulous reader) I hear descriptions and nuances and have more respect than ever for Rowling as a writer. I know her writing is decried by some, but I think there’s a little jealousy going on.
She has fabulous descriptions that don’t seem contrived or over-written, wonderful interesting characters... even the minor ones are quirky and fun ... constant action and conflict .
Hagrid always reminds me of my father-in-law who’s most exotic beasts were probably peacocks, but he had no fear of any huge animal, even the biggest bull. He would just take charge and they would know it.
Christianity.
Islamic fundies ARE islamic. Read what the koran instructs them to do to infidels...
It’s the peaceful ones that aren’t following islam.
That, and consider that there are many people that read ‘death threat’ in where no explicit threat is made. People could send her a note with “Repent or Perish” “One day God is going to judge you too” in it and she could claim it’s a death threat.
Why is it so hard to say, "I condemn the actions of any Christian who would make a death threat against another human being." - ?
Every group has its idiots, and it almost sounds like you're making excuses for them! If you all decide to stick to this path, someday you'll be famous for turning a blind eye to insanity.
Oh no, my mom went in and personally tore her a new one.
The aftermath was quite amusing, as the teacher tried to take it out on me. To punish me and my mom for being so uppity, she moved me from the top tier group in her class to the middle tier, then realized that in the middle tier, I was the top student, and she'd have to give me an A+, so she moved me back to the top tier, where I was 'only' a middling student.
Then she tried to flunk me out, until I pointed out that if I failed that year, she'd have me (and have to deal with my mom) for a whole 'nother year!
It wasn't a Christian/non-Christian issue, I present it only as a counter example to your assertion that "No one told you that you couldn't get the books for your kid.", that is, as an indication that there are and always have been people who want to tell other people what they can and can't read.
I didn't end up praying to "The Gods". It was merely fanciful, mythological stories.
Rather than screeching "I'm not going to read these books, and I won't allow my children to", why not read them with your kids. They will probably end up reading them at a friends house, or when they get older anyway, not to mention catching the DVD somewhere.
By arming yourself with the story and context, you can reinforce the good aspects and lessons of the books - and there are many - while reminding the youngsters, that this IS fiction; a fanciful tale, and nothing more.
Just a thought.
Source please?
My wife and my children (my son in particular, but to a lesser extent, my daughter) have read the Potter books enthusiastically. I have accompanied them to the bookstore at midnight on the release dates. I don’t care for them, but I read very little fiction anymore. We have several church friends who are convinced that the Potter books are of the devil. I doubt that is the case. Is there anyone out there who thinks that what is in these books is real, or that what is recounted in those books is some sort of guide for living? No one I know thinks that, anymore than Little Red Riding Hood is a guide on how to visit your grandmother, or Goldilocks is a primer on how to take a walk or Jack and the Beanstalk is a book on agriculture. The books are fiction. Nothing more. Anyone who may be misled by the Potter books has problems over and above mere gullibility.
Scripture references. You know, the Bible. The thing real churches are supposed to be based on.
Slapping a label on a building or organization and invoking the name of God or Jesus once or twice a day, doesn’t make a Christian or a church.
A Christian is a follower of Christ. It’s His teachings you compare it to.
I disagree.
In this case, the parent wanted the book out of the school based on religious complaints -it offends her sense of religion.
Not that the books were too mature for the kids, or poorly written.
Religious reasons.
If people like that win, the Bible is next.
Reminds me of Obama making excuses for “Rev.” Wright.
It's not easy being Obama
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