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/
I don’t make any excuses for people who make death threats, tell me where I did. ANd I won’t. But I also won’t sit there and say someting vague and general like “repent or perish” is an explicit death threat towards that person. that’s reading too much into it. Context puts things in proper perspective. Rowling said she received death threats. They may have been explicit, in which case I wouldn’t be for that. But if she just read something out of context and took it to be a threat when it was something like I mentioned above, she’s over-reacting and reading it the way she wants to read it.
I take it you’re a big Rowling fan . . well, that’s YOUR business . . just as it is my business what I believe.
Your remarks will be filed in File 13, just as I’m sure mine will be tosed in your File 13.
Thanks for the information. I still think that the Potter books are spiritually dangerous junk. That’s my right (at least for the moment). Rowling is pretty on the outside - very dark and ugly on the inside and preaching her warped gospel to our children and getting rich in the process. . and we keep wondering “what’s happening to our kids” ?
If I quoted scriptural references, then the typical reply would be as I’ve always said, that they were “misinterpreted”. Often though, they are, which is beside the point.
I also note that Christians do not limit their doctrines to the New Testament, but include laws, statutes and judgments of the Old Testament, the God of the Hebrews, as well. And these were and are used far more often as justifications for the misbehavior of Christians.
And to their credit, the vast majority of Christians today do not excuse such bad behavior in their minority. This is the critical difference between them and Muslims. The Christians have reformed their doctrines, and in line with their theology, not the one borrowed from the Jews. They generally *act* as Christians.
An excellent example is in how almost all Christians reject such infamous characters as Fred Phelps, and bizarre schismatics like David Koresh. The Anglican church is suffering a schism between those that embrace Christian doctrines and the Episcopalians who seem to have forgotten them entirely.
This willingness of Christians to *not* apologize for the bad behavior of other Christians is what needs to be emphasized, not that some Christians misbehave, and use the religion to justify their misbehavior.
Christ never taught revenge or oppression. He never forced or coerced people to faith.
His teachings are to love and forgive as He has loved and forgiven us. That doesn’t mean sin is over looked. He also admonished people to go and sin no more.
The message of the Gospel contains warnings about what will happen if you don’t believe, but that is just alerting you to the consequences. The choice is still yours.
There is no dark side to the teachings of Jesus as there are to the teachings of Mohammed.
I can totally understand where JK is coming from here. I have no use for Christians/Muslims or any religious people by and large but the fundamentalist ones really give me the creeps. Where I come from in Middle Georgia you’d get these types that would talk in tongues and handle rattle snakes. Called themselves the ‘Holiness Church’. Freaks is what I called ‘em.
Any parent, regardless of whether they are Christian or not, has the right to speak out about what books they believe should or should not be in the school library. Parents who oppose that position also have a right to speak out. It is not an infringement on your rights. Please get a grip.
If you want your kid to read something not in the school library, you can buy it for them.
Thanks for the ping. I don’t support either side in this fight.
With respect, if your child has only two choices like this then you're raising them wrong.
I’ve never read or seen Tolkien...have zero interest in it. In college the stoners read those (hash) pipe dreams
I had a stoner friend who devoted himself to the bible whenever he was stoned because he had a passion for apologetics and scriptural debate. Doesn't mean I write off all Bible readers as brain fryers.
The children are the real problem. Those are high impact movies leading to lots of fantasies some on the dark side. Children should be exposed to better tales such as Bible stories
Screw Harry Potter. Those are high impact movies and not constructive foe kiddies. They should be learning about God and the Bible prophets and Jesus. Not some shit about magic and sorcerers. The entertainment mix for children is too heavily weighted towards Harry Potter type movies and not enough toward religious education
Grimm’s tales and some magic stuff is OK for children. I just don’t like the lopsided proportions. More Bible is needed
I had a stoner friend who devoted himself to the bible whenever he was stoned because he had a passion for apologetics and scriptural debate. Doesn't mean I write off all Bible readers as brain fryers.
Stoners were Tolkien freaks, eh?
Funny, back in the 60's during the rise of the "drug culture" (read stoners), some of those people were also called "Jesus Freaks". Seems they got stoned and read the Bible then went out to preach, with their long hair, beards, and everything! Seems they wanted to take His teachings to heart. They were looked down upon.
Go figure.
Funny thing is: I started reading Tolkien in the 5th grade, where we were introduced to "The Hobbit" in class. LOTR came later in high school. IIRC, Tolkien was a devout Catholic. Also recall reading about King Aurthur, Merlin & Morgana; The Oddessy; Jason and the Argonauts, and other Greek and Roman Mythology, and many other types of fanciful literature.
It didn't make want to abandon Christianity. But I gotta tell you; a lot of Christians make me cringe sometimes.
Such language you use for a Bible loving Christian.
Before they were movies, they were books. And the movies leave a lot out. But if you want more Bible for your kids, there's no reason they can't have both.
The Bible speaks of concepts such as Honor, Duty, Love, Friendship & Family; standing up for those who cannot; protecting the weak; the battle between good and evil.
Oddly enough, so do the Potter books. They stand out quite well.
As I think I might have mentioned to you before; if you were to read the books with your child and weave those lessons into the ones from other sources, you might come out all right.
According to the teachings of both, what is the fate of Jews in the afterlife?
I completely agree with everything in your post...the Tolkein freaks as Stoners comment came from an earlier poster I responded to.
Personally, like you, I’ve loved wide-ranging discoveries in reading. One can lessons of ethics and morality regardless of whether the source material was Christian or not. Gilgamesh, Njal’s Saga, The Illiad, etc spring to mind along with many others...
And as I pointed out, Christians embrace a lot more than just the New Testament. You won’t find the words of Jesus in the Old Testament; and Christians behave properly by not using it as justification for their actions. But many still do.
From that perspective, they may not be following Jesus’ teachings. From the Jewish point of view, as well, the Mosaic covenant does not apply to Christians, it is only for Jews. The Christians belong to the Noachide covenant. But Christians still abide by the Ten Commandments, even though Jesus never mentioned them as Christian doctrine.
And this is the dark side of Christians: cherry picking the doctrines of the Hebrews and choosing those parts that they like, but are not Christian.
Yep. All we need is more of the “dark side” to influence children to torment the “muggles” (that’s the most of us plain old people, I suppose - the pluggers, the human). By the time a kid realizes they aren’t a warlock, a wizard or a witch, it’ll be a grand wakeup call.
NT Scripture says that “all Israel shall be saved”. Now, I can’t fully understand that, but I do know that St. Paul taught that we should LOVE the Jews, they are the NATURAL branches, we are just grafted in branches.
Why can't they do both? My child does.
Fantasy is not my prefered genre of fiction and I haven't read the Potter books, but my 9 year old does. She also knows her Bible. However, not everyone believes as you do in the weight of what children are to be exposed, it doesn't make them any less qualified to be the parents who make the decisions.
Isn’t the Bible the Word of God? The WHOLE Bible?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.