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/
Me too. I found the good vs evil very compelling.
I’d rather read Robe-Grillet!
I have a Regency Romance in my library bag :-).
Where was it disguised???
Don't forget that little 'story' about a good Samaritan. ;-)
Would you care to provide Scripture references to support your contention that Christianity has a dark, coercive, dangerous side?
I've seen plenty for islam. I'm coming up short for the teachings of Jesus or His followers.
Thanks for the heads up, nully!
HP PING!!
I had to google Robe-Grillet (s/b “Robbe-Grillet”). UGH!
I was quoting the article, that’s not my belief.
Just incase you missed it, the paragraph was surrounded by quotation marks...
You have said “I’m anti Potter”.
Just thought I’d mention that I appreciate your honesty.
Bad stuff.... awesomely bad.... bad even for a pretentious French dude...
Actually, it's quite the opposite.
The publicity created by the so-called "Christians"(in quotes because they are a small minority of Fundamentalist Christians who, like fundamentalists everywhere, think they're the only ones who know the 'truth') sells many Potter books.
Then their antics get publicized, thus creating a free world-wide advertisement for Harry Potter books.
Many of the people who buy Rowling's books do so only because they want to find out what's so bad about Harry Potter. They usually enjoy them so much that they buy even more.
Their actions appear amazingly ignorant to much of the rest of the world. Their only intellectual argument is 'God told me not to read it' or 'God told me to do it' which is intellectual laziness at it's zenith.
Rowing is certainly correct that the vast majority of her closed-minded critics have never even read the books in question.
That's exactly what the issue is to some. God very clearly condemns witchcraft in the Bible. I don't see where it's OK to read stories that promote it as a good, or even neutral thing. It's dealing with spiritual forces that are very real and very dangerous. Making light of them is unwise, to say the least.
Calling for a ban on Harry Potter books (which many fundamentalist Christians have done) is an attempt to prevent others from reading the books.
“It does me no harm for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” - Thomas Jefferson
I wonder if people are now going to call Jefferson a “godless RINO sellout.” Probably.
Sheesh.
a la Lord of the Rings and the gay agenda spouted by the actors after?
Magic and paganism are also evident in all of JRR Tolkien's "Rings" series yet they are considered by some to be classis...how would you rate them?
de nada. This looks like it's going to be a hot thread.
Why? Like Rush says, if you can't refute the idea, just call them names...that's what liberals do.
But he won a Grand Prix from the Academie!
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