Some Thoughts on the Harry Potter Series

Lifecenter ^ | Michael O'Brien author of "A Landscape with Dragons" and "Father Elijah"

[OWK]

One wonders what she thinks of the Brothers Grimm.

Talking animals?

Not unless they're possessed by evil spirits.

Burn 'em all before it's too late.

[geaux]

Anne Rice lives about two blocks from me. She's a nut. She has a life-size nude painting of herself in her foyer, and the painter made no effort to make her look good.

[Theresa]

"As a Catholic, does that concern you?"

I have to say no. This is just backlash to living in such a technological age. Witchcraft is a joke. I just can't take the threat of witchcraft seriously. There is no there there. I would watch my kids for any sign of getting into anything that is not good for them. It's good to make sure kids read a variety of things. You can't shelter them from popular fiction but you can make sure they don't dwell on it as the only interesting thing out there to explore and that is what I would do.

[Theresa]

"Anne Rice lives about two blocks from me. She's a nut. She has a life-size nude painting of herself in her foyer, and the painter made no effort to make her look good."

Yeah, she needs prayer.

[ChemistCat]

In Midwest City, Oklahoma, on Air Depot Rd, just north of Reno, there's a mini-mall with a place called Ron's Chili House. Ron's Chili House makes a cheeseburger that has a huge half-Owen's-sausage-half-ground-round patty, pepper-jack cheese, sauteed onions, raw onions, lettuce, tomato (always a good tomato) and pickle. They also make fresh-cut french fries that are divine. If you're in the area, and anyone going through on I-40 can get off on Air Depot and find the place, stop in.

NOW AND THEN I get two of their cheeseburgers, a large order of cole slaw, and two full orders of fries, and we split them among the five of us (and we all are quite full, believe me.) I don't do it every day.

Reading light fiction is like eating a greasy wonderful cheeseburger. It ain't daily fare. For the kids I keep a lot of non-fiction around, a careful selection of appropriate Great Literature, and quite a lot of other quality fiction (Narnia is one. So are Heinlein juveniles.) We read scriptures every day, however. We read nonfiction most of the time. We emphasize math, science, history, and we're about to launch into a study of Thomas Sowell around here--I'm reading the books and I'll talk with the kids about what I'm reading as we go. The daily fare is the healthy stuff. If you are getting enough of what your body needs, the greasy cheeseburger now and then isn't going to hurt you. I didn't ever let Pokemon in my house because I decided it was totally nutritionally empty. Harry Potter serves as a launching point for all kinds of family discussions...whether owls could be trained, or whether the books themselves are evil. It's the conversation about it that matters. If you just let your kids do all of this learning on their own without teaching them to THINK about it, it doesn't matter what they read, they will not get much out of it that is good.

A 4th grader like mine who has read Tom Sawyer, Oliver Twist, as well as other quality "chapter books," dozens of books on astronomy, much of the Bible and (for us) the Book of Mormon, is not going to be flummoxed or upset by Harry Potter. He doesn't need to be charmed into reading--he already reads.

He likes broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussel's sprouts too, because he's always eaten them.

[don-o]

Unless you plan to homeschool your children, the above is just a little funny.

Why is homeschooling such a reach for the sheeple?

Going on 13 years here. And there ain't a thing funny about it. I sleep easy at night. I supervise their curriculum and their peer influence.

I know my children and I rest easy at night.

[joathome]

Not a problem for me......we homeschool also. :)

[ChemistCat]

I just paid for two second-hand curricula packages from Ebay. DIRT CHEAP. I don't know if I'm going to do it, but I want to be prepared in case smallpox shuts this country down for awhile. I am thrilled with the Lutheran school my children attend, and if I can't send them there next year I will homeschool. My children aren't going to be crammed into 32-student classrooms with crabby union teachers ever again.

[Utopia]

Very eloquent!
I'm of the Greek philosophy: moderation in all things The odd greasy hamburger is not going to kill me. A diet of pure lettuce is boring, too. Balance is the key.
Harry Potter is only important if people asign it importance. Sometimes you need the Harry Potter's in your life, if only to assist you in defining your own beliefs. Sometimes its just a story.

[LinnKeyes2000]

A lot of us do put the same energy into those issues, thank you.

[kcpopps]

'...makes it all but certain that they'll be ignored as fruitcakes..."

Hey! OWKN! You just described my philosophy regarding YOU!
Well, to be fair, you're only bass ackwards wrong 75% of the time.

[LinnKeyes2000]

it's not a fragile faith that causes me to respond to potter. it's the deception potter puts out that hurts
those without faith and knowledge

[OWK]

I guess I'd have an attitude too, if I worked at a McDonalds.

[LinnKeyes2000]

most of the posts i've read here against potter are of the nature that Christians should not be espousing this as
harmless lit. I plan to have my child eventually read the Qur'an, marx ... so that we can have a discussion about it
based on biblical and conservative principles

[Aquinasfan]

... so that we can have a discussion about it based on biblical and conservative principles

I have nothing against doing 'post-mortems' like that. And doing one on Harry would be OK with me. Trouble is, few parents are reading it that critically.

[ChemistCat]

My son was terribly bemused and impressed by Tom Sawyer. He saw the behavior of boys from that time as terribly dangerous and abnormal. The running away from home, the lurking in a graveyard at midnight with a dead cat. The cave-exploring with (gasp) CANDLES! Kids living on an island alone for days on end with no adult supervision. Tom administering MEDICATION to HIMSELF!! But what he found most shocking was Tom actually kissing Becky Thatcher, voluntarily! Kids with reasonably protective parents live hothouse flower lives these days. Books give them a glimpse into that most essential knowledge: there are other ways than the ones we have. I don't think it's a good idea to limit our kids to a steady diet of only that information we approve. I'm not saying let them read Hustler or any very violent or obviously evil literature, but once they've reached a certain age, let them read Harry Potter if you disapprove of it as being subtle evil, and then discuss why the book gives you whatever feelings you have about it. Why do you think the Taliban worked so hard to eliminate literacy?

[ET(end tyranny)]

There's an awful lot of deception popularly winging its way through Christianity these days...

Not just 'these' days!

The word used in Matthew's gospel to refer to the wise men is the Greek "magoi", or the Latin "magi". "Magi" is perhaps an arcane and unfamiliar term to most English speakers. But, if you look in the dictionary, the word "magi" means sorcerers, wise men, MAGIcians, star-gazers, or astrologers. For what it is worth, you might be interested to know that "wizard", literally from the Old English "wise-ard", means "wise man". In Biblical times, magi (typically from the lands, such as Babylon, to the east of Israel) supposedly conjured the powers of the stars, sought guidance and prescience from them, and followed them. They monitored and interpreted the signs of the stars, predicted abnormal events, told fortunes, channeled deities, and were believed to tap unearthy powers.

Jeremiah notes this when he reminds GOD's people to not be concerned over the signs of the heavens because to be concerned with signs in the heavens is the practise of the heathen nations.

Jer 10:2

Thus says *YAHWEH*:
"Do not learn the ways of the Gentile Nations,
nor be concerned over the signs of the heavens.
Because, the Gentile Nations are concerned over them,
and the customs of these peoples are false."

They were not "kings from the orient", they were, by the Biblical definition, star-gazing wizards.

[Roy Tucker]

An interesting perspective by O'Brien but overdone. My 9 year old read the Harry Potter series and I would read him chapters at bedtime out of all four books. They are good yarns that encourage children to read books. Harry Potter is a heroic, honest character that captures children's imagination. My son also has read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and the Tales of Narnia. There is magic and fantasy, good and evil in all of them. I think you need to relax about the influence this will have on children's interest in the occult.

[kcpopps]

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