Replies

I know three young people who have attempted suicide in acts of despair which they now attribute, years later, to dabbling in the occult. A significant factor in their attraction to the dark side of spirituality, they maintain, was their love of fantasy literature that portrayed this subculture as exciting and rewarding. Only later did they come to realize that, while occultism promises light, it actually delivers a gradual darkening of the mind and weakening of the will. I have talked with parents of children whose lives have gone seriously astray as a result of losing their moral bearings through involvement with the occult.

I will accept this at face value.

That leaves a question which must be answered. Where were Mom and Dad? I will not leave off my dead certain conviction that the hurrah over Harry Potter is only a symptom of massive parental neglect, malfeasance and incompetence.

Let the T V and the Mall raise your kids - what else can be expected??

HUH?

"Let the T V and the Mall raise your kids - what else can be expected??"

HUH?

Unless you plan to homeschool your children, the above is just a little funny. Kids are more influenced by peers in school than by anything they see in the mall. Why do you think they want those $150 shoes? Because their friends have them. :)

That leaves a question which must be answered. Where were Mom and Dad?

I'm responding to you, but there are dozens of others on this and similar posts making the same argument, and you're engaging in circular reasoning. The original author claimed there were problems with the Harry Potter books because of the witchcraft aspects. While I haven't read the books, I did watch a fairly lengthy interview with the author, in which she acknowledges studying witchcraft and using actual spells in the books that were in witchcraft books, written by wiccans. She goes on to explain that although she is not a witch, and does not believe in witchcraft, she uses actual spells and incantations to give the books authenticity. When someone points this out, you (and many others) call them the Taliban, accuse them of being bookburners, claim they're trying to reinstate the Meese commission, and fall back on the tried and true bumper-sticker one size fits all retort, "don't we have more important things to worry about?" (I realize you have been far more restrained, but if you look through these and similar threads, you will find all these more extreme statements made)

Then, when someone writes about cases where young people have gotten involved in witchcraft and there have been serious negative consequences, you write "where were the parents?"

First you slam parents for being concerned about the type of literature their children are reading, then you slam parents for not being concerned about what their children are exposing themselves to.