Posted on 11/09/2001 8:04:52 AM PST by jrherreid
Therefore, the depiction of such magic, taken as fact, is not a positive influence on young, impressionable minds.
It doesn't sound like you know much about kids, either.
You'll pardon me if I remain skeptical.
I believe that magic does exist, OWK already knows I believe things that cannot be objectively proven so this should come as no surprise to him, and I believe that magic is use of demonic power. What I do not believe, however, is that an author can write into reality a fictional world. Tolkien's Middle-Earth does not exist. Rowling's Hogwart's does not exist. These are sub-creations, below creation (make believe), and as such the creators of these sub-creations can create whatever rules they want for these sub-creations. Just as God created the rule that the area of a circle is always PiR2, and he created the rule that the use of magic is evil, Tolkien and Rowling created their world with the rulesthat magic is neutral and the intent of the magician gives it's use morality. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia as a work of allegory, and as such he mirrors the real world in his sub-creation, which is why the rules are much closer than Tolkien and Rowling, but this is clearly not what the latter two have done.
As for not knowing kids, do you understand how important using the imagination is for children's development? Up to about the age of 4, most children would have some difficulty distinguishing between real and imaginary. After that time, however, children start having tea parties with their dolls, start playing army men in the dirt, start pretending they can fly like superman, etc. The reading of a book like Harry Potter is easily understood by children to be "make believe".
Therefore, on a deep level you do not comprehend the mistrust parents have for books about witchcraft aimed at their impressionable eight-year-olds, or the contempt parents hold for those who would corrupt their kids under the guise of "literacy."
Read whatever you want. Just don't tell me you understand anything about the mind of a four-year-old, except what you remember from your own childhood, what you've seen on TV, or what you've read in the Child Psychology 101 syllabus.
Because that's not proof enough for most parents that you know what you're talking about, especially those parents who've read Rowling for themselves and find H.P. vapid, derivative and dangerous.
Can you?
For example, an unexplained healing is regarded as a miracle. So would be resurrection from the dead. But miracles are generally regarded as tangential to one's faith life.
Why? Well, one reason is because it is pretty easy for someone who adheres axiomatically to materialist philosophy to rationalize any miracle or supernatural with a natural explanation. For example, an atheist might believe that it is impossible to levitate, so would explain any report of a levitation as a lie or misunderstanding.
But what if an atheist witnessed a levitation? Even then, the atheist could believe that he halucinated. Or sometime later come to believe that his memory was faulty. So even first-hand observation might not suffice.
That's why I like to point to the Shroud of Turin as an example of the supernatural to hardened skeptics. Here we have a natural phenomenon, an image on a cloth, but lacking a natural explanation. Moreover, the phenomenon is persistent, it has existed for years, and has been subjected to endless, rigorous scientific investigation. It's impossible to explain in materialist terms. Which explains why many atheistic or agnostic scientists who have examined the cloth have converted.
Remember, were talking about KIDS. They are not simply smaller adults. They are different, more impressionable and far more fragile than people without kids would ever imagine.
Just because a person was once a child, doesn't mean they know children.
Magic? Most definitely, and tens of thousands set out to stop the practice. Many would protest, "NO! That's not magic!" But if the same activity were undertaken by two or three men somehow transported back to the days of clubs and stone weapons, the ones that would be slaughtered by the potion portions properly plied, would plop the play in the magic category very quickly, and rightly so, for it is magic to them that perish.
Supercilious example? I don't think so ... it is the wordy affirmation of the notion that magic is advanced technology misunderstood. Is that applicable here? Only if one truly wishes to keep the mind open to the range of perceptiona nd knowledge not at present accessible to we technocratically inclined.
It is fundamental to Judeo-Christian development that the supernatural is possible. What is supernatural? By definition, merely that which is beyond the current natural. We have a great example of the principle in Moses and Pharoah and the 'miracles' duplicated by the Egyptian 'sorcerers'. It is assumed in scriptures that Moses cast the staff down and supernatural power from someone/something changed it into a serpent. when the Egyptian 'wisedudes' duplicated the feat to Pharoah's satisfaction (and it is important to note that he had a vital stake in accuracy of perception), Moses and his demands were dismissed.
Only when the last and much more frightening feat was performed did Pharoah realize his sorcerers were mortal but the message brought by Moses was coming from an Immortal. When the Angel swept into Egypt and took the first born, except where the blood was applied to the doorpost and lintel of the houses, then Pharoah relented. Oddly, after the escape was accomplished, even the haughty pride of Pharoah could not allow the God of Creation the position only moments before acceded to ... Pharoah was so mad at God, he sent his army after the freed slaves, an army which was consumed in yet another 'supernatural' event.
So, for those of you who've given this screed the courtesy of a full read, what is the point? Namely, whether there is actual magical manipulation of the spacetime physical realm or not, the lessons most important lie outside the actual physical manipulations. As such, the Potter series function nobly to inspire thought and wonder in kids. But such inspiration must be then channeled to the wise growth of the individual soul, else the forces not in the physical realm will reach to pervert the lessons, just as something whispering in Pharoah's ear perverted the lesson and led to the destruction of his army!
The ultimate threat perceived in the Potter series comes from the fear that once incited to wonder, the parents will be lacking in their proper responsibility to channel the wonder.
Frankly, the scenes described in Judeo-Christian scriptures are far more powerful for the direction of the soul/spirit, if applied responsibly. My son was deeply into D&D growing up, but he understood that the incident of handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar's palace was more real than the imagined powers and influence he and his friends conjured in their games, because I and his mother taught him so and now he applies those lessons in his life, in bringing up my precious granddaughter.
Discernment is a parental responsibility to develop. It will not happen as it is intended unless the parents raise up the child in the way that it should go, such that when old they will not depart from it.
Rowlings has opened doors that the mire of TV and Hollywierd would never be able to open; now, it is up to the parents of the children to take their responsibility in channeling the awakened wonder, rather than trying to prevent the awakening, utilize it to teach the young! If you don't, my novels, written for the adults so that they can confront some of the deeper notions of the human/heaven paradigm, will molder in obscurity. Rowlings writes of spells and Wizards. I write of a secret garden and a Tree of Immortality. Harry confronts dark witches and evil wizards; my characters confront the greed and powerhunger of men, and resist the temptations of real physical attraction between men and women. If the world becomes too 'sophisticated' such resistence of real physical temptations will be passe, and the human race will sink into the oblivion of self-gratification over living in and with, overcoming reality, the reality of human frailty.
Thanks for the lecture; however, I like to view God as more intelligent than you suggest. I would think that God knows the difference between someone reading a book and deriving a message from part of the work as opposed to someone turning to black magic.
You sound like some of those who only read the Koran and nothing else.
2 Kings 17 16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
Or, perhaps God is wiser and more intelligent than you take Him to be.
Parents object to the fact that Harry Potter glorifies witchcraft to young, impressionable minds. Rowling presents a perverse, Godless world order that looks to be lots of fun.
I better not have them read the children's series by C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narina. They sound similar (in some ways) to these Harry Potter books.
In the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, four children—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy—go to stay with a reclusive old professor in a mysterious country house. While playing a game, Lucy, the youngest, hides in a wardrobe and discovers that it leads to a magical world called Narnia. This land, which is inhabited by talking animals, is ruled by the lion Aslan, a good and powerful king. Narnia, however, had come under the spell of the evil White Witch, who had caused it to be always winter but never Christmas there.
Sounds like my kids are going to turn to the dark side when they read these in several years.
Deuteronomy 9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
Bingo. Operative word being "evil." C.S. Lewis knew what he was doing. The Chronicles are wonderful adventures, a cautionary tale of the nether world.
H.P. portrays witchcraft in a positive light, encouraging kids to follow a path away from God, towards mysticism.
Like I said, read them for yourself.
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