Posted on 11/19/2001 3:13:11 PM PST by PJ-Comix
What are kids saying about Harry Potter? Here are some samples:
| "I want to go to wizard school and learn magic. I'd like to learn to use a wand to cast spells." Dylan, age 10. "If I could go to wizard school, I might be able to do spells and potions and fly a broomstick." Mara, age 12. "It would be great to be a wizard because you could control situations and things like teachers." Jeffrey, age 11. "I'd like to go to wizard school and learn magic and put spells on people. I'd make up an ugly spell and then it's pay-back time." Catherine, age 9. "I feel like I'm inside Harry's world. If I went to wizard school I'd study everything: spells, counterspells, and defense against the dark arts." Carolyn, age 10. "I liked it when the bad guys killed the unicorn and Voldemort drank its blood." Julie, age 13. "The books are very clever. I couldn't put them down. When I was scared I made myself believe that it was supposed to be funny so I wasn't so scared." Nuray age 11. |
These are the comments of young readers of the Harry Potter wizard books quoted on a new video by Jeremiah Films. On the video, called Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged, Making Evil Look Innocent, author Robert S. McGee explains: "Children as young as kindergarten are being introduced to human sacrifice, the sucking of blood from dead animals, and possession by spirit beings."
Courts have banned the teaching of Christianity in public schools but Wicca, which is recognized by the U.S. courts as a religion and given tax-exempt status by the IRS, is taught freely. Harry Potter has become the method of introduction of Wicca to the very young.
Harry Potter materials have become much more than a hand full of children's fantasy books. Warner Brothers, Coca Cola, Minutemaid, and Mattel have used the Potter materials to launch games, puzzles, toys, backpacks, and every possible merchandizing product.
Scholastic, Inc., a major supplier of public school teaching aids has added the Potter literature to its line of curriculum materials. When the name "Harry Potter" is keyed into the Scholastic.com web site search engine, it returns 268 matches. "Jesus" returned only 23.
And now, a major movie is about to break on the scene called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Millions of dollars are being spent on pre-release hype.
Once introduced to the world of wizards, spells, and dark arts, readers of Harry Potter can advance their knowledge and skills in witchcraft and paganism by visiting the hundreds of web sites available on the internet.
Or, they can purchase more books on the subject from the well stocked Wiccan sections in local book super stores. Or, they can find over a thousand volumes on witchcraft available at Amazon.com.
Harry Potter books have taken the world of children's fantasy literature by storm. Over 200 million have been sold in 40 languages. One study shows that over half of the children in the western world have read at least one of the Potter books. Many reported rereading each book several times.
But is it just fantasy literature like Snow White and Cinderella? In the Harry Potter video, cult expert Caryl Matrisciana points out that in the older stories, evil never prevails.
There are no absolutes in his world. What is right depends on the situation.
Witchcraft now has a complete package. Starting in kindergarten with Harry Potter and TV witch shows, children are led on to the horror movies and hundreds of Wicca and pagan web sites. When they thirst for more power, high school and college Wicca covens are available. In the adult world, corporations are hiring New Age practitioners to provide seminars in sensitivity training, stress relief, and self improvement for employees.
Former Satanist William Schnoebelen points out in his book, Wicca, Satan's Little White Lie, that, "I finally learned in the most graphic fashion imaginable that the difference between witchcraft or Wicca and Satanism is actually non-existent."
Before he was saved he found himself cruising the streets looking for a lone female to assault, not for sex, but to drink her blood.1
The bottom line is a hunger for power. Harry Potter and the rest of witchcraft promises that power. But in the end they discover that Satan is really in charge of the power and only uses it like cheese in a mouse trap.
Harry Potter provides a basic initiation into witchcraft for a whole new generation. Imagine what the world will be like when they grow up.
I've found that most classical arguments on good vs evil are cast in a presumption that man has an essentially good nature. Few popular notions or identifications of "good" immediately cast such a quality as implicitly directly related to God. For this reason, many of the arguments regarding good witches or bad witches, miss the point entirely.
The watchful bystander of this thread might also consider that those who are not Christian and especially those actively opposed to any relationship with God won't employ the same tactics and honest method of debate. Many will simply malevolently deceive in order to cause spritual harm to their fellow man as best they may promote.
There are many on this thread who will malevolently deceive.
Your relationship with other created beings, especially if one condones the invitation of sorcery or encroachment of spiritual beings outside man's domain,...into our domain,...becomes the affronted affairs of fellow men.
By no means should we ever condone sorcery or witchcraft. Place our faith instead upon Him through the Lord, Christ Jesus.
The HP issue involves the introduction of the spiritual domain to children in a fashion which fails to worship God, but encourages a worship of the occult.
BTW, what's your Scriptural basis for worshipping Fantasy?
God doesn't need to depend on man, but by His grace has provided us with Covenants. Human good is one of the most evil concepts cast.
That's real funny, though.
Some Wiccans might prefer to follow Luciferian principles and state their opposition to Satan, or further discern in a domain of fallen angels, and other condemned beings, but their relationship to God is the significant issue.
This discernment is a popular deception amongst many Wiccans. It makes a truthful discernment and leaves for the listener/readers implication that the Wiccan isn't evil or to imply the Wiccan has a righteous relationship when the opposite is true.
By the way, if Christians would only write good stuff, I'd read that. However, there are only two living Christian authors whose work I enjoy; Stephen Lawhead and Frank Peretti. Instead of complaining and taking away books children love, maybe some of you anti-Potter people should write good stories yourself!
Interestingly enough the Wizard of Oz and many of that series by Frank Baum were political allegories for the US at the turn of the century touching upon hidden agendas in worldly affairs.
Granted, an innocent youth and many adults may lead their entire lives without having to be assaulted by the true ulterior motives and can simply cast the theme as a playful soliloquy by a fiction author.
Likewise, the Lord allows us the grace to not always be affronted by the heinous nature and consequences of many of our actions, directly. Instead He affords us an opportunity to escape Judgment by placing our faith and belief in Him.
Their opponents are generally good. Really, it's kind of crystal clear in most fantasy stories. Try reading a murder mystery, you don't know who's the evil murderer until the end and even then you often get an excuse. /sarcasm.
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, will be the ruler over all things at the right hand of the Father. Surely the theme that one Person ruling the world isn't that which is evil. This is good, if it is Jesus Christ.
Your story reflects what is wrong in the HP series. The series promotes rebellion to God's plan by introducing sorcery as a method for a person to control events to younger ones. Even the 'good' sorcery fails to respect God's intended plan for our lives. Sorcery should remain outside our domain.
Pray for GW and the Truth!
But in every study done on the subject [back when I read the survey of such studies] 100% [a rarity in studies of humans]--100% of all men who said rabbits were their favorite animal also said they were gay.
I haven't read the book but in the movie that theory - might makes right - is promoted... by the villian.
Why do I always get the feeling that most of these dire warnings come from people who haven't gone to the trouble to take a look at the thing they're warning us against?
The movie is great by the way. Now if you'll excuse me I have to check the cauldron, I've got a nice batch of Eye of Newt cooking up....
For Harry magic is technology. It takes place in an alternate world where God and Satan aren't mentioned. If morality is your concern the movie has a good message. If you want entertainment that caters to the small minority of doctrinaire Christians you'll have to content yourself with The Omega Code.
And it's radical Christians who shoot doctors and bomb abortion clinics.
Maybe it's time for men of good will to unite against the real evil - fundamentalism of all stripes.
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