Posted on 11/24/2001 2:08:47 AM PST by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:02:25 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
November 24, 2001 -- Is Harry Potter the spawn of Satan?
That's the opinion at one Christian school in southern Australia, where parents voted yesterday to forbid students from reading about the bespectacled wizard and his preteen cohorts.
The vote was just part of a widespread anti-Harry backlash by religious conservatives angered by the best-selling books' blatant celebration of witchcraft and the occult.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You can learn all about this in my new book “Witchcraft its evil”, another hit from BandWagon publications.
Oh, good shot! Woodkirk's been on about this all day, even when told over and over that he's wrong. I'm sure you can see, Tony, that not all of us Americans are as strangely obsessed as some of those on this thread. I think I know what's wrong with some of these people - not enough fairy tales as children.
People have the right to object to material for any reason.
Yes, people do have a right to object to material for any reason. They even have a right to object to those objections.
No one is stopping anyone from reading Harry Potter.
Sure they are. Fundie parents are stopping their children from reading Harry Potter, which is all fine and good. Kudos for them for caring about their children enough to monitor, for good or ill, their reading materials. But in all honesty, there are many who would like to prevent anyone from reading Harry Potter. It is for this reason that objections to their objections are raised, and for valid free speech reasons.
The question is whether it is appropriate for schools (see Pokemon)
Harry Potter is valid literature. It displays well constructed narrative, well developed characters, clean language and a plot line suitable for young readers. The answer then is yes, it is appropriate for schools. A hyperbolic attempt to compare it to a Pokemon cartoon is invalid, as you well know.
*ding* Award this man 2,000 points.
Which, of course, is one of my other basic problems with religion in general. According to this, a rather standard philosophy, any one that lived and died before Christianity got to their neck of the woods is burning in hell regardless of the quality of life they led. By this belief had Mother Theresa been born a Bhudist and never left her faith, yet done all the saintly things she did she's in hell right now; according to this if the Protestants are right and the Catholic Church has lost it's way and no longer represents God's will she's burning in hell right now. Quite frankly I cannot worship a God that makes those rules, there's no possible way I could accept Him as omnibenevolent. I'd rather take my chances that if there is a God He cares more about your deeds among men than how much time you spent in the right church saying the right prayers.
Just what we need. Another bigot.
But in all honesty, there are many who would like to prevent anyone from reading Harry Potter.
Name at least 50 then.
Harry Potter is valid literature.
So is Catcher in the Rye but I don't want my 2nd grader reading it in school. It has no business in the schools. Parents can let their kids read Potter all they want. But it doesn't belong in the schools.
One dictionary (hint: just because it says Webster on the cover doesn't make it good. Webster is not trademarked and can go on any dictionary at all). I've checked several more online sources and none of them have this meaning. Not one. I've checked two thesauri and neither have this in their list of synonyms for the devil - although the list is pretty intersting. I found "Old Nick", "Old Scratch" and similar names, but nothing to do with 'Harry'.
You and several dozen others on these threads. Nine or ten article writers. Several pastors, plus the thirty or so people who held a book-burning last year, right here in Pittsburgh. Tim LeHaye. Two friends of my mother's. An aunt of a good friend of mine. World magazine's staff. There are others - those are just off the top of my head.
When you home-school your kids, do you teach them grammar and spelling?
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