[Fintan]

Personally, I find this "Harry Potter" uproar ridiculous, especially the belief that is held by some that the world is going to hell in a hand basket by the very existence of a fictional character. But, hey, fire away...

[zlala]

If Harry Potter is the decline of human existance, then what about Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Fantasia, Pinochio, and pretty much every childs story since the beginning of civilization.

Using the mindset of these imbeciles, one would be forced to conclude that Huckelberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer are rascist publications, due to the existance and frequency of the word 'Nigger'.

[LibKill]

I saw the "Harry Potter" movie this week.

My (Catholic) niece had seen it before but insisted that I see it with her.

No damage. She is still going to Mass and still worshiping Jesus.

Excuse me now. I have a sudden urge to draw a pentagram and sacrifice a goat. :)

[southern rock]

"The main characters show love, courage, loyalty and sacrifice,"

Big deal!! You can be a Hindu, Buddhist, or whatever and still show all of those traits. Doesn't mean you're saved.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

I'm with you Fintan. I was raised Catholic, but converted to Protestant when I married my husband. Our whole family are active Christians, and not just on Sundays. We read these books, and we recenlty saw the movie. We love them both! We read books with our kids,.. we all shared a love of reading. We read mostly fiction.

This was a well thought out article. I appreciate your posting it. Thanks. I noticed this quote at the end (I agreed with what so many of different faiths had said, but this one held importance to me, and I'll explain why after I re-post it.)

"These books clearly delivered moral lessons that would be attractive to people of many different faith communities," the rabbi said. "They speak of the power of love, right and wrong, and the power of our choices to determine who we are. They exalt human virtue."

I mentioned before that after seeing the movie, our 6 year old grandson said: "Daddy is was so neat, it was all about love and justice".

Thats what we thought too. We saw a TON of great moral lessons in this. It was just good fun,..and it is so wonderful to see movies coming out that we can go and enjoy with our grandchildren. We hope this becomes a trend!!! We can't wait to see "Lord of the Rings"..and we hope that books like "The sword of Shanara" and others by Terry Brooks, become movies.

Again, thanks for one of the most balanced and well written articles on this subject to date!!

[goorala]

Well, I don't know what my problem is, but I found the movie kind of lame, trite, predictable, typical, shallow and only mildly amusing.

[realpatriot]

What I find disturbing in all these HP threads is the feverish rush to defend the books/movies. Why is this?

I happen to fall on the "con" side of this argument, but not to the extent of name calling, which I find common from the "pro" side, as evidenced in this thread (imbiciles was the term used.)

[Narnian_Girl]

This Harry Poter deal is getting out of hand, on the favorable side AND the debative side. I really do think Harry is making a big disagreement between alot of people, it's like one little thing can tear the whole world apart! My cousin, Sherin, just broke up with her boyfriend because they had a disagreement about Harry Potter. And, my friend's little sister is no longer friends with Lakisha, her best friend for 2 years, just because of Harry Potter. And don't tell me that it's just a little argument, they'll get back together, I mean, It's OVER! O-V-E-R OVER! I just don't understand how people can get so flabbergated about one little series of books, then a couple months later, the buisness makes a movie about it!!!!!!! Don't you see, maybe the influence that Clinton had on everyone made this world sin so much that they enjoy sinnful things. I just feel this way, if you don't believe what I just said, you just waisted yours and my time, you by reading all that, and mine by typing it just for you to say it's not true, so think it over morons! (Umm......with exception of all the nice folks out there.

[Saundra Duffy]

A cute fun little flick. My 77-year-old step mom loved the book and wanted to see the movie so we went on Thanksgiving Day! She was like a little kid loving seeing the book come to life. I got a kick out of watching her. I remember this Christian lady telling me she wouldn't let her kids see "The Little Mermaid" Disney flick because the girl was "rebellious". Good grief! Some of these Christians need to stop obsessing over the small stuff. For victory & freedom!!!

[js1138]

"Evangelical Christians believe that witchcraft is real."

That pretty much says it all.

[CLaymoreminded]

What scares "christians" (and I use the term very loosly) the most is the fact that the three fastest growing religions in the world are Islam, Mormonism, and Wiccan.

I remember a statement about whitewashed tombs by someone named Yeshua.