Posted on 07/28/2010 8:16:58 AM PDT by mlizzy
Many Christians believe the Harry Potter and/or Twilight series are safe for their children to read and view as movies; I ask you to join me in prayer for discernment by parents, pastors, teachers, etc. in this regard.
Note the words of Cardinal Ratzinger in a letter to Gabriele Kuby (a German critic of the Harry Potter novels), where he writes:
"It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly."Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of the pro-life organization Human Life International (HLI), and an official Church exorcist, states in his article, "Vampire Logic":
"With the issuing of the third movie in the Twilight series I have to speak out about our culture's twisted fascination with vampires. I don't hesitate to tell people that I am totally disgusted with the new fad sweeping over our youth culture these days. It is not just kids that are taken up with the wiles of the dark world either: many moms of teens are swooning for them too. I think that these seductive creatures are simply the spawn of the Harry Potter culture that has for over a decade now been indoctrinating kids to think that the occult world is normal and that all this evil messaging is harmless when dressed up as entertainment. That's vampire logic - and just what the devil wants us to think."Michael D. O'Brien, Roman Catholic author, artist, and frequent essayist and lecturer on faith and culture, has written a book for discernment titled Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture. O'Brien states in the Preface:
"I heard so much about the Harry Potter books, and very good people told me they're great. So we bought one [or were given one] and I started to read it. At first I had no problems with it. Then something strange happened. In the middle of a chapter I was suddenly overwhelmed by nausea ... a kind of spiritual nausea. I didn't see it coming because I wanted to like these books. The whole world's in love with them, even a lot of good Christians, so I felt they were probably healthy enough to give to our kids. I just wanted to check it out first. I'm glad I did."
You simply want to state your opinion about Harry Potter without dissent.The opinions on the body of this post are not mine. I'm praying for discernment in regard to the HP-Twilight series.
The rest of FR does not agree with your assertion that Harry Potter is about witchcraft and therefore anti-Christian.The rest of FR does not agree with me? There's probably a few that would like to further discern the series/books on their own. This is a prayer thread in that regard.
You are welcome to start a new "open" RF thread to debate the issues that interest you.
Thank you!
Please pray that this book will help families to become more aware of the challenges involved in children’s and young adult’s cultural material, and will help them in their discernment. --Michael O’Brien
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