We'll have to agree to disagree, but I do so on the premise that what my friends did was dangerous, and what you and your girlfriends did was possibly dangerous (assuming you were doing it 'properly' and not just messing about pretending to be in Sabrina or Bewitched etc), but pretending to be Harry Potter and using the spells from Harry Potter isn't dangerous. Harry Potter's faux Latin spells are to true occultism, what Scooby Doo is to real world forensic science.
Tragically self-deluded characters who damn themselves through hubris is a cornerstone of Western the Christian morality and the culture built around that faith. you only have to look at Macbeth, Doctor Faustus, Dorian Gray, Victor Frankenstein, Henry Jekyll, Frank Cotton (in Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart"), Darth Vader, and of course Tom Marvolo Riddle to see this.
In purely literary terms the only difference I can see between Harry Potter (which is described as "dangerous" by some Christians) and Doctor Faustus (which is not) is the perspective through which the tragic fall is observed.
In Faustus we see the Doctor, a lowly commoner with an exceptional intellect, frustrated by the limitations of his class and education; an angel and a devil whisper into his ears, he listens to the devil, trades his soul for power, does nothing remotely worthwhile with his new abilities, and in the end he is torn apart.
In Harry Potter we see Tom Riddle - a lowly commoner with an exceptional intellect, who is frustrated, tempted, and seduced by the promise of immortality. So he sells his soul, and achieves near-immortality - but then he squanders his talents on pointless vendettas and scaring people, and eventually he's torn apart.
In pure plot terms, Riddle IS Faustus.
Doctor Faustus withstood centuries of religious / moral panic, and is now largely approved of by church scholars for its moral message despite the humor and very explicit descriptions of demon summoning.
JK Rowling decided to contrast Tom's bad choices to Harry's good choices, and tell the story through the eyes of Tom's chief victim over seven weighty volumes. To my mind that makes it a far more effective and engaging tale, than simply allowing us to observe Tom's self-deluded descent into ruin. I'm pretty sure history will judge the Harry Potter story as a being a profoundly Christian one, irrespective of the magical backdrop, and people will deride the condemnation of the magical elements as trite - especially given that other tales with an overtly Christian influence, like the Narnia stories, have managed to put in magic and fun and talking beasts and the like without attracting the same moral panic.
Dude stand up! Lol no bowing necessary ;)
yep, we just disagree I guess. Not that big a deal now but have you read Revelation lately? Could be a huge error in the future. I really think it’s going to get so ugly because millions will be released.