I was looking for this great article I read last year on Harry Potter and couldn't find it. But I stubbled across this ... and here's a little excerpt:
This brings us to the third difference. The HP books are filled with much more explicit, appalling evil. There is a huge difference between what went on in Lewis or Tolkien and what kids are reading about in Harry Potter.
Just as a small sample, imagine a ten-year-old reading about:
1) The animal sacrifice of a cat[19]
2) Non-magicians like you and I (Muggles) are portrayed as dull, boring, cruel or useless;[20]
3) Power is the ultimate moral choice, irrespective of good or evil;[21]
4) Blood sacrifices;[22]
5) Cutting off the hand of a living person for a ritual;[23]
6) Boiling what seems to be a baby or fetus alive in a cauldron;[24]
7) Possible demon possession;[25]
8) Werewolves [26] & vampires [27]
9) Bringing a evil wizard back from the dead through the shedding of blood [28]
10) Astral project or travel [29]
11) Casting spells and levitation [30]
12) Being able to shape-shift into an animal [31]
13) Crystal gazing or divination [32]
14) A hero (Harry) who tells lies, [33] steals, [34] breaks the rules,[35] and cheats by copying another student’s homework,[36] (cheating is OK in wizard ethics[37]).
15) Approval of astrology[38]
16) Being taught that people can exist without their souls[39]
17) Communion with the dead, dead souls living within us[40]
18) Harry takes mood-altering drugs (which are REAL herbs that are used by witches and shamans)[41]
19) Use of the "Hand of Glory,"[42] a grisly occult artifact that is the severed hand of a hanged murderer. Its fingers are lit and burned as candles. The hand is placed in a house to make everyone in the house fall into a spell.
20) Use of magic charms[43]
21) Belief that death is just the "next great adventure"[44] (which might be true if you were a Christian, but no one in these books is a professing Christian.) For non-Christians like Harry, death is a one-way ticket to hell!
These are dangerous, false ideas, especially for a younger person. Little attempt is being made to keep these books from the hands of children even younger than ten!
http://www.withoneaccord.org/store/potter.htmlI've paged through the Potter books and watched both movies. Rowling is a fluid, talented writer. The general objection that I had was the series (both the movies and the books) teach escapism. But if what you're saying here is true, they're obviously far worse than I imagined...
This is so amazing. I haven't read the books, my children are grown now, but I have heard that the kind of stuff you list above is in these books, which I believe is appalling and wrong for young readers, or anyone for that matter, but then I hear people who I thought :) have good moral sense say there is nothing wrong with the books, and people are making mountains out of mole hills. I am definitly going to have to read at least one. Which is the first?, (see how behind the times I am:). I ride alot with a school teacher, and she swears they are absolutly wonderful, but then her and I do not discuss public schools, and religion very much, we are miles apart.
Becky