Posted on 11/02/2001 9:55:30 AM PST by Chuckmorse
Hey, I'm all for it!
Nice graphic.
Whew...that's a relief. I'm a huge Stephen King fan (but I'm trying to lose weight)...Was getting kind of worried there.
My first roommate in college oh-so-many-years-ago was president of the local Baptist Student Union. First thing he said to me was "You're going to hell for reading that book," as I sat there reading King's The Stand. Told him I'd save him a seat. We didn't get along real well after that.
You might also add The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Christianity with magic) and plan on skipping The Lord of Rings movies (no Christianity, lots of magic, elves, goblins, and trolls, like this article here) movies coming to a theater near you.
So the child abuse, child starvation, gluttony and avarice that they (the aunt and uncle) exhibit are okay as long as they reject witchcraft? [For the record, not all "muggles" are portrayed as the Durleys are]
I looked around the Chuckmore.com website for this article. I wanted to see the date it was written. How convenient for it to show up two weeks before the movie premiere.
I have no problem with people who sincerely don't want their kids to read Harry Potter as long as they know that they're talking about. I've read all four books and am anxiously awaiting the movie and the next book. My faith and my children's faith are not threatened.
More power to ya. Isn't this country great?
Now come the warnings about another "belief system" that threatens. Will we heed this one? Some have and will continue to do so because they are grounded in Truth. Others will issue "foil alerts" until the fatalities of this attack begin to mount up, and even then, deny that the enemy had been defined.
Thanks for this post...
The wildly popular Harry Potter books offer an essential value: the benevolent depiction of a world in which good triumphs over evil.
By Dianne L. Durante
What book has sold several hundred thousand copies, even though it won’t appear in print until July 8th? Parents of school-age children won’t be surprised to hear that it’s the fourth installment in the Harry Potter series. Over 20 million copies of the first three books have been sold, despite the fact that activists across the country are crusading to have the series banned from school libraries, claiming it encourages interest in Satanism and the occult. These critics — and even many of the books’ supporters — entirely miss the point, and the value, of these books. In fact, children desperately need such books in school libraries, just as much as they need nutritious food in school lunches.
It is true that Harry Potter lives in a world where hats and paintings speak, broomsticks fly and goblins run banks — but these are non-essential details. The essential element is the inspiring depiction of a boy’s triumphant struggles. These books tell the story of an eleven-year-old orphan, despised by the relatives he lives with, who discovers he has a rare talent and works hard to develop it. In the course of his education, he learns to think for himself, to be honest and to be self-confident. He finds friends who share his values and he earns the respect of his teachers. He battles the class bully as well as the most evil wizard on earth, and we rejoice when, with considerable effort and courage, Harry prevails.
What is the educational value of this? A child needs to learn concrete facts, of course, but that is not enough. In order to organize and utilize such facts, a child urgently needs as a framework a basic, abstract view of life — and he needs it in the form, not of an abstruse treatise, but of a concise, easily graspable presentation.
This is what literature provides. By means of the theme, plot and characterization — particularly as they involve the hero — every children’s story implicitly addresses such broad questions as: Is the world fundamentally a benevolent or a malevolent place? Can one rely on one’s own mind or not? Is life to be eagerly embraced or fearfully skirted? Can the good succeed or does evil ultimately win?
The Harry Potter series appeals to so many children (and, incidentally, adults) because the answers it gives to these questions are overwhelmingly positive. It shows a world in which happiness can be achieved, villains can be defeated, and the means of success can be learned. When my seven-year-old races around the dining room table swathed in an old bathrobe, with a broomstick made of a mini-blind wand and cardboard, she is not expressing an interest in witches or the supernatural. Rather, she is trying on the personality of an independent, courageous, intelligent individual who conquers evil. She is enthusiastically endorsing a positive philosophic perspective on herself and on the world.
It is a story’s abstract meaning, not its physical setting, that influences the reader. The Wizard of Oz, for example, is set in a land inhabited by witches, Munchkins and talking trees — but it really is about Dorothy’s, and her friends’, determination to attain difficult goals. Little Lord Fauntleroy is not a manual for how to inherit an earldom but a portrayal of a child whose honesty and integrity see him through adversity.
By contrast, consider the ghoulishly titled Say Cheese and Die! (from the popular Goosebumps series, by R. L. Stine). Here, a cursed camera causes death and destruction whenever it snaps a photo. The main character, who repeatedly capitulates to his friends’ insistence that he use the camera, is cowardly, panic-stricken and ineffectual. The story ends on a foreboding note, as the indestructible camera, which had been hidden away, is discovered by local bullies, who prepare to use it again.
This book is appalling not for its supernatural elements but for its sheer malevolence: the “hero” is powerless, innocuous-looking objects wreak devastation, evil is invincible. A child overexposed to the malevolent universe of Goosebumps — or Beavis and Butthead, or South Park — might well wonder why he should risk getting out of bed in the morning, never mind why he should strive to master his schoolwork or to excel in sports.
What crucial need does the Harry Potter series fill? In a culture where cynicism is too often the dominant note, it provides a reminder that life is good — that it is challenging and full of exciting possibilities. The books are, in short, fuel for a child’s maturing mind. As vitamins and minerals are essential to a child’s healthy physical development, so literature with this view of the world is essential to a child’s healthy mental development.
Dr. Durante is a bibliographic researcher and a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. www.aynrand.org
All this time I thought that turning away from someone, bending over, and dropping trou was an insult, not a religious ritual.
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