Harry Potter is Dangerous for Both You and Your Children

Mary Immaculate Queen ^ | 12-16-01 | Fr. Casimir Puskorius, CMRI,

[mlizzy]

Adapted from a Sermon of Fr. Casimir Puskorius, CMRI, 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 16, 2001

On the First Sunday of Lent every year, we read in the Gospel of the devil tempting Our Lord. First he tries to tempt Him to gluttony, and Our Lord resists. Of course, Our Lord, because He is God, cannot be inclined to sin. But the devil, not knowing that, first tries to tempt Him to gluttony, and then to pride and power and materialism. He says to Our Lord, “Why don’t you throw yourself off this high elevation? God will save you.” Our Lord refuses. Then the devil pulls out his trump card. He shows Our Lord all the glory of the world and says, “I will give all this to you, if you will just bow down and worship me.” Of course, Our Lord refuses again. What the devil was saying here, in a sense, was “I’ll give you magic to do something that is not morally right, but it’s something you would enjoy.”

It should be evident to us, my dear parishioners, that the devil is after each one of us, tempting us in similar manner to sin and to pride. These temptations take different forms, so we must be on our guard. The devil is trying to tempt us away from serving God, from obeying God’s commandments. He is so crafty, so subtle, that often you don’t even know, unless you are very careful, how he is insinuating himself.

I believe it my duty to talk to you today about a series of books and its accompanying movie because I believe that they contain an insinuation of pride and ungodliness. I think you know what I am talking about: the Harry Potter series. I will speak both about the books and the movie, because if one reads the books, he will want to see the movie, and vice versa. I believe there are some real problems here, real spiritual danger — possibly grave spiritual danger. I will explain why. Believe me, I have refrained from saying anything about this for a long time. When the books first came out, I began to gather information on them. I wanted to analyze them to see whether or not they were good for children to be reading, and to write an article for The Reign of Mary. I haven’t said anything up to this time because I wanted to study the matter, rather than say yes or no before I knew what I was talking about.

Let me also preface this explanation by saying that I speak now from the consciousness that one day I will have to answer to God for how I accomplished my duty to instruct you in matters of faith and morals. I certainly believe that there are matters of faith and morals involved in this particular matter.

The first problem I would like to point out are the words that are so casually used in the books and in the movie, words that are so casually used that children may start using them — yet these words are matter of mortal sin. Specifically, I am referring to such words as: sorcery, witchcraft, casting spells, communicating with the dead (necromancy). The Catholic Church very clearly tells us that these are mortal sins, and they must not be presented as though they are something permissible to try. I believe it is the devil trying to insinuate himself through the medium of human beings, trying to draw us away from Christ. These are not your usual Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Remember that children do not have the same critical ability that adults have. They read fantasy much differently than we do: they read it in a believing way.

Continue reading here.

[Jen Shroder]

Gosh I see so many Biblical principles in Lord of the Rings. The fact that to use the magic leads to corruption for one.

[JenB]

By the way, your article has quotes that are just wrong about things in the series - from misspelling of names to claims that Rowling took names of demons like “Circe” and “Hermes” which any educated person would recognize as mythological references rather than demoniacal.

I’d recommend finding a less biased and wrong article if you seriously want to convince anyone.

[Redleg Duke]

Your opinion.

[DannyTN]

"never understood the big deal with “communicating with the dead.” always seemed a bit odd to me when Jesus and Peter both raised people from the dead, Jesus had a discussion with Moses and Elijah, and catholics are encouraged to request intercession from deceased saints."

Jesus can talk to the dead, because Jesus is God. If you raise people from the dead, through the power of the Holy Spirit, they aren't dead anymore, you're free to talk.

But if you seek out the dead for guidance. Like King Saul sought out Samuel, then you are crossing a line that God has clearly drawn for the living in scripture.

Lev 19:31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I [am] the LORD your God.

Lev 20:6 'And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.

Lev 20:27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them.

Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you [any one] that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, [or] that useth divination, [or] an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. Deu 18:12 For all that do these things [are] an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Deu 18:13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

1Ch 10:13 So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.

Isa 8:19 And when they say to you, "Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

One of the reasons I suspect that we are not to contact the dead or spirit world, other than God, is that look at some of the religions that have been started after doing that. Islam started after Mohammed contacted what he thought was an evil spirit, but his wife convinced him it was a good spirit. Mormonism started after Joseph Smith who was known to dabble in the occult, claimed he had been visited by an angel who denounced all of the christian denominations as abominations.

The catholic practice is supposed to be nothing different than going to a living Christian and asking for their intercessory prayer. Personally, I doubt that dead saints are omnipresent, so I doubt they can hear the prayers unless relayed by the Holy Spirit. And I've always thought it would be more efficient to go direct in prayer.

[MNDude]

there’s persecution of Christians in dozens of countries around the world, millions of babies aborted, tens of thousands of children trafficked, why pick this battle?

[Retired Greyhound]

“Total antithesis of Jesus Christ.”

Except maybe for the bits about love and sacrifice, themes consistent in all of the Potter books.

Oh, and Potter was one of the few entertainment arenas that acknowledged Christmas.

If I were you, I would read the last book of the series before utterly condemning it wholesale.

You may be surprised. I was.

[Mi-kha-el]

“former junior US Senator from Illinois”

How very rude to drop the “community organizer” from the title.

[woodbutcher1963]

The Harry Potter books have done something for young people that no schools in the world have been able to do.
THEY WANT TO READ !!!!

How horrible.
As for the movies. They are entertainment. Lighten up people.

[BelegStrongbow]

Kinda makes you look at the Angelator in a whole new light. :)

[pogo101]

That’s how I feel, yeah.

Mind you, I suppose some other books about magic-using youths could come along that strike me as truly malevolent. But the HP books aren’t among them. One huge saving grace to the HP books is the leitmotif of self-sacrifice, including the sacrifice of one’s very life, to save others. (As others have pointed out, this is a very good and even Christian-by-accident motif by Rowling.) It is hard for me to accept the argument that a book teaching such concepts is evil.

[mlizzy]

Total antithesis of Jesus Christ. It amazes me how many Christians seem to be blind to it. It’s a toxic poison pill to the soul.

Thank you, Jen. I read your works on RenewAmerica all the time (you had a brilliant one on abortion, that brought me to tears), but didn't realize you were posting on Free Republic until I saw your name a couple of days ago. I'm not sure why so many on Free Republic back this series.

Even one of my favorite Catholic bloggers (and I mean I agree with her on everything) is a huge Potter fan. *sigh*

[Politicalmom]

I will now proceed to ignore you, since you have uttered a blatant lie. Everything about the Harry Potter books is about resisting evil, and doing the right thing even when doing the wrong thing is easier.

[Flightdeck]

What an outrageous waste of time to get offended by Harry Potter children’s books.

[KC_Conspirator]

It would not be FR unless some good old fashioned whackjobbery was posted - like this.

[jonno]

I’m more concerned about how shows like the Simpsons and Family Guy degrade families and dumb-down our kids...

[allmendream]

In “The Lord of the Rings” it was the “Gathering and Sharing” communism of the “Ruffians” that was condemned as being ‘a lot more gathering than sharing’, and all that talk about “being reported”, and “against the rules” was summarized by Sam as “A bunch of Ork talk!”.

But let us all put on our best Church Lady scold tone when we assess a book like “Harry Potter” and ludicrously see within the hand of “Hmmmmm..... could it be...... SATAN?”.

Some people really need to get a grip on reality.

[codercpc]

The Harry Potter books have done something for young people that no schools in the world have been able to do. THEY WANT TO READ !!!!

You took the words right out of my mouth. I assert that my sons love of reading is a direct result of Harry Potter.

When the books first started coming out he brought one home from school. We soon discovered that they were way above his reading ability, at that time. He had recently decided that he was "too old" to crawl into bed with Mom to be read too. That broke my heart, it was my favorite time of the day.

When he brought the book home, he asked me to read it too him. I did. By the time the second book came out, he couldn't wait to read it. This time, he would read a page or two to me, then I would take over, and we would alternate. By the third book, he was reading them too me!, and by the fourth, and all subsequent books we had to buy two books because we both wanted to read them right away. We would then discuss them, in detail and I would donate the second copy to the library.

Those are some of my most precious memories of me and my son. Talk of paranoid people will never take that away from me.

P.S. He called me this weekend (he is now away at college) to tell me that he took his new girlfriend to the movie, but that if I wanted to we could go together when he comes home this weekend for Thanksgiving!

[mlizzy]

I'm not out to convince anyone of anything. The article is posted for discernment. And Michael D. O'Brien's preface should be to your liking (he is educated!): Link.

[The Comedian]

Harry Potter movies are dangerous to my ability to stay awake.

I can't for the life of me figure out the attraction of these movies.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.