Potter the Pope

Apparently the Pope doesn’t like Harry Potter.

Really folks there are many other reasons for young people to turn from Christianity other than books of witches and wizards.

How about widespread corruption and dogmatic zombie allegiance? That would be my first clue.

This really a much deeper problem. Take RESPONSIBILITY! Start looking at what you are doing wrong to loose people rather than blaming it on other people doing things you don’t like.

Let’s look at Kuby’s “Ten Arguments Against Harry Potter”. She’s the individual who wrote: Harry Potter: Good or Evil? It is a Christian’s argument against the Harry Potter books.

Ten Arguments against Harry Potter:
1) Harry Potter is a long-term project to change our culture. Young people’s inhibitions against involvement in magic are destroyed. As a result, these forces reoccupy the culture which Christianity had overcome.

Yes that’s what writers do. They wake up one morning and decide corrupt the world. Actually most writers don’t think past getting the words down on the page. Last I heard J. K. Rowling was Christian and had no designs either way. Seriously, much of the magical material is taken from legends and folklore. Why isn’t that a problem? We still teach mythology in grade school last I checked.

2) Hogwarts, the school for magic and witchcraft, is a closed off world of violence and cruelty, of curses and spells, of racial ideology and blood sacrifice, of disgust and possession. A sense of constant threat hangs over the heads of the book’s young readers.

Has this person been to high school? I’m not sure how it works in Germany but in the US this is a pretty apt description.

3) Harry Potter doesn’t fight against evil. From one novel to the next his affinity with Voldemort, who is totally evil, becomes clearer and clearer. In the fifth volume, he is possessed by Voldemort, which leads to the total destruction of his personality.

Lesson time: Flat vs Dynamic characters. Life is not black and white. We have to make bad choices to succeed. Perhaps if she understood the written word, Ms Kuby would see that a central theme in Harry Potter is “What is Evil?”. I read #3 again and come to wonder: Your point, Ms Kuby, seems to be missing.

4) The world of humanity is debased; the world of witches and magicians is glorified.

Yes. Welcome to children’s lit. Read any good fairy tales today? Oh the bible…good one…what were you saying about one society being glorified over the other?

5) There is no positive transcendental dimension. Everything which is supernatural is demonic. Divine symbols are perverted.

Shame on you. Complex philosophical nonsense doesn’t enter the mind of the mainstream reader. If it does, perhaps we should start celebrating genius rather than destroy them as a witch?
You fail to cite what that something missing is by the way. I can guess what it might be but then as a non-Christian, I don’t care.

6) Harry Potter is no modern fairy tale. In fairy tales, magicians and witches are clearly figures of evil, from whose evil influence the hero is delivered by acts of virtue. In Harry Potter, no one wants to do good.

What about Hermione? Did you read these books? Have you been around teenage boys? Have you read any fairy tales? What about the good witches and fairy godmothers? What about the beast? Disney isn’t a good comparison.

7) The ability of the reader to distinguish between good and evil is deliberately lamed through emotional manipulation and intellectual confusion.

I’m sure you really didn’t say anything at all here. Can you point out good and evil in life. What is your criteria? (See response to #3).

8) It is no favor to the younger generation to seduce them playfully with magic and to fill their heads with images of a world in which evil rules, a world that is not only inescapable but desirable as well.

Why or Why not? I don’t agree with blanket statements, especially those with no backing.

9) Everyone who is interested in diversity of opinion should be on guard against the mass blinding and thought control that is imposed on them by the gigantic multi-media concerns.

Yes, but…you’re not advocating diversity of opinion.

10) Since the Harry Potter books engage in the systematic destruction of belief in a loving God, the use of Harry Potter books in schools is intolerable and contradicts the spirit of our constitution. Refusal to take part in Potter-related activities in school should be guaranteed on grounds of both religion and conscience.

So no mention of God = he does not exist? Cool! So if I don’t say Bush ever again he’ll cease to exist? Oh ye of little faith. I don’t think you’ve proved your point sister.
Of course this argument doesn’t work in the US, separation of Church and State and all_that_JJJJAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZah.

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