I say to-ma-to, you say tah-mah-to: Potter v. Narnia

I believe that the reason many Christians do not like Harry Potter is not only the witchcraft aspect, but because it makes practicing witchcraft attractive to children. Witchcraft is considered a type of religion and is practiced by those following Satan.

My daughter attends a Christian school and they cannot read (as part of their schoolwork) Harry Potter books. My daughter is too young at this point to read these books, but see has seen a couple of the movies and loves them. I don't really see it as a problem as long as a child realizes this is fiction and fantasy. It is supposed to be fun and not reality. It is almost similar to how the Church views Halloween.

no.....
no.. (boomerang)
narnia is some made up story with magic, fantasy, and blah blah blah
a parable is a story that actually teaches you something..

Re: no.....


<slaps head>

<rolls eyes>

<shrugs>

The way Noddy explains the White Queen sounds like seduction to me.

I'm curious, Linkat, if your daughter's school takes a similar stand on other books or films that have witches in them?

The fiction/fact thing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I think most kids realize books and movies are entertainment, not documentaries.

I ADORED "Charlotte's Web" but I didn't go around expecting spiders to talk back when I spoke to them.

Linkat--



That isn't quite accurate. Practioners of Wicca consider themselves witches but have nothing to do with Satan or Satanism.

Announcement to Horatio/Honoraria--

There are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

We had a real Harry Potter book burning in my state a few years back. Alamagordo, or at least in that area. Sadly, they didn't notify me ahead of time.

Sorry if someone else has already said this, but the witch/magic thing re christianity really makes me see red.

As I understand it, the whole "black magic/witches/wizards" thing grew from christianity's attempts to demonize, and thus destroy, all other religions.

Thus the priestesses/priests of other religions became evil witches and wizards, and the knowledge that they had became demonized.

So now, we have christians who have forgotten that it was all a lies and propaganda campaign, carrying on and trying to censor kids books!

(SOME christians, I ought to say.)


Makes me want to bite.

I love to see someone zinged with Shakespeare, especially when is suspect they won't twig to the citation . . .


Within you thighs
Your beauty lies
And to look on it
Doth make my pecker rise . . .


-- Snakeshit

I haven't read Narnia yet, but I can see various things that might be wrong with Harry Potter from a "religious right" perspective. Witchcraft is just the most superficial aspects.

But if you think, as many religious-right-people appear to, that the purpose of books is to indoctrinate children with values, and that those values should support a wholesome, stable society, Harry Potter does not fulfil that demand. He is an orphan, lives on pretty hostile terms with what is left of his family, and that's portrayed as kind of cool. The school he attends is ripe with incompetent teachers; the political leadership of the magic world, either corrupt or weak. And to top it all off, this whole epos was written by a single mom who deliberately went on welfare to write the first book of the series, and has no doubt become a role model for other women since.

If I believed that women ought to be wifes and mothers, and that stories ought to have morals consistent with family values and a neatly ordered society, I would hate Harry Potter and his author too.

Not quite. From the middle ages to the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic Church appears to have been fairly indifferent to witchcraft. The big witch hunts appear to have been mostly the work of fundamentalist protestants in early modern times. I am not an expert in the matter, but the best-argued piece on the history of witch-hunts comes from Jenny Gibbons. She is a history major who minored on the Great European Witch Hunt. Gibbons is also a neopagan. She wrote the following piece to give her fellow neopagans the information they'd need for not looking stupid when discussing historic witch hunts. I found her text very enlightening.

http://www.tangledmoon.org/witchhunt.htm

I am talking earlier than that...when christianity was in take over mode.

By the middle ages it had Europe by the short and curlies.

But off with interest to look at your link.


Always happy to be learned gooder!

Set--

When raising teen age boys, Hamlet and Horatio are valuable allies.

I don't have a problem with christians watching Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Narnia. I'm a christian and my uncle is a minister and we both pay attention to those movies. Narnia is a series headed toward christianity whereas Lord of the Rings has christian symbolism in it and the author is christian. Harry Potter is a fairy tale that if you understand it's just for entertainment, I don't see a problem. I know a lot of people from our church that won't lift a finger to take their kids to see Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings. Why will they take them to see Narnia where Narnia also has magic in it? My point is has long as you it's just for entertainment, then I don't see a problem with it (Christian or non-christian).

I'm going through my mental files thinking of books I loved as a kid and it seems that most of them featured orphans or otherwise absent parents, bumbling adults and evil or inept teachers.

Are these books rejected by the religious community or is the venom saved for Harry Potter?

Objections to the author's lifestyle -- I can see that but really, C.S. Lewis had some objectionable traits. I suppose being a bit removed from comtemprary society gives him a pass.

I'm thinking of crashing a church library to see what they have on their kid's shelves.

The Hip-Hop Bible?

Comic book versions of the Bible?

The history of witches will make some interesting reading.....

For what it's worth, from the 80s on, "American school bans Huckleberry Finn from library" frequently surfaced in the German newspapers read in my family. That usually happened in August, when there was no news to report. Their tone was often not really news reporting; more like, "can you believe how crazy those Americans are?" So I don't know how frequently those things occured, but they did occur.

Maybe another point to consider is that Harry Potter is new, and fairytales by Andersen and the Grimm brothers are old. It's easier to smear a newcomer than literature with a well-established and good reputation. This effect would also work in Lewis's favor. (I don't know if there was any initial resistance to Narnia. I doubt it; judging by the New Yorker article Sozobe pointed to, American Christianity received Lewis very friendly from the beginning.)

I doubt American Christians would receive Lewis with such open arms these days. So, yes, I'm thinking the passage of time and ignorance of history and literature probably make Lewis more acceptable.

I remember a few years ago when there was a call to remove certain editions of "Little Red Ridinghood" from school shelves because she was illustrated as having a bottle of wine in her gift basket to grandmother.

I think people here just go around looking for things to get mad about. "Ack! My kid wants to read! Crisis! Crisis! Put in a "Barney" tape quick!"

A talking dinosaur that interacts with kids is very Intelligent Designish - don't you think?

An amazing number of children's stories dispense with adult authority figures. Kids can suspend disbelief in the absence of parents, but most are savvy enough to realize that when grown-ups are around, grown-ups are in charge.

OK, I give up.

Last year, I read this article, and I could have sworn it was in TNR, about how Hollywood cleverly rebranded "The Polar Express" as a Christian movie, even though no Christian motifs had originally been intended.

It was simply that the movie threatened to sink, putting serious investment at peril, and then the marketing strategy was changed. Christian motifs were alluded too in interviews, church groups were specifically invited, offered group reduction, Christian media were targeted. But they also interviewed the maker, who admitted that he'd never thought of that angle when he made it. Etc.

Interesting, really. But I cant find it back.

"The Polar Express." I think I may have read that children's book when I was in elementary school. It was pretty simple and is basically about going to the north pole. No Christian motif I think.