Postby Jester » Wed Aug 04, 2004 8:43 pm
I know this is going to be restating what has already been said, but I am going to clear a lot of issues up by this (I hope). I am not planning on persuading anyone to read or not to read as that is not my intent.
Please note that this message is long, and reading it will require much patience, bear with me.
The original form of what I will call hysteria, as opposed to witch hunt, started with an online satire magazine called the Onion. It basically took the scary fears that many Christians had sitting in the backs of their minds by claiming that occult temples were claiming that Harry Potter spells were real and you could learn them at their places. Therefore causing a huge increase in occult populations. Jokingly quoting false comments of children saying obscene things about plans for learning evil spells. I would give an example, but the cleanest one would not be appropriate for here.
Most claims of the Onion were false, however, some occult spokespeople did claim about spells being real. Others who claim to be real witches have said that these were fake. And like what was said before, the majority are pseudo latin tied with english and jibberish.
My cousin (mothers generation), is a pastor and recieved many concerns relating the article. So to understand all parts of the story, he read HP from an objective point of view, and found nothing directly refuting Christianity or promoting occult, nothing subliminally, and only semi questionable things that were not directly related.
On the Astrology note, this is about the only thing closely realistic to reality, which comes in the form of predictions. When refering to what stars are bright and what aren't, goes not directly into witchcraft, but greek and latin beliefs of the stars telling the future. Namely by what gods the stars represented (Mars: War, battle)
Narnia's references to the stars were only by what patterns were visible if I remember correctly. This is called astronomy which is simply the study of space and stars. It has nothing to do with religion.
It's true that the book does glorify witchcraft, wizardry, and deliberate disobedience of authority. Only the last one is a legit arguement as it is a direct moral issue. When it comes to glorifications of these, they must be read with recognition that these are simply in a made up world with few or no ties to the real world (IE: Fantasy). If they are read in context of assuming them to be an authority on the laws, physics, rules, and morals, they will not be a positive influence in any way.
Most of the "witchcraft" in the book is through cliches as was mentioned. Wands, Cauldrons, potions, fantasy creatures, undead, etc. are all stereotypical of folktales that a common mistake is to believe that they are what actually happens.
In reality (I am not wiccan or witch, I know people who believe in wicca and honestly recognize that I am different in my christian beliefs), cauldrons/bowls are sometimes used, mostly in herbology though, potions are stereotyped, Wiccans are believers in the earth's spirit and therefore focus much around herbology and with the exception of not believing in the Christian God, often have benevolent wishes/beliefs. Scryeing is sometimes used, (That's the thing with pendulums over maps and whatnot.)
As for witchcraft (yes, they are very different), I don't know many specifics, but I can all but guarentee that HP still only uses stereotypes.
As a note, I will let you know that I have not been involved in any wiccan or witchery acts at all. I only have knowledge of them.
I will go off on a tangent here. Many Native American beliefs are polytheistic, however, one must realize that they still worship the good gods. When you compare their gods and representations, and our God and representations given in the Bible. They are strikingly similar. In fact, Native Americans' beliefs were/are devout in nearly the same exact beliefs as polytheistic as they had to make sure to pray for protection in each areas the gods they have covered. The only difference being number, I know the Bible says only one God, and I am not refuting that, I am simply observing that there are religions that are very similar to Christianity, and only have slightly different interpretations (This could be due to being spread by word of mouth over long periods of time and long distances with a large amount of early time translations and across many languages. Remember the tower of Babel?)
On a moral note: My only discouraging about the book is the morality of bucking the given authority, Harry and his friends do in numerous times throughout each book. However, it is a very common theme with any kid's book or cartoon. Therefore I consider it to be a small issue.
If anyone would like to ask my opinion of Harry Potter as a literary work, feel free to PM or Email me, since the literary value is not the subject of this topic, I will leave that for later.
), basically rebelling against Eru. Some of the Valar followed him, but the majority remained with Eru. Shortly after, Eru made the 'earth'. Some of the Valar, including Melkor, went down to Middle Earth... Melkor to conquer it, but the others to tend it in preparation for the elves and humans.
