Harry Potter: for those of you who are interested...

[olde_fashioned]

For the record, I am utterly opposed to Harry Potter and other books involving and glorifying witchcraft. THIS is a link to Doug Phillips' blog, that explains the dangers of Harry Potter much better than I ever could.

Comments

[anodiel.livejournal.com]

Something I've tried to make a point of is that by reading those books, one opens themselves up to being spirtually attacked. I've actually had a Christian say that wouldn't happen to them because they were being protected by God. I told them in return that being a Christian makes you first target for being attacked because those kind of forces want to harm Christians more than a non-believer.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

You are exactly right -- and that's something I should have mentioned in my actual post. And I've had people say they're protected by God as well. But I believe we also have to protect ourselves. If we willingly, negligently, expose ourselves to such blatant dangers then I think we're asking for trouble. God warns us so that we can be alert and avoid those dangers, not walk head-long into them because we think they're "fun" or a good read. We're supposed to put on the armour of God, not leave it behind because we're confident God's going to do all the work for us.

[elainastone.livejournal.com]

Trust in God but wear your seatbelt?

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! Yes! Don't tempt Providence. ;-)

[elainastone.livejournal.com]

The thing is..and what I really like about the article, because it hints to it... Is that Harry Potter was only inevitable. We allowed it to come in by not taking a stand against the other popular science fiction of the day. And I'm not talking about all the usual things that come to mind either. I'm talking about the fact that, even before HP, ALL that was available for adventure-seeking readers ARE magic-related books.

And when the obvious comes, we act all surprised about it.


People are very bad about not watching for spiritual attacks. And the demons are being maddeningly good right now about making all the world fight about this issue and ignore the things that really come in and wedge problems.

It's amazing how it works.

[fallenseraph.livejournal.com]

May I ask politely what exactly you mean by saying 'allowed it to come in by not taking a stand against the other popular science fiction of the day'?

[elainastone.livejournal.com]

Sure!

The point I was trying to make was that high fantasy and magic had caught the attention of most all readers long before Harry Potter. Quite often, those types of books were also the books that would draw more nonreaders into reading. If anyone had taken the time to look, it was obvious. That's the majority of what is on the shelves for young adults and teenagers. Granted, since Harry Potter somehow stormed the stage in popularity, there has been more, but check out the original copyright dates. All they're doing is producing more of what has already been out there.

Part of Rowling's genius is that she has pulled two very important genres together: The struggle of the kid. And the extraordinary fantasy world that allows people to get away from the current. It's a safe way to project their own problems and concerns. And it's an interesting read.

What we failed to do was take a stand BEFORE someone inevitably hit a good idea that would sell. Because by that time it's already practically too late. Our insistence that it should be banned and burned only creates a larger circle of interest. Before, it would have done that, but the books weren't SO popular. It wouldn't have been as difficult as a battle.

We very well could have created Rowling and Harry Potter ourselves by our negligence. When I was little, I read fantasy book after fantasy book with all sorts of magic, etc. I had never EVER heard that this was wrong. I didn't know better. And then, all of a sudden, it was a bad thing. If I hadn't been very fortunate and been in an extremely submissive frame of mind to God at the time people really started getting mad about Potter, I too would have been in the crowd saying that Christians were being retarded and over-reacting. Why? Because I had been reading the SAME kind of thing ALL MY LIFE and had never, never had anyone tell me that it was a bad idea.

Because fantasy magic and sorcery are two very different things. Rowling falls very close to the sorcery-type magic, but it is STILL just fantasy. That is the argument that allows so many Christians to go on reading them. And that is an attitude that we allowed to come about through previous negligence.

Makes you worry and wonder what else we're neglecting that's going to blow up on us.