Harry Potter has cast a spell on me. No matter how hard I try I just can't stop reading, non-fail I check mugglenet.com and jkrowling.com daily, pleading for an update. My family threatens to disown me, my church is condeming me to hell, and yet I read, and I enjoy. A few years back, following the release of the fifth Harry Potter book, Order of the Phoenix, my church had a guest speaker nad a book sale. I ended up purchasing Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick by Richard Abanes and spent many days with both this book and the Bible open.
I do not see anything wrong with the Harry Potter books, nor do I believe that Jo Rowling is satanic or that those who read Harry Potter will go to hell and this book did nothing to persuade me otherwise. I will start with some of the most basic pieces of evidence presented by Mr. Abanes.
Throughout Part One Chapter Two: Sorcery in a Stone: A Closer Look Mr. Abanes brings forth several instances in the first Harry Potter book of true Wiccan beliefs being presented including the name Nicholas Flamel, a real 14th century alchemist who wanted to create the Philosopher's Stone, just like in HP:SS, Dumbledore's quote, "To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.", a common Wiccan belief according to Abanes, and saying that the author of a textbook in book three, Cassandra Vablatsky, is actually a 'play-on-names' for Blavatsky a nineteenth century Wiccan writer who founded Theosphy.
Abanes goes on to say that Rowling is clearly attempting to spread the message of the Occult through these presentations and that is one of his main arguments for why the books are evil. However, if researching the Occult and then putting this information in a book is Satanic and evil, what does that make Abanes' own book which clearly has done research on the Occult and presents this information, not even in a fantastical sense, but bluntly, quoting Wiccan beliefs and scriptures?
Part Two will cover the ideology of Potterethics and how they add to the 'menace' of Harry Potter.
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How silly Mr. Abanes is! Almost as silly as my half-brother's father accusing my sister of being a witch and of trying to convert my half-brother "to the Devil" by giving him a book about dragon and wizard mythology in history.
Rachael
facere quod in se est
I think it's kind of cool how she sort of half-alludes to real people who we know tried to practice "magic," because it ties in to the idea that there's an imaginary "secret world" that none of us know about.
But besides that, how on Earth is vaguely referring to a few ancient wiccans going to drag children into the occult? It's not like everyone who's read HP has jumped into in-depth research of these people, and even if they did, I doubt they have a lot of published works, let alone propaganda promoting their views.
Dumbledore's quote, "To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.", a common Wiccan belief according to Abanes
Why must the more extreme people in a religion be so hypocritical? Christianity is all about what happens after we die, how is that not "the next great adventure?"
I can't wait to see your next post on this.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
People will get upset over the silliest things.
"I am a Stephens Woman."
I have never understood the anti-Harry Potter uproar. J.K Rowling has in several interviews that her books have no intent of being anti-christian, and that a child has never told her that her books have made them accept the religion of witchcraft or satanism. I think that the people who really get angry at Harry Potter have either:
a) Never read the books. Heard the words witchcraft and wizardry and instantly judged it, or just had someone else (who probably also hasn't read it) tell them that Harry Potter is evil.
b) Read it, but went in so closed minded that they spent the who time looking for every little reason to detest it.
My mom was on the fence about it for the longest time, so I just lent her the series. She was wary for a while, but by Goblet of Fire she was completely hooked.
While I think Harry Potter is often read to children who are to young, as it can be quite scary, I think there are also positive values in the book about love, friendship, humility, bravery, self sacrifice and redemption.