Posted by: maxine | January 29, 2007

Harry Potter case – myth vs. truth

Harry Potter Case – Myth vs. Truth | ajc.com

MY VIEW

Harry Potter Case – Myth vs. Truth

By LAURA MALLORY
Published on: 01/28/07
Today’s generation faces evil like no other in history, with its bombardment by violent, sexual and occult images through our modern mass media. I think perhaps we are so desensitized, we couldn’t recognize evil even if it were on the plate in front of us.

My efforts in this case only address one facet of that evil, which is being spoon-fed to our children, even in the public schools. With the deceptive, exciting, children-friendly packaging of witchcraft in the Harry Potter series, our youth today view witchcraft not only as good and fun, but also as harmless fantasy.

I’d like to clear up some misconceptions about the case and then just share my heart for a minute.

Myth: We are trying to ban Harry Potter.

Truth: This case first began when we noticed the books in our son’s elementary school classroom. We were then told by the school that anything in the school library may be used in the classroom. The original request of August 2005 asked that the books be removed from the classrooms and libraries due to the extreme evil and violent content, the promotion of witchcraft (Wicca) and the age-inappropriateness. We are not trying to ban Harry Potter. The books may of course be purchased in bookstores or checked out at public libraries, but need not be encouraged, assigned and read aloud in our children’s schools and classrooms. Are they ready to put the Bible and prayer back in our schools and classrooms and read it aloud?

Myth: This is a one-woman fight.

Truth: I have never been alone in this “fight.” There are hundreds and even thousands of other parents who have stood up against the Harry Potter series and its paganization of this generation. The American Library Association reports Harry Potter books rank No. 1 on the list of most challenged books of the 21st century, having received more than 3,000 challenges nationwide. Additionally, there have been numerous people who have become dear friends who have written, called and helped with their love, encouragement, prayers and donations. Without them, I could not have continued this case.

It has not been an easy path to take, but one in which I know I must not quit. God has been with me, answering specific prayers and reassuring me of His will and His Word, and my husband of nearly 13 years has supported and stood with me — I’m enormously grateful. This has never been a one-woman fight; if it were, believe me, I would have quit long ago.

Myth: Witchcraft is just harmless fantasy.

Truth: This is perhaps the greatest myth of all. America’s desensitization to the occult is not only sad, but dangerous. We are in serious need of revival and a return to the traditional Judeo-Christian roots upon which our blessed country was founded.

I cannot count the times I have been told that these books are “just fantasy.” But if you would like to know the truth, please keep reading and do your own research.

Not only is witchcraft a real religion, subtly intriguing and luring our children and teens in unprecedented numbers, but it is also a dangerous one, often leaving its followers in darkness, depression and even suicidal. This was verified by a teenager from Lawrenceville and Mrs. Marsha McWhorter, a registered nurse and certified marriage and family therapist, both of whom testified at the Gwinnett County hearing on April 20, 2006, coincidentally, the anniversary of the tragic shootings at Columbine High School.

At that hearing, I had planned to read a portion of the testimony by the father of Columbine martyr, Rachel Joy Scott, but due to the hearing’s time restraints, I was unable to do so. That father, Darrell Scott, spoke before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime in Washington, D.C. on May 27, 1999.

Here is a small portion of that speech, a poem and an expression of what was in his heart and is also in mine.

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,

Your words are empty air.

You’ve stripped away our heritage,

You’ve outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms,

And precious children die.

You seek for answers everywhere,

And ask the question “Why?”

You regulate restrictive laws,

Through legislative creed.

And yet you fail to understand,

That God is what we need!

When the Bible and prayer were removed from our schools, in effect, God was expelled. So we’ve raised a generation not to know Him. Now our schools and society are filled with violence, drugs, gangs, addictions, perversions, and we wonder why?

We need God in America again. He’s the One who says don’t lie, steal or murder — for our own good. Likewise, He’s the One who says witchcraft, including the casting of spells, is an “abomination,” meaning: detestable, repulsive, loathsome, vile, abhorred, (Deuteronomy 18:10-13), and we call it good reading material?

May God forgive us, open our blind eyes and deaf ears and send revival.

Please see our Web site for further information, research and articles on this issue and case: www.HisVoiceToday.org.

Laura Mallory is a mother of four, licensed minister and former missionary. She lives in Loganville.

Posted in Authors, Books

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Responses

Once again it’s the schools’ fault that children don’t have religion. As the author claims she is a minister, why then shouldn’t she believe that home is where religion should be taught and discussed? This is another case of passing the buck to someone else and not living up to your responsiblilties as a parent. A child doesn’t hear about God in school, so schools are failing. If the child learns about God from his parents and his church, why are the schools to blame if that child does not turn out godly?
Harry Potter is fantasy. In fact it displays more about the fight of good vs. evil than most books. The magic is secondary. Thebooks do not mention a god, they do not mention worshipping anything else, either. The real message of the books are goodness, friendship, and sacrifice in the fight against evil. And isn’t that what religion is all about?
Would the author have us remove Snow White, Cinderella or any other fairy tales from our children’s grasp because they do not mention God? Why must all imagination be taken from children?

By: mike on January 31, 2007
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Hear, hear, Mike. Totally agree.

By: maxine on January 31, 2007
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I agree with Mike. The Harry Potter books don’t talk ALL about witchcraft. Trust me, I know my stuff. I love Harry Potter and I watch the movies and read the books. But I still keep my faith to God. Always and forever. Harry Potter is just about a boy whose trying to rid the world of the number on evil. Like Mike said, it’s about the fight between good and evil. Cristian/Catholic belief is about the fight between good and evil.

By: Allie on January 31, 2007
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I have to wonder at times at the sheer ignorance we have in this country, and the amazing ability for said ignorance to flourish and spread. I’ll try to break down her comments as well I can.

“Today’s generation faces evil like no other in history”-Really? Our own generation faces it’s own sets of brutalities and crimes. However, this is hardly anything new, and this modern age is also free of brutalities that in the ancient world were both more visceral and far more common. The say we face greater evils is both a historical lie and a personal lie.

I should mention that I no more believe in “witchcraft” than I do in your own religion. A fact I’m sure will mean that many who do read this will dismiss what I say off hand. So be it. I cannot change such minds, nor would I wish to. In fact I have to ask myself what is the true culprit, when in America the greatest proponent by far of belief in witchcraft is Christianity. Wicca and it’s ilk is far from mainstream both in a media and cultural sense and has had relatively little power to influence people in comparison to Christianity. As for Harry Potter, both historians who have direct knowledge of ancient practices of what you would call witchcraft and modern practitioners of things you would call witchcraft(practicers of both white and black magic in Haiti,etc) would find the Harry Potter books expression laughable as far as having any connection to real world beliefs in such practices. But of course, it is SO much easier to simply lump everything one doesn’t agree with into the area of evil,especially on divine mandate.

For that matter, in no cases in history has witchcraft been a religion. In fact various world cultures are so different on such matters, both in cases of belief in magic that is connected TO religion and not connected to religion that overall share little to nothing in common. If you took a practioner of Taoist alchemy from ancient china and tried to have him explain what he does to an ancient african witchdoctor from modern day West Africa they would look at each other like they are crazy. Ironically like christianity, these differences in beliefs could easier result in violence.

As noble as your persuits may be, returning Christendom to our schools, notwithstanding that if you’re going to do that we might as well put Buddhism, Islam and every other major religion in to isn’t going to save America. Christianity will eventually have to come to terms with the fact it does not control this country or world and this is a world of many cultures and many religions. They say the world is shrinking everyday. Cultures will collide more and more. I can only hope Christianity learns to not act like a child who feels that the sandbox is only for it to play in.

By: Cameron on February 19, 2007
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I have read your comments and i am sickened. You all stand around and preach that witchcraft is bad and that the Harry Potter series has rekindled some evil in kids these days with temptations of witchcraft and magic. You say we need god in our country again and I just think your a bunch of bible freaks. God is mearly an imaginary friend for adults. The bible is no more than a book of morals, as is most books for children including the Harry Potter series. In the series it gives exaples of heroism, loyalty and an understanding of equality among other valued morals of the bible. Those of you who belief faithfully in the bible believe that witchcraft is evil and that god forbids its workings, but what else could explain the events that themselves are told in the bible but none other than magic. Adults choose to use words like miracles and godsends, just to cover up an event that could explained as magic or in otherwords witchcraft. Those of you who beleive that witchcraft is evil, how much of it do you actually no about. Through out teachings of witchcraft and magic there are laws and bindings that hold a person unto them as to not do harm to others. As in the Harry Potter books in real life there is good magic and bad magic. You all beleive that witchcraft is bad same as back in the trials of salem only because of book says it is. Well let me tell you something you are following the teachings of the same people that claimed that the world was flat. Hows that for your beliefs. I am 18 years old right now and have over the last few years grown with the books you claim that are evil. I read your thoughts in this forum and I am nearly sickened to the core with your stubbornness. You blame the schools and the government for allowing the books to be in their libraries. But the books simply give a new plot to the same morals that nearly every other story is about. To put down a Harry Potter book is the same to put down every fantasy book that has ever been made. The Lord of The Rings by Tolkien down to the movies made by disney all have things in them that could be explained as magic yet when a book that captures the attention of readers everywhere, that gives them characters to look up to that have good morals you shoot it down with your stubborn and blatent hostility because you have nothing better to do than blame a book for the bad things in this country when you yourself should use the book as an advantage to teach your children and not solely depend on the schools. The schools are so wrapped up with the now constant tests of FCAT and the such that that is all they teach in class now they depend on these books that are in their library to fill in the cracks. So dont blame the schools because their doing what they are supposed to do, its you the parents that should be the blame for any bad things a child would do and especially not a book. You are all dispicable, that you have no better idea than to shoot down a book and put the blame on other people and things when its your own fault if your child is doing something wrong.

By: The witchcraftian boy on March 8, 2007
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Christianity is taking a beating here. However Mrs Mallory is right in pointing out that evils pervade our society as never before, if for no other reason than it is so readily communicated.

Change is NOT by definition improvement….we’ve had changes in our society, we’ve become “enlightened.” The family, if it exists at all, has taken on a new face. Children being subordinate to their parents is almost a thing of the past. Authority is often scoffed at. THe list oges on and on

And the divorce rate, murders etc are rising in both number and ferocity. There have been many changes———

I think we need to ask how many have been for the better. Mrs Mallory, we need to start with things more basic than the effect of the Harry Potter books. For Mrs Mallory’s detractors, why has society become so disfunctional?

Oh! The Bible contains a lot of R-rated material as well, doesn’t it?
I pray for an accord with both sides of this. It might be a first step

THanks, Ed

By: Ed Oster on March 15, 2007
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I’m sorry, but I would have to agree with Witchcraftian Boy. Where I live, I am surrounded by religions, chief among them being Christianity. My grandparents are devote Catholics, and I don’t hold that against them. However, I won’t let them controll my religion. My parents never forced me to go to Church every Sunday nor to Sunday School, and I’m thankful for that. People have their own beliefs. I believe that harmony of the five elements is what is truly needed. Now, will I force my beliefs on to others? NO! They have their own beliefs. What seems to be the problem is that we are reverting back to simply spouting what is written and claiming that to be fact. My sister is a Wiccan, and I encourage her to have her own beliefs, just as my mother encourages us both. What I am getting to here is that Harry Potter is not some attack from Satan, nor is some bitter assault on the Church. It is a story that portrays what the Christian says they are doing: friendship, understanding, kindness, and good. Just because it is coming in a different form, doesn’t mean that it is evil. As for putting Christianity into schools, I say Screw You! You commented that this country was founded on Judeo-Christian roots, actually it was found on the belief of freedom. Freedom from religious persecution being among them. This is not a country where it’s one people, one religion. There are people with ancestors from all over the world, each with their own religious beliefs. Would you be willing to go over to there country and give up your beliefs to adopt theirs simply because they say that their religion is in the right? I wouldn’t, and I doubt that many would. So by practicing one religion in our schools, it would be like asking them to relinquish their beliefs for yours. And as for the “insubordination” of children and supposed “none existent families,” I would like to know what century it is that you’re living in cause I’ll be in the 21st century when you’re ready to join me. In this era, there is more that needs to be done, we can’t stay at a farm, tend the cows, look after the crops, and teach our own children at our leasure. We have had many advances since that time, and I actually wish that they’ld continue. To live in this time, we have more advanced understandings of sciences, mathimatics, and economics to name a few that, though a little confusing at first, has helped to make this era better (or would you rather die of Influenza?) Instead of always looking at what has, is, or will go wrong, perhaps you should look at what’s being accomplished: better medicine, better understanding of the world we live in, even an increase in ourselves. Through reading, we have expanded our own minds, and I distinctly remember hearing that a broad imagination is a good thing, which is fueled by fiction. I think that what should be done is not condemn something before fully understanding BOTH sides of it. Hell (yes, I did just say that) you probably shouldn’t condemn anything at all, considering Christianity is supposed to be the “religion of understanding.”

By: Taoist on March 29, 2007
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Good point in your last sentence, Taoist. The christian principles of behaviour (love/respect thy neighbour) are presented throughout the HP books as good, desirable qualities that will, ultimately, be more powerful than the forces of evil (eg Harry’s love for his mother being far more important than any wish for worldly gain; and his love for his family and friends, and theirs for him, being the defeat of Voldemort in the cemetary). Children and adults in modern times as well as ancient times can respond to parables just as well as to sermons (or maybe more easily!).

By: maxine on March 30, 2007
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For starters, I’m a Christian and have been for a very long time. I know without a shadow of doubt that God is quite real and that He’s the only one of his kind.

That is quite frankly, however, beside the point.

Madame, you have spent a good deal of time and energy banning a series of books that is easily one of the most beloved of our time on the basis that it teaches our children witchcraft and wizadry. I would argue that if a child were raised with a strong faith in his/her home, reading Harry Potter would be a no-brainer. I agree that children should wait to read such literature until they’re clear on the difference between real and make-believe, but this series of books will not in a million years cause a child who is taught about God at home and raised in church to become a Pagan.

My suggestion to you is to take your efforts elsewhere, like finding ways to spread the Word of God to children in classrooms. I agree that we need a revival, but perhaps spreading the Truth as opposed to banning something that opposes it as weakly as this series of books does would be a much better means to achieving this end.

By: Max on April 6, 2007
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I think your on crack or something if you think Wicca and Witchcraft is evil. Its a way of living for some people. How can you go around and say that every person that practices the craft and worships the Goddess is trying to convert the children and teens. Most of us don’t even try. Teens sometimes come to learn more about it. Wicca is not Satanistic, and we don’t descriminate your religion so why descriminate ours? The fact is that most of the stuff that you see in Harry Potter isn’t true. We do practice the craft but you can’t wave a wand and make something appear. It is very sickning that you would even think that Wicca is evil when we don’t say anything about your religion

By: Arlia on May 29, 2008
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