Harry Potter: Fact or Faux?
 

I am usually leery when I recieve things like this, becasue I've seen many children's characters accused of having harmful influences or "Satanic" references (Barney, Teletubbies, Pokemons). However, has anyone else heard any references to Harry Potter?

I was distrubed when I received this (my son has 2 Harry Potter books which I will be reading for myself now).

Does anyone know if any of this has any validity? I apologize for the long post, but this is actually the edited version...

"Please read this material carefully and see how satan is destroying the minds of our youth through literature

Potter Books
"Jesus died because He was weak and stupid";

This is a quote from 6 year old Jessica Lehman of
Easley, SC, after reading the HARRY POTTER BOOKS!

The following is an email sent for the American Family Association,
which is VERY disturbing, to say the least. Please forward to all
email contacts,especially Christians and Pastors.

Dear Christian, This is the most evil thing I have laid my eyes on in
10 years ... and no one seems to understand its threat. The Harry
Potter books, are THE NUMBER ONE selling children`s books in the Nation
today....

Harry Potter is the creation of a former UK English teacher who
promotes witchcraft and Satanism. Harry is a 13-year-old `wizard.` Her
creation openly blasphemes Jesus and God and promotes sorcery, seeking
revenge upon anyone who upsets them by giving you examples(even the sources with authors and titles)
of spells, rituals, and demonic powers... Let me give
you a few quotes from some of the influenced readers themselves:

The Harry Potter books are cool, `cause they teach you all about
magic and how you can use it to control people and get revenge on your
enemies" said Hartland, WI, 10 year old Craig Nowell, a recent
convert to the New Satanic Order Of The Black Circle. "I want to learn the Cruciatus
Curse, to make my muggle science teacher suffer for giving me a D." (A
`muggle` is an unbeliever of magic.)...
DOES THIS GET YOUR ATTENTION?

If not, how about a quote from High Priest of Satanism: "Harry is an
absolute godsend to our cause," said High Priest Egan of the First
Church Of Satan in Salem, MA, An organization like ours thrives on new
blood no pun intended and we`ve had more applicants than we can
handle lately. And, of course, practically all of them are virgins, which is gravy."
Since1995, open applicants to Satan worship has increased from around
100,000 to now...20 MILLION children and young adults!)...
Still not convinced? I will leave you with something to let you make
up your own mind. And finally, a quote from the author herself,
J.K.Rowling, describing the objections of Christian reviewers to her writings: "I
think it`s absolute rubbish to protest children`s books on the grounds that
they are luring children to Satan," Rowling told a London Times reporter in
a July 17 interview. "People should be praising them for that! These
books guide children to an understanding that the weak, idiotic Son Of God
is a living hoax who will be humiliated when the rain of fire comes
...while we, his faithful servants, laugh and cavort in victory."

[This message has been edited by tickledpink (edited July 25, 2001).]

LOL!

In no way shape or form would J.K. Rowling say that about her books encouraging satin, this is just another hoax by the right wing to scare parents.

I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and if Harry is evil, then I guess the Nardia series was evil also.

(shaking head)

You said your son has two books, has he gotten the newest one?


QTE

It's 2001 and the devil is busy. I will not let any of my younger family members TOUCH those books. Before letting your children read or watch anything, take a look at it for yourself and ask yourself: "Does this promote some aspects of Christianity or Satanic elements?" The cover of Harry Potter books picture various things promoting witchcraft and sorcery. Obviously, this is not of God. Of course the author is not going to be as blunt and have a picture of the devil and 666 on the cover...but it's the small subtle things you have to pay attention to. Would a Christian write such books?...uh, no. Same w/ Pokemon, which stands for "pocket monster"...obviously not of God. Don't think your children will be deprived of anything. My mother wouldn't let me or my younger brother even watch He-man or She-ra because they raised their swords in the air to gain power from "a higher force" and all my Mom knew is that it wasn't God...and that's all she needed to know. I didn't understand at the time, but I do now. Just be very cautious because like I mentioned earlier, the devil is busy and his number one target is CHILDREN!!!

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*someday...if it's in God's will*

I would have to agree DELTAQTE.
We can sit here and analyze everything to death and find an evil element of almost all things (except Vegetales). I must admit, I would have been one bored, underexposed child if all I watched was Vegetales.

*Disclaimer- this post is not to offend any person who may have ONLY watched Vegetales growing up nor to offend any parent who only lets their children watch Vegatales.

I am a mother of two, I have read all the books, planning to see the movie and i am a christian.

I agree with Deltaqte ... this is fiction and in most children literature there is always a good vs.evil story line. the authoor has created a masterful, creative story that is can be compared to Star Wars, the chronicles of narnia and dare i say the wizard of oz ...

i would hope the christian training we are giving our children enables them to discern fiction from fact. good from evil.

just my humble opinion

Sister Moon brings up a good point. So many children are watching television and reading books without guidance. Read the books before you give them to a child. You may find that you can't judge a book by its cover. I can honestly say that I have read all 4. I believe in God but don't believe that the book has evil purposes. You can't hide the world from a child because it's is full of evil. The best thing you can do as a parent, guardian, brother or sister is to discuss and show a child the way to go with the information they are given. Maybe some children will take a satanic turn by reading it but children are just that and make mistakes and learn from them(hopefully)

LOL!!! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif LOL LOL!! LMAO!!! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif

That was really funny to me!!! LOL, ohmigoodness, LOL! I guess it's because I've never heard of Vegetales. I'm imagining in my mind what this could be all about. What exactly do the characters (which I'm assuming are vegetables) do and talk about? Are they fighting germs? LOL, do they bad talk the tomato because it's really a fruit? LOL LOL! Ok, yall, I'll stop. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...



[This message has been edited by Ideal08 (edited July 25, 2001).]

Doesn't take much to get you tickled does it Ideal? LOL http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif

Anyway, I think it is all in how you look at things and I try not to go overboard with censoring everything my kids watch and read. (I've got 3 kids yall, ages 6, 8, and 9 so they are at the age where they are addicted to cartoons)

Well my sons had me do their room in Digimon and they have a Digimon poster on the wall with all of the Digimons. I noticed every morning my 8 year old would wake up and stare at this poster before going to school. What's up with that? So, I checked this cartoon out and even though its far from what I grew up watching it has the good vs. evil and good always wins theme so it was ok by me.

http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif Ideal, VegeTales is a Christian childrens show (sorta like Davey and Goliath) that teaches Christian values in the story lines. It's a must have video collection for children after they read about the evils of Harry Potter http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/tongue.gif



[This message has been edited by showstopper_1908 (edited July 25, 2001).]

Well I have not read any of the books, nor do any of my little cousins. Although I have looked at them, since it does do with witchcraft it is satanic and for that reason I would not read them nor let children read them. Before you let your son read them try to flip through them first to see what it is all about.

I went to a hoax website and found that it is indeed a hoax. Seems it began as a satirical article in "The Onion" and either someone took the satire to be serious, or decided to create a hoax off of it.



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"Things that make you go hmmmmm..."

-Arsenio Hall

Hey
 

These searches DO work!

Anways, I'm glad I found this thread because I have read all four HP books after taking my 11 year old sister and her friend to see the movie.

I love the books because they have heart, plain and simple. And I agree with sistermoon. As long as we are teaching our kids right and wrong where's the problem?? Be worried when your kid starts siding with the villain.

I can't agree with the whole "it's unholy" schpiel. Stories dealing with mysticism and magic are in every culture. If you are going to say the Potter books are detrimental and should be avoided then you might as well take Sabrina the Teenaged Witch off the air. Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, the Wicked Witch of the West, the three fairies in Sleeping Beauty, and the evil witch queen in Snow White will have to go then, right? The Irish have fairytales about leprechauns. Are they demonic? What about the talking candlestick and clock in Beauty and the Beast? Where do you draw the line?

If my sister wants to chatter on about how cool it would be to play Quittich (wizard sport) or have a painting wave hello to her, then so what? It's a fantasy! A dream! If her escape for the day is to attend the Hogwarts School of Magic then so be it.

Potter and his friends have qualities I would like in my own child. They are kind, faithful, moral, and compassionate. And in a world where the hero is often huge, handsome, and wielding a gun, I find it comforting that my sister is admiring a skinny 11-year old orphan with a courageous heart and a wand. ;)

Peace and Happiness!

Re: Hey
 

i agree with you 107%!

i've only read 2 of the books so far (yeah i am late!), but i really like them and i dont see anything wrong with them at all. there are WAY too many childrens books/comics/cartoons that deal with non-christian like themes...... but for some reason this series is singled out, i dont get it?

im excited when kids WANT to read, period!

Re: Re: Hey
 

THANK YOU!!!

No disrespect to anyone or their opinion. But why can’t we just be happy with the larger picture? The end result is that children are reading and excited about reading. I’ve been around kids that can tell me the in’s and out’s of every popular video game but can’t spell or read a sentence. I agree that you have to monitor what your children read/watch but how many parents are doing so? How many parents are telling kids to turn off the video game/TV and pick up a book? I haven’t read them but from what I hear it expands your imagination which is something that I think kids need nowadays.

There will be no Harry Potter merchandise in my household. At first, I was about to buy one of the books for my son, but then I started looking at it a little more in depth. It's all about "mysticism" and stuff like that and quite frankly, all that is a kids version of witchcraft, tarot, horoscopes, etc. I don't think that any of the Harry Potter stuff is "evil" per se. I just don't want my kids to get into all that mysticism stuff.

In addition to Harry Potter, my kids are no longer allowed to watch Power Rangers or anything else that promotes violence, because they take all of that power ranger energy to school. My son is also no longer allowed to watch Digimon - - Digital Monsters. He started acting the parts out...too aggressively. His behavior immediately changed when he stopped watching it. Kids easily take cartoon characters and make them their "heroes".

I am all for Vegetales. They're great little movies. My kids are also allowed to watch all the regular cartoon and Nickelodeon, but I screen what they're watching, as should all parents. Really, it's a matter of choice. What I may do with my children may not be what another parent does with theirs. Only you can decide what is right or wrong for your family and household.