How does a parent teach discernment to a child about the 1st Commandment, when they themselves are not aware of what the Catechism teaches about attachments to magic and sorcery.
A child learns by example.
When a parent expresses enjoyment or grants access to this dark religion (which rejects Christianity and any reliance on God) they are setting a president for future belief in that religious system of belief.
There is no “religion” per se that surrounds Star Wars. Harry Potter and friends are child witches and warlocks who live in an underworld outside of the ‘norms’ of society.
Later, in their defiant teenage years, children will realize and come into contact with established Wiccan religions, New Age philosophies and practices that militantly contradict Christianity.
vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c1a1.htm
What I’m hoping to express to you is that there is no ‘religion’ either. The Force is precisely the same thing as the ‘spells’ used in Harry Potter. The wands are like light sabers, and the evil is just as wickedly portrayed. It isn’t about a bunch of chanting in a circle in the middle of the woods calling on demons to do their bidding, it is about
school children who use their powers (in this case magic) to combat evil.
The whole idea of Harry Potter is that the society, though remaining ‘underworld’ as you put it, remains that way for their own protection. However, the good guys respect the human world, try to protect it from evil too, and oppose those who want to harm humans. But the idea isn’t to get caught up on this ‘wizard/witch’ stuff. As was noted earlier, that is merely a plot device.
In C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy, there are other planets that have intelligent life upon them. Does that mean Lewis believes it is not only man who was made in the image of God? Of course not. But it is his device to express a deeper point. When people become hung up on the superficial details, they are blind to the beauty within.
Again, please do not assume we are uneducated in the faith, or that we think of Harry Potter as a ‘dark religion’. It isn’t. It is a series of fictional books. When you accept it as that, and know it to be fiction, then there is no harm in enjoying the books. The only precedent I can think of that a child would take when seeing their parents reading is that reading is an enjoyable activity. The end. The only people saying there is a religion around Harry Potter are precisely those condemning it.
At the end of the day, I think it should be up to an individual to determine if they should read it, and if that person is a parent, the decision also rests on them about whether their children will read it. Your choice has been not to read it, and although this does limit your ability to argue this matter, we will simply leave it at that. As for myself, and I think I can safely speak for the others who have agreed with me thus far, our choice has been to read it. We found nothing in it that defied Catholic teaching, but we did pick up on some wonderful bits of heroism, morality, and faithfulness.
Lastly, I assure you that all teenagers will come into contact with Wiccans, New Age philosophies, and the like, but that is nothing like the magic in Harry Potter. Would you stop your child from watching Fantasia because of the magic? What about Cinderella? It isn’t just about these things though. Will you ban your child from every reading a book that contains references to other gods? Think of all the classical Roman and Greek works that will be put away, when a simple talk about what’s real and what’s for enjoyment could sate both desires?
I find it interesting (and somewhat frustrating) that when people post on the Internet they are taking a chance of their words being taken completely in the wrong way. I haven’t figured out how to solve this problem. You could easily read this response to your post as being uncharitable and sarcastic. But I don’t mean it to be that way. I appreciate your response, your clarification, and your discussion.
