Harry Potter?.......( Is it bad?)

  • Thread starter Thread starter MHLucille
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Lee1 said:
Fine. You may get a great deal of enjoyment from reading and introducing these ideas into the minds of your grandchildren, what will they get?

However when I read the Bible I am not nor ever have been at any age want to buy a magic wand and cast spells. Nor dwell on witchcraft or imagine ghosts inhabit my wardrobe etc etc.

The Bible does have some scary content but it generally inspires a want to be Holy. Maybe the test is, does it bring us nearer to God or neutral or away.

If people don’t change we will have the world we deserve.
Click to expand...
Egh, you’re not going to change my mind, and I’m not going to change yours. I see more than enough good in those books to warrant reading them. I also see the room for error for an unformed mind, and if my child ever starts to show any of this error I’ll definitely intervene, but I simply do not believe that the presence of magic as a system in a world makes the books bad. It is how the magic is gained, and how it is used, that determine that. If LOTR had Gandalf sacrificing goats and chickens to perform spells, I would reject it wholesale. It does not, and neither does Harry Potter. Magic is simply a tool that, in the hands of a competent author, can be used to illustrate the battle between good and evil.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
I also see the room for error for an unformed mind, and if my child ever starts to show any of this error I’ll definitely intervene
Click to expand...
Must we always be closing the door after the horse has bolted.

Memories are permanent, consciously or so called unconsciously.
 
Last edited:
You presuppose that the books are going to do damage. Having grown up reading them, I’m fairly certain they didn’t.

Like I said, you’re not going to change my mind, and I’m not going to change yours. I still have several years before this becomes an issue. I might change my mind later on, I might not. The point is that I find far more good in these books than bad, and that’s a position I’ve thought about a lot over the course of these many… many… many threads.

There’s no point in continuing the discussion though, so I’m going to back out now. I appreciate your concern, I just believe that it is misplaced.
 
Last edited:
Yeah but you’re just a seagull so you don’t know no better
 
I’m sure everything will be fine for you and I can tell I won’t change your mind right now.

This touches on wider issues though and that’s why I’m persisting today.

We as Catholics try our best not to sin and make great efforts to go to confession to repair our relationships with God, but surely our intention is to stop sinning completely? We don’t need to accept that it’s ok to sin, if we are truly sorry. So the intention is not to do wrong and yet we look upon other aspects of our lives in a spirit of compromise.

Do we not want to raise saints?
 
The difference in our outlooks is that I don’t believe reading these books to be even remotely close to sin. I find next to nothing about them objectionable (except maybe the overabundant focus on “snogging” in book five.).

I do not see it as even a near occasion of sin, so your constant attacks on the books as something pulling us away from God seems bizarre.

Stories do not need to be overtly religious to be worth reading or non-sinful. And, as I have continually asserted, the fact that it can lead people to sin does not speak to it’s own inherent nature. It is not something like pornography, which is irredeemable and exists specifically as an affront to God. It is literature that is neither good nor bad.

Bear in mind, when you say these books can lead people to sin. Broken souls will twist anything to suit their ends. I’ve heard of more than one person who’s used the Bible to justify their heinous actions. That doesn’t make the Bible bad.

(Please be clear, I am not trying to compare these books to the Bible. I’m simply trying to show you that the level of overt holiness of a work does not mean people will always do what is good with it, and the same is true for any work which is not inherently evil.)

I believe that these books can help us to raise saints by presenting a moral view in a way that is incredibly engaging, and that makes people want to emulate the positive aspects of the characters they read about. (Courage, love, sacrifice, dedication, trust…)
 
Last edited:
Then I take it you have issues with LOTR as well? After all, the lesser number of wizards doesn’t change the fact that they practice magic.
 
Yes I do.

Did Jesus have twelve wizards? St Augustine was against astrology and yet these days we accept it as harmless, maybe even fun.

Please don’t think I’m being personal, I respect everyone’s opinion. I once asked a priest about someone who had written several books about her intimate dealings with angels saying that I thought she was a very sincere person. He said “she may be sincere, that doesn’t make her right.”

Which of course also applies to me.
 
Well, to your credit, your are logically consistent. I think you’re the first person I’ve ever asked who agreed that they had an issue with LOTR.

I honestly don’t know how to proceed from here. This has never happened to me before. XD

As you say, I can’t fault you for your views, I definitely understand them. I just don’t agree with them.
 
Last edited:
Peace.

I’m mostly concerned with the silent majority.

Christian love.
 
A life without fiction sounds boring but …Our Lord promised us life and to the full!

I’m sorry I have to go for a while my kitchen is on fire.

(Fiction.)
 
Lee1 said:
I honestly believe that everything we read and witness has an effect on us. I think that we should be very careful what we allow into our minds. Not scrupulously! Just good housekeeping.
Click to expand...
But you think lying to children about secular Santa is fine…how is that good housekeeping for their minds or yours?
Lee1 said:
I told my children the same things and then told them gently that it was all false when they were older. What effect did that have?
Click to expand...
Likely, the same as a pretend storybook character.
Lee1 said:
However when I read the Bible I am not nor ever have been at any age want to buy a magic wand and cast spells. Nor dwell on witchcraft or imagine ghosts inhabit my wardrobe etc etc.
Click to expand...
Let’s not pretend there isn’t quite a bit of supernatural events in the Bible that can be easily misunderstood by children. Adam spoke to animals. Moses is particularly good fodder for that with the burning bush, plagues, the parting of the sea, manna, etc. Noah and his building boat. Jesus had some pretty spectacular miracles, too, and if exposed children will play at that.
Lee1 said:
Must we always be closing the door after the horse has bolted.

Memories are permanent, consciously or so called unconsciously.
Click to expand...
Again, then, how can you justify Santa and the Easter Bunny? (not Jesus/St. Nick)
Lee1 said:
Do we not want to raise saints?
Click to expand...
St. Therese believed fairy tales and Fr. Christmas until she was far too old…oh look, she’s a saint.
Lee1 said:
If that’s true maybe you might edit?
Click to expand...
Pretty sure you can google that.

And Thus let me end with a highly renowned Christian author.

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”​

― G.K. Chesterton
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
you think lying to children about secular Santa is fine…how is that good housekeeping for their minds or yours?
Click to expand...
I said it wasn’t a good idea to tell children about Santa Or the Easter bunny.

Neither would I agree with G K CHesterton however fine an author he was. If you line up a thousand saints and writers who all thought propagating lies was good idea I still wouldn’t change my mind. Why? Because I read the Gospels.

Our Lord warned us about the father of lies.

Look around, is society Catholic? Is everything as God would have it? Our media feed society with what they think society wants and in turn society becomes more like what they see and ‘experience’ through various media.

You sound as though I’m asking you to put away your toys. Maybe we should.
 
Lee1 said:
40.png
Xanthippe_Voorhees:
you think lying to children about secular Santa is fine…how is that good housekeeping for their minds or yours?
Click to expand...
I said it wasn’t a good idea to tell children about Santa Or the Easter bunny.

Neither would I agree with G K CHesterton however fine an author he was. If you line up a thousand saints and writers who all thought propagating lies was good idea I still wouldn’t change my mind. Why? Because I read the Gospels.

Our Lord warned us about the father of lies.

Look around, is society Catholic? Is everything as God would have it? Our media feed society with what they think society wants and in turn society becomes more like what they see and ‘experience’ through various media.

You sound as though I’m asking you to put away your toys. Maybe we should.
Click to expand...
American society was never Catholic–it had a renaissance but currently, Catholicism is at less than 20%–for the most part only marginally higher than some Asian countries and significantly lower than many African ones. And America was founded a couple hundred years before Harry Potter, last I checked.

I’m from a native American family that is also Catholic. They had many, many legends and told stories all the time. My family’s Native American side still tells stories and they are also the most Catholic–go figure.

What you seem to be lacking is the understanding of what was once oral tradition storytelling (many became Grimm’s fairy tales) and other methods pre-Harry Potter. There was a ton of lore, legend and superstition that was accepted as a part of every day life. There was quite a bit of fiction all around.

I’m approaching this from a human etymological standpoint…the only difference with Harry Potter is that it’s mass-produced and not local.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top