Harry Potter?

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Sarcelle said:
These exorcists have not forgotten it is a work of fiction.

What they are doing is attaching a caveat for parents to be aware. Harry Potter can serve to mislead especially if the one who is reading it is someone who does not have a fully formed and mature conscience. Young children would come to mind.
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In which case, it is the parents’ job to judge whether their children are at a suitable age and maturity to read Harry Potter. If the parents are unsure, they can read with their child or hold off reading it until they can be sure.

Lou
 
Regina7 said:
I couldn’t find any old threads on this.

Do you let your kids read/watch Harry Potter? The new illustrated version has just been released. I know that my son, a reluctant reader, would love it. However, I also remember that the pastor at the Catholic school my kids used to attend said that parents should not let their kids read it (I’m guessing it’s because of the witchcraft, but Father didn’t really specify).

What do you all think?
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There’s a new illustrated version of it? How long is it?
 
Sarcelle said:
These exorcists have not forgotten it is a work of fiction.

What they are doing is attaching a caveat for parents to be aware. Harry Potter can serve to mislead especially if the one who is reading it is someone who does not have a fully formed and mature conscience. Young children would come to mind.
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I don’t necessarily believe that applies to Harry Potter more than any other book, though.

(You could even apply the same to the Bible - think of the funny ideas even adults come up with.)
 
You need to consider the life of the author. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis are overwhelmingly regarded as having lived as devout Christians, by Catholic and the great majority of evangelicals. (There are critics like Jack Chick, of course). Their work and writings apart from their fantasy writing reflects a genuine Christian commitment. They were not professional fantasy writers, fantasy was simply one of the means available at the time. Their Letters reveal enormous insight in terms of their overall Christian mission - including the fantasy element. Neither got rich, Tolkien especially made financial sacrifices to make his fantasy possible. Both were regarded with disdain by the heavily secular colleagues at Oxford. Both might have made more money if they were not so obviously Christian.

I do not have that kind of information about the author of Harry Potter. Are her goals devoid of hope of major financial gain? We can discuss whether or not the Harry Potter books are harmless or not. But they are not in any way on a level with the other 2 series in terms of reflecting Christian faith.
 
commenter said:
You need to consider the life of the author. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis are overwhelmingly regarded as having lived as devout Christians, by Catholic and the great majority of evangelicals. (There are critics like Jack Chick, of course). Their work and writings apart from their fantasy writing reflects a genuine Christian commitment. They were not professional fantasy writers, fantasy was simply one of the means available at the time. Their Letters reveal enormous insight in terms of their overall Christian mission - including the fantasy element. Neither got rich, Tolkien especially made financial sacrifices to make his fantasy possible.

I do not have that kind of information about the author of Harry Potter. Are her goals devoid of hope of major financial gain?
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JK Rowling is the first author to make a £1 billion from book sales alone, but she gave a lot away to charity. This website tells you about all the charities she supports.

I’m sure when she wrote the series she hoped to make money. From what I can remember, she didn’t have a lot of money when she started out writing but since then…

Lou
 
commenter said:
You need to consider the life of the author. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis are overwhelmingly regarded as having lived as devout Christians, by Catholic and the great majority of evangelicals. (There are critics like Jack Chick, of course). Their work and writings apart from their fantasy writing reflects a genuine Christian commitment. They were not professional fantasy writers, fantasy was simply one of the means available at the time. Their Letters reveal enormous insight in terms of their overall Christian mission - including the fantasy element. Neither got rich, Tolkien especially made financial sacrifices to make his fantasy possible.

I do not have that kind of information about the author of Harry Potter. Are her goals devoid of hope of major financial gain?
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One thing I’ll say is that Tolkein and Lewis are both superior authors with a far greater talent than Rowling. My kids, when I’m lucky enough to have some, will have access to The Hobbit and LOTR, as well as the Narnia books well before they get around to reading the Potter books. Just for those reasons alone.
 
Lou2U said:
JK Rowling is the first author to make a £1 billion from book sales alone, but she gave a lot away to charity. This website tells you about all the charities she supports.

I’m sure when she wrote the series she hoped to make money. From what I can remember, she didn’t have a lot of money when she started out writing but since then…

Lou
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True she has been quite giving with her massive earnings and I would assume that implies her writing comes from a good place, which is something to consider.
 
I don’t think that Harry Potter is some sort of devilish gateway. I have read them, My head only rotates a little less than 180 degrees. But I do think just like when medical experts tell you that smoking is dangerous and then someone says “I have smoked for 50 years and I feel fine” it is foolish. And perhaps we should be as equally concerned for our spiritual health. I hear all the time that Ouiji is just a game produced by a toy company and harry potter is just a poorly written fairy tale. But yet, there are warnings of them both. Perhaps we should set aside our love for the feeling HP gave us and think about other things. The series is bay far larger than the Bible itself. I happen to give little credit to anyone who has a spiritual opinion on HP that has not read the Bible. And that tends to be the majority of Catholics…
 
Harry Potter is cool.

Even the Church doesn’t object to it, and it’s a great read.

Anybody seeking keys to the occult in it would be disappointed; no one “becomes” magical in the books, it is something to be born to; and none of the impedimenta of magic in the series exists in our world.

Really, the HP series is classic British school-fiction with a fantasy twist, no more, no less.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
Harry Potter is cool.

Even the Church doesn’t object to it, and it’s a great read.

Anybody seeking keys to the occult in it would be disappointed; no one “becomes” magical in the books, it is something to be born to; and none of the impedimenta of magic in the series exists in our world.

Really, the HP series is classic British school-fiction with a fantasy twist, no more, no less.

ICXC NIKA
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Well I wouldn’t call it “classic” 😉
 
Here is the best explenation in a couple of sentences that I can give for why Harry Potter is not in the same catagory of fiction as Tolken or C.S. Lewis and not even in the just fun but not harmful catagory of Rangers Apprentice. 🙂

In Harry Potter the main characters kids will want to imitate and be like are doing magic. Kids always want to be like their book friends/heros (I know I did). In both Tolken and Narnia magic is there and real but not something either the hobbits or Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund actually do themselves. Magic is for wizards and elves in Tolken and it is dangerous to mess with it for common people. In Narnia the children get in by magic but never on their own, the only time they do it is because of a wicked magicain and the result is an evil witch in a new world. These teach reality about the spiritual world that we beleive as Catholics but in Harry Potter magic is performed as a good thing by the role models in the books. This is what leads them closer to the occult.
 
littlepilgrim said:
Here is the best explenation in a couple of sentences that I can give for why Harry Potter is not in the same catagory of fiction as Tolken or C.S. Lewis and not even in the just fun but not harmful catagory of Rangers Apprentice. 🙂

In Harry Potter the main characters kids will want to imitate and be like are doing magic. Kids always want to be like their book friends/heros (I know I did). In both Tolken and Narnia magic is there and real but not something either the hobbits or Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund actually do themselves. Magic is for wizards and elves in Tolken and it is dangerous to mess with it for common people. In Narnia the children get in by magic but never on their own, the only time they do it is because of a wicked magicain and the result is an evil witch in a new world. These teach reality about the spiritual world that we beleive as Catholics but in Harry Potter magic is performed as a good thing by the role models in the books. This is what leads them closer to the occult.
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Harry and his friends are born with magical abilities. It is not gotten through devil worship or dealings with the occult. These abilities are neutral what they choose to do with it can be either bad or good.

I personally prefer Tolkien over Rowling, but Harry Potter has its own charm.
 
My opinion is going to be unpopular. I read books 1-3 as a kid, and I did like them. But the 4th book got a bit too graphic for me and I had to stop reading it. After that, I started to hear the arguments against the books which cited the spells and witchcraft aspect. I made up my mind at that point to just stay away from them. While they’re probably okay, I just hold true to the old saying, “If you don’t get close to the fire, you can’t get burned.”
 
I did another search of Harry Potter, this time using quotes. An entire page of threads did not show a thread with HP in title. What am I doing wrong?
 
Regina7 said:
I did another search of Harry Potter, this time using quotes. An entire page of threads did not show a thread with HP in title. What am I doing wrong?
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At the top of your menu on the left is a search tab. Click it.
Then on the left is a field you can populate called “search by keyword” It is under the “search forums” headline. Type in Harry Potter and then there is a drop down menu underneath the field. Make sure it is not on “search entire threads” And set it to search titles.
 
kptrs said:
My opinion is going to be unpopular. I read books 1-3 as a kid, and I did like them. But the 4th book got a bit too graphic for me and I had to stop reading it. After that, I started to hear the arguments against the books which cited the spells and witchcraft aspect. I made up my mind at that point to just stay away from them. While they’re probably okay, I just hold true to the old saying, “If you don’t get close to the fire, you can’t get burned.”
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Mark Shea has written some very interesting things about Harry Potter and Christian suspicion of the books.

There was a really good piece by him about 9-10 years ago about the relationship between magic and sacraments. I can’t find the piece I’m thinking of (Mark Shea has written so much on Harry Potter!) but here’s a recent piece that deals with the periphery of some of the issues involved:

mark-shea.com/Tolkien.html
 
Regina7 said:
I couldn’t find any old threads on this.

Do you let your kids read/watch Harry Potter? The new illustrated version has just been released. I know that my son, a reluctant reader, would love it. However, I also remember that the pastor at the Catholic school my kids used to attend said that parents should not let their kids read it (I’m guessing it’s because of the witchcraft, but Father didn’t really specify).

What do you all think?
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Fr. is right, they are harmful to a young mind. To any mind as far as I’m concerned!! I wouldn’t have anything to do with them. God Bless, Memaw
 
I read quite a bit of Harry Potter when I was quasi-involved with occultic perspectives and religions. As such, I can’t for the life of me understand why individuals deny that Harry Potter can stimulate an interest in occultic practices, since I experienced this first-hand. As a matter of fact, I think the books are incredibly friendly ground for those who already enjoy or who are curious about neo-paganism or the occult. I can certainly see them being a sort of catalyst for interest in such things. I don’t know why people deny that being extremely emotionally biased towards something, and consistently consuming it and permeating your thoughts with it, simply won’t make you more likely to embrace that something as an influence in your decisions.

I’ve seen the argument that these books are fiction, and therefore they’re apparently harmless. I also don’t understand that perspective in the slightest. The Marquis de Sade wrote fiction. His works are still garbage. You can’t dress garbage up by simply referring to it as fiction, and thus gutting it of any sort of unconscious influence that it could have otherwise had. 🤷

I also see the argument that children enjoy the books, or that now-adults confirm they enjoyed them when they were young, and this enjoyment is a wonderful thing, since it leads to a good end. OK. Well, whether or not something satisfies our appetites is not the manner by which we judge its merit. In fact, you see this again and again with how people analyze artistic products: I like it, therefore it must be good. Sorry, but that’s wrong.
 
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