Ten Arguments against Harry Potter

[TPJCatholic]

yo,

Again, you are not reading my words or messages…not much more to say really. You seem to have an obessession about one specific point, whereas I do not. Thanks for sharing though.

 

[mlchance]

TPJCatholic:

No, the Vatican has not condemned Harry Potter…do you need to have an official condemnation for everything you might read?

Nope. But if someone says “The Pope condemns Harry Potter” when, in fact, the Pope has done no such thing, I get understandably skeptical.

TPJCatholic:

Or, is it possible that we are supposed to have a properly formed conscience and know that we should stay away from such garbage?

Nice back-handed insult? IOW, since I disagree, I don’t have a “properly formed conscience” and do not “know that we should stay away from such garbage.”

How about this for a possibility: You haven’t advanced a single coherent argument against Harry Potter. (But, to your credit, neither has the Pope.) Therefore, the “issue” of Harry Potter is a matter for prudential judgment. Your prudential judgment may differ from others, but that doesn’t make you right and them wrong.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[TPJCatholic]

mlchance,

It all has to do with what sort of world we want to develop. It is either going to be a world that leans towards Christian teachings, or a world that leans far more towards being pagan. There are enough statements in the Bible and the Catechism, along with comments from the early Church, that point to the need to stay away from such things.

The state of our culture is very poor indeed and it did not get that way through one area of laxity. We have allowed ourselves to become loose in so many ways, including the things we read.

Books like Harry Potter have always been there, but never to the unprecedented scale as today…and that is the most troubling thing of all. In a time when people are losing their faith at alarming rates, one cannot ignore that books like Harry Potter and the Da Vinci Code are on the tops of many so-called Catholics reading list.

Very troubling indeed.

 

[Scout]

TPJCatholic:

Here is number 12:

Catechism 2116
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

Catechism 2117
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they
have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.

I find this arguement interesting, seeing as so many Christians are running to condemn Harry Potter but are so eager to read Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. The only difference is that Tolkien and Lewis were supposed to be writing from a Christian view-point, but there is just as much sorcery and witchcraft in those books as in the Harry Potter novels, but I don’t see anyone condemning Tokien and Lewis.

I used to be a person who thought Harry Potter was evil and all that. Then I actually saw the first movie and read the first book. There’s no difference between them and books like The Wizard of Oz or other fantasy books. Most of the people who condemn Harry Potter have never read the books. I know this because I used to be one of those people.

I love Harry Potter. There is definetely a “good vs. evil” storyline, and you can tell the difference between the good side and the evil side. The stories are full of truth, bravery, loyalty and deep friendship and sacrifice. I don’t know anybody who would have a problem promoting those attributes.

Scout

 

[Shiann]

TPJCatholic:

From:

catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=36&art_id=29398

Ten Arguments Against Harry Potter
Catholic Exchange

http://www.catholicexchange.com/ius/vm/ahd_pinline.gif

1. Harry Potter is a global long-term project to change the culture. In this generation of youths, inhibitions against magic and the occult are being destroyed. Thus, forces re-enter society which Christianity had overcome.

Cite your source.

1. Hogwarts, the school of magic and witchcraft, is a closed world of violence and horror, of cursing and bewitching, of racist ideology, of blood sacrifice, disgust, and obsession. There is an atmosphere of continuous threat, which the young reader cannot escape.

Hogwarts is also a place of courage, strength, and quick thinking, friendships, and loyalty. This statement could also refer to the Wizard of Oz or any other fantasy based yarn…

1. While Harry Potter

appears in the beginning to fight against evil, in fact the similarities between him and Voldemort, the arch-evil adversary in the tale, become more and more obvious. In volume five, Harry is being obsessed by Voldemort, which leads to symptoms of personality disintegration.

Which is what makes this story so intriguing. Regardless of how similar the two characters are, HP still chooses to do the right thing in the end. He still fights for “the good side”.

1. The human world becomes degraded; the world of witches and sorcerers becomes glorified.

There are a number of humans that are not degraded, in fact many of the magical characters have human friends. The main humans in the tale are degraded because of their terrible treatment of HP, not because they are not magical…

1. There is no positive transcendent dimension. The supernatural is entirely demonic. Divine symbols are perverted.

See my above post on alchemical allegory and symbolism. There is evidence of quite the opposite

1. Harry Potter

is no modern fairy tale. In fairy tales, sorcerers and witches are unambiguous figures of evil and the hero escapes their power through the exercise of virtue. In the Harry Potter universe there is no character that endeavors consistently to achieve good. For seemingly good ends evil means are being used.

This is also a false premise. The young man in this story is a teen who has had NO parental guidance. He is making mistakes- AND LEARNING from them. He consistently desires to achieve good/moral ends- but he approaches them from incorrect means (which is pointed out in the end through various “morals of the story”.)

1. A (young!) reader’s power of discernment of good and evil is blocked out through emotional manipulation and intellectual confusion.

Since when? Again, cite the source.

1. It is an assault upon this generation of youth, seducing it playfully into a world of witchcraft and sorcery, filling the imagination of the young with images of a world in which evil reigns, from which there is no escape, on the contrary, it is portrayed as highly desirable.

Look, these statements all sound very professional and convincing, but they have very little substance. These could be said for ANY fantasy based story.

1. Those who value plurality of opinion should resist the nearly overwhelming power of this peer pressure, which is being accomplished through a gigantic corporate and multimedia blitz — one which displays elements of totalitarian brainwashing.

This is a statement of opinion, not evidence for a debate point.

“Harry Potter is not anti-Christian.” See I can do it too…

1. Since through the Potter

books faith in a loving God is systematically undermined, even destroyed in many young people, through false “values” and mockery of Judeo-Christian truth, the introduction of these books in schools is intolerant. Parents should refuse permission for their children to take part in Potter indoctrination for reasons of faith and conscience.

Please view HP in the context of alchemical allegory.

 

[mlchance]

TPJCatholic:

It all has to do with what sort of world we want to develop. It is either going to be a world that leans towards Christian teachings, or a world that leans far more towards being pagan. There are enough statements in the Bible and the Catechism, along with comments from the early Church, that point to the need to stay away from such things.

More circular argumentation. Everything you’ve said ultimately boils down to, “I, TPJCatholic, dislike Harry Potter.” You still haven’t advanced a single argument based on facts. You’ve even admitted in regards to this subject that neither the Bible nor the Catechism forbids reading novels containing fictionalized (or even nonfictionalized) occult subject matter.

If you don’t want to read Harry Potter, fine. It’s not like you’re missing out on great fiction. If you don’t want your children to read Harry Potter, more power to you.

But the authority of your prudential judgment on the matter extends no farther than you and yours.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[TPJCatholic]

mlchance,

No, I was not trying to insult you. I am much more direct when I insult.

I have advanced many points in my argument…you just do not agree.

But, since you do not think I have, here is just one (plenty enough for me):

Point #1:
God quite convincingly condemns socery and divination in the Bible…that alone is enough for me.

Point #2:
The Church speaks against such things, also good enough for me:

Catechism 2116
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

Catechism 2117
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they
have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.

Point #3:
Because God and His Church do not name Harry Potter by name, does not mean His condemnation is invalid.

Point #4:
As Christians, we are supposed to foster as holy a life as we can, and we are also held accountable for the time we spend (including time we misuse). One can reasonably question whether or not reading Harry Potter is a holy use of time.

 

[TPJCatholic]

Notice to all,

I did NOT write that article…go to the link.

 

[Shiann]

**Transcript of the Vatican Radio program 105live on Thursday, July 14, 2005. **
By fr. Roderick Vonhögen (www.catholicinsider.com)/)

We turn to an event taking place on the 16th of July, one much awaited by the fans of the best-selling Harry Potter books, the publication of the sixth in this series: Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince. Simply because world media is suggesting pope Benedict XVI believes these books put readers on a slippery slope with their subtle seduction and distortion of Christianity in the world.

“Put perhaps”, says monsignor Peter Fleetwood, an expert on New Age and former official at the Pontifical Council for Culture, “no offense, the lady who complained to the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger about Joanna Rowling’s popular series back in 2003, may not have quite understood a very British sense of humour”.

Monsignor Fleetwood also recalls how he was first asked about Harry Potter at a press conference in the Vatican during the presentation of the New Age document by the title of “Jesus Christ, Bearer of the Water of Life” in February 2003.

Msgr Fleetwood:

"I’ve been asked by a lot of people if they should allow their children to read Joanna Rowling’s books about the trainee-magician Harry Potter. And the reason why they ask, is that they’ve heard that some of the content is anti-christian. I can’t see that personally.

I was asked once in a press-conference in the Vatican whether I thought the witchcraft and magic in Harry Potter was a bad thing, and I said to the people present: ‘did anyone in this room grow up without stories about witches and fairies and magic and spells and mystery and so on and so forth?’, and everyone seemed to agree that none of us had grown up without those things. And then I said: ‘did it make us into ennemies of the faith, or ennemies of God, or ennemies of the Church?’ And people seemed to say: ‘no, no’. And I said: ‘well, I can’t see any problem with Harry Potter, because, really, all the stories are about the victory of good over evil’.

People say: ‘yes, but Harry uses magic spells!’ Well, that’s only a kind of literary device to keep children interested. It’s not putting forth a theory about magic. I know lots of teachers in England, and they’ve all said to me: ‘How remarkable! All of a sudden we don’t have to ask children to read books!’ There’s been a real craze. The unfortunate thing is, people call it a ‘cult book’ and then mad people say: ‘oh, it’s a cult’ - meaning a religious cult, and it’s not!

It’s just a fashion, because every child tells every other child: you should read Harry Potter. So they’ve all read all the books, and they all know all the details and so on and so forth. And the teachers I know in England just say simply: ‘isn’t it marvelous? That kids want to read? We don’t have to force them to read’. And many parents have said the same thing.

And parents have asked me about Harry Potter’s books. I’ve always said: why don’t you read them? Or read them with your children, or read them to your children. Or you read them first and see if you can see anything bad.

I was sent a letter from a lady in Germany who claimed to have written to the then cardinal Ratzinger, saying that she thought Harry Potter was a bad thing. And the letter back, which I suspect was written by an assistent of the then cardinal Ratzinger in his office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, suggested that there was a subtle seduction in the books. What that subtle seduction was, was not specified, which makes me think it was a generic answer. And she had written a book on these subjects and so the Cardinal’s signature was at the bottom of the letter, suggesting she should send me the book.

She sent me the book, and I found it a very unsatisfactory book. I don’t think she understands English humour. For example, she said: one sign that these books are making fun of Judaism and Christianity is that Voldemort, the wicked magician, who is the great evil power against whom Harry Potter has to fight, is referred to often as ‘he who must not be named’, and she takes this as an insult to the name of God in a similar way that Adonai, which is often written as Jawhe, is the name that should not be said in Jewish religion. Well I replied to her: don’t you know that even within English families, men who make fun of their relationship with women in a nice, lighthearted way say: oh, she who should not be named, meaning the power in the house, their wife. You know, I think it was meant on that kind of level.

 

[Shiann]

In any case though, the very people who complain about such things are the ones who would want priests above all, and teachers within the catholic faith, to speak about the devil, and to name the devil, rather then to speak of some abstract, evil force. Harry Potter is the only one, in the Harry Potter books, who names evil: Voldemort. The ‘flight of death’ if you like, that’s what his name literally means. So Harry is the one that doesn’t avoid naming evil, or naming the evil one. Harry is doing exactly what those people want, and showing by his lack of fear of evil, that he believes that goodness will triumph.

And in fact, Rowling’s books all follow the classical mythological pattern and good always triumphs over evil. She studied classical mythology at the university and uses that structure of myth as the basis of the way she writes her novels. She also was brought up as a Christian and I mentioned that in the famous press conference. People quoted that as saying that I had said that her books were imbued with Christian morals. I said no such thing. I simply suggested that there’s no ignoring your own background. I also said that she’s not the kind christian your average zealous priest might want, in the sense of practicing religion every week, but there is no denying that she has a christian background. I said no more.

And people have obviously worked of a strange translation of what I said in Italian. It is notable that the only complaints I got were from people using a translation. I don’t know who made that translation. They never asked me any questions about whether they got it right. They certainly didn’t understand what I’d said in the press conference. So I only whish there had been more time to talk then, but the press conference was about something quite different, and it was only one question that was blown out of proportion.

But I remain firmly convinced that the Harry Potter novels are very well written. They are written on the classical plot of good versus evil in the standard way that the old myths were written. The characters are built up around that: the goodies and the baddies so to speak, and I can’t see that that’s a bad thing for children, when goodness, and the people on the side of goodness are portrayed as the ones who will eventually win. Harry’s ennemies resort to all sorts of evil things, and they are the ones who loose in the end. I don’t see what’s wrong with that, and I can’t see that does any harm to children.

What my advice would still be to parents: if you’re in doubt, read the books yourselves, the first one, that’s the shortest one, and see what you think. Don’t simply rely on somebody else’s opinion, not even on my opinion, since it’s only an opinion. But it’s probably a good thing to enjoy it and to see that there are no evil influences there.

Some of the people who complain to me quote a priest who has worked in Rome and has been described as the exorcist of Rome, saying that evil is just behind every line in the books. Well, I answered that by saying: I’m a priest as well, I’m not as holy as that man, but his is an opinion and mine is an opinion, and neither of us automatically has a right to the opinion being more authorative. I would say you’d have to prove a thing like that, when you say that evil is behind every sentence. I can’t see it.

 

[Shiann]

Maybe I’m blind, as one article about me said, maybe I’m stupid and doing the devil’s work, as another article about me said. I have a funny feeling I’m not doing the devil’s work, and I have another feeling I am not blind or stupid. I just think that there’s a lot of scare-mongering going on, particularly among people who do like to find the devil around every corner. I don’t think that’s a healthy view of the world. And as I said before, I’m one of the people who would name the devil, I don’t keep the devil out of my preaching or out of my understanding of christianity; I’m one of the few that would mention him, so I don’t know where these people get their mad ideas. And I do think do think they are mad ideas.

I think one has to be quite calm in judging cultural phenomena. I’ve got a funny feeling that the success of Rowling is what started some people. Is it a kind of envy? I don’t know. But why they got so mad against her, I just don’t understand.

Another problem is comparing the Harry Potter books to the Lord of the Rings. I think they are very different sorts of literature really. Tolkien needed to entertain his children. He was a professor of ancient English or middle English, and he knew all this runic language that he invented is part of a world he constructed, originally to keep himself amused and his children amused. And this whole world is the world in which the Simarillion and the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings take place, whereas Harry Potter is just set in the amusing setting, if you’re an English person or a British person, of a public school, which is anything but public if people know what a public shool is. It’s very private.

My parents could not afford to send me there but that’s the world where Joanne Rowling said young witches and wizards would be trained. It’s obviously a totally nonsensical idea; it’s not constructing a world the way Tolkien did in the Lord of the Rings and so on. It’s much more down to earth and normal and banal if you like. It’s just a setting for an adventure between good and evil to take place. And she has an amazing talent of writing books that you don’t want to put down, that’s all there is going on there."

Former official at the Pontifical Council for culture, Msgr. Peter Fleetwood is currently working at the Council for European bishops conferences.

 

[TPJCatholic]

Scout,

You are not alone, many millions of people love Harry Potter. You are on a very wide plain of people who think I am nuts. No problemo.

Anything God condemns, is something I do not want to be close to. It is just as simple as that. I fall all the time, but I do not want to willingly read stuff that has condemned content in it.

You bring-up good points about Lord of the Rings–I’ll give you that point.

 

[pnewton]

I never made it past the first half of one of the movies before I turned it off. What I found offensive was the “hero” was a disobedient brat that got rewarded instead of punished. I also disliked the racist overtones of the importance of bloodline.

However, can we quit saying the pope/church condmened these books? No pope has done so. One cardinal, who later became pope, wrote 3 sentences in a private letter indicates he may not like them, or more precisely, is supportive of someone who does not like them.

 

[mlchance]

TPJCatholic:

I have advanced many points in my argument…you just do not agree.

Actually, no you haven’t. Well, at least not any points that amount to anything substantive.

Allow me to explain:

TPJCatholic:

Point #1:
God quite convincingly condemns socery and divination in the Bible…that alone is enough for me.

Point #2:
The Church speaks against such things, also good enough for me:

Catechism 2116
All forms of divination are to be rejected…

Catechism 2117
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion…

Please pay careful attention to what you’ve actually done.

Is reading Harry Potter the same thing as practicing any form of divination or sorcery? No, which you yourself have admitted. Therefore, Biblical and Church condemnations of the practice of divination and sorcery do not apply. Therefore, your Point #1 and Point #2 are very much beside the point.

Since Point #1 and Point #2 are very much beside the point, Point #3…

Point #3:
Because God and His Church do not name Harry Potter by name, does not mean His condemnation is invalid.

…is also very much beside the point.

This leaves Point #4 (emphasis added):

Point #4:
As Christians, we are supposed to foster as holy a life as we can, and we are also held accountable for the time we spend (including time we misuse). One can reasonably question whether or not reading Harry Potter is a holy use of time.

Which has been one of my points: The choice about reading or not reading Harry Potter is a matter of prudential judgment. You’re certainly entitled to make a prudential judgment for you and yours, but that’s as far as your prudential judgment extends.

If I choose to read Harry Potter (or let my children do so), that is my prudential judgment. It is authoritative for me and mine, and no more.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[TPJCatholic]

mlchance,

Okay, so my arguments do not convince you. To that point I am quite sad No problem though because my points are quite sound, whether you agree or not.

You see, I have conceded that neither God, nor His Church have used the words “Harry Potter” in their condemnations. Yet, they do strongly condemn such pratices. Therefore, the clear (and I thought obviuous) point is “why would we want to read novels that glorify pratices that God and His Church have so clearly condemned?”

You see, reading novels is a free-time, completely voluntary thing to do, and what we choose to read does have an impact on our minds and upon our souls. A great case for this is The Da Vinci Code. That book can slowly, but surely corrupt minds towards thinking quite poorly of Christ and of Christinaity. Likewise, even a fictionalized use of Divinely condemned pratices can at the very least partly corrupt minds (especially children) into thinking such practices are okay, or least not so bad. Satan wins an open door to a person’s soul when that person starts thinking condemned practices are okay.
Forty years ago hardly anyone would think abortion is okay…now a huge majority is behind that evil practice simply because the culture chipped away at the minds and hearts of the young over the years.

It is no accident that Christianity is fighting for its life in Europe, in Canada and even hear in the states. When we allow satan in, he will use the door we open.

 

[TPJCatholic]

mlchance,

If there is even a slight chance of even one person losing their faith in Christ because of the Harry Potter novels, are they worth reading then?

 

[mlchance]

TPJCatholic:

If there is even a slight chance of even one person losing their faith in Christ because of the Harry Potter novels, are they worth reading then?

Again with something completely irrelevant.

People have lost their faith reading the Bible. I know of at least one person who used the Bible to convince parents that he ought to be able to have sex with their underage daughters. What do you propose we do now? Ban reading the Bible?

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[pnewton]

TPJCatholic:

If there is even a slight chance of even one person losing their faith in Christ because of the Harry Potter novels, are they worth reading then?

Since I do not consider the worth reading anyway, let me point out that this is not an arguement, since it is based in fanciful speculation. Anything, including Scripture has a slight chance of causing one person of losing their faith as a contributing cause. Nothing will make a person lose faith as a primary cause.

 

[mlchance]

TPJCatholic:

No problem though because my points are quite sound, whether you agree or not.

You don’t even agree your points are sound. You admitted that Harry Potter does not constitute practicing divination or sorcery. Therefore, Biblical and Church condemnations about such practices do not apply.

TPJCatholic:

You see, I have conceded that neither God, nor His Church have used the words “Harry Potter” in their condemnations. Yet, they do strongly condemn such pratices. Therefore, the clear (and I thought obviuous) point is “why would we want to read novels that glorify pratices that God and His Church have so clearly condemned?”

You’re equivocating again. First, it’s neither God nor the Church has expressly condemned Harry Potter. Then, it’s God and the Church has condemned practicing divination and sorcery. But, since reading Harry Potter isn’t the same thing as practicing divination and sorcery, you jump back to the argument-begging statement that the novels “glorify pratices that God and His Church have so clearly condemned.”

TPJCatholic:

You see, reading novels is a free-time, completely voluntary thing to do, and what we choose to read does have an impact on our minds and upon our souls.

That’s not an argument. It’s a mere assertion.

TPJCatholic:

A great case for this is The Da Vinci Code.

Which, of course, has nothing to do with Harry Potter.

TPJCatholic:

Likewise, even a fictionalized use of Divinely condemned pratices can at the very least partly corrupt minds (especially children) into thinking such practices are okay, or least not so bad.

But, again, where is the evidence that this is happening? You say it “can” happen. Lots of things “can” happen that never do, or least don’t with anything approaching regularity.

TPJCatholic:

Forty years ago hardly anyone would think abortion is okay…now a huge majority is behind that evil practice simply because the culture chipped away at the minds and hearts of the young over the years.

Again, irrelevant to Harry Potter, and also, not true. The huge majority of people are opposed to abortion. The huge majority of people think that there ought to be at least restrictions on abortion.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[Other_Eric]

1. Harry Potter is a global long-term project to change the culture. In this generation of youths, inhibitions against magic and the occult are being destroyed. . .

This is a conspiracy theory gone wild. Even if one could point to a heightened interest in magic and the occult among children it would be hard to distinguish it from the interest that children have always displayed for magic in fairy tales and harder still to attribute it to Harry Potter. This has never been decisively shown beyond mere conjecture.

1. Hogwarts, the school of magic and witchcraft, is a closed world of violence and horror, of cursing and bewitching, of racist ideology, of blood sacrifice, disgust, and obsession . . .

There does not exist any tale in children’s literature where the principle child is not removed from the protection of his or her parents and thrust into a perilous or evil environment. Removing this literary convention would reduce said literature to a saccharine mediocrity.

1. While Harry Potter appears in the beginning to fight against evil . . . the similarities between him and Voldemort . . . become more and more obvious. . .

This argument ignores the one very potent distinction that is made between Harry and Voldemort in the books. That of free will. The books do indeed draw similarities between the two, just as all men have the potential for great evil. The difference, and the supreme moral here, is that Harry always chooses that which is honorable.

1. The human world becomes degraded; the world of witches and sorcerers becomes glorified.

This argument is simply ignorant of the books. While it is true that the attitudes of those in the wizard world are condescending (at best) to the world of humans, at no time is this position approved of and at times it is even condemned.

1. There is no positive transcendent dimension. The supernatural is entirely demonic. Divine symbols are perverted.

I thought the problem was that the supernatural was presented in a positive fashion. I don’t know of any instance in the books in which a divine symbol is perverted. Strictly speaking, the Chronicles of Narnia would have more to answer for on this charge as Christ is demoted to a beast in them.

1. Harry Potter is no modern fairy tale. In fairy tales, sorcerers and witches are unambiguous figures of evil and the hero escapes their power through the exercise of virtue . . .

This argument would be news to anyone who has read Cinderella, in which a girl defies her caretaker with the supernatural help of a “fairy godmother;” Aladdin, in which a young boy in China controls a supernatural being to become rich; the tales of King Arthur and the Round Table where Merlin the magician was a respected member of the court who arranged for the conception of Arthur through deception; or indeed volumes of Bavarian folk tales where mortals gain riches by outwitting the devil, not through the intervention of God, but on the prideful reliance on their own cunning.

1. A (young!) reader’s power of discernment of good and evil is blocked out through emotional manipulation and intellectual confusion.

A young reader’s power of discernment can be corrupted by any book. This does not mean that we need to restrict them from reading anything. This is the argument of a parent too lazy to take an active interest in the formation of their own child’s conscience and instead assigns someone or something else (be it TV, school, or books) the grave and sole responsibility of instructing their child.

1. It is an assault upon this generation of youth, seducing it . . . filling the imagination of the young with images of a world in which evil reigns, . . . [which] is portrayed as highly desirable.

This argument depends entirely on the simplistic identification of magic with evil, which, as I showed in my response to argument 6, is not always possible. In fact, the books go out of their way to illustrate to the horrors of pride, complacency, and predjudice.

1. Those who value plurality of opinion should resist the . . . power of this peer pressure, which is being accomplished through a . . . corporate and multimedia blitz — one which displays elements of totalitarian brainwashing.

This is nothing more than an attack on capitalist enterprise worthy, perhaps, of Lenin. No one is forced to read the books, so accusations of totalitarianism are nothing more than paranoid fantasy. This argument reads like one a queer activist might use against a marriage amendment.

1. Since through the Potter books faith in a loving God is systematically undermined . . .

This argument is begging the question. It has never been demonstrated that the books actually do undermine or destroy the faith of the young. There are no numbers out there, merely paranoid speculation.