Bravo Christina for taking a stand and clearly articulating it. As a fellow reader and watcher of Harry Potter, though not yet with my children, I agree with much of what you have said.
I will engage in a discussion if people wish to know my reasons. Still I find myself often frustrated in discussions with those who have not read the books. I have no problem with their choice. It does bother me when they have a problem with my decision without fully educating themselves first either about the books themselves or about my reasons for enjoying them.
I have mostly taken a non-confrontational approach. I mostly avoid the discussion. I mostly stay quiet as others discuss these issues. Still I own all the books and the movies. I have knit house scarves and I do not share the concerns of most of my fellow Christians.
It often throws people for a loop when they enter our home library and find the entire Harry Potter series on the shelf above the entire Left Behind series. The shelf next to it contains Tolkien and CS Lewis as well. Yet those never seem to cause distress.
In the end each family must read and make their choices. In the end they will have their reasons and they will be different from each other. Serona and I have chosen one way while most of our Christian friends have chosen another. Still I am just as confident and comfortable in my decision as they are in theirs.
Christina really inspired me as I took on a subject I have long avoided mentioning here.
Peace,
Tenn
December 3, 2005
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Maybe I'm wrong, but I see no great moral difference between the Potter stuff and the Chronicles of Narnia. Magic is used in both. The Potter books are more ambiguous, but that doesn't make them evil. (Ambiguous in that good does not always triumph.) One of the most ambiguous books I've read is the Old Testament.
ReplyDeleteI suppose people don't like it that the good characters are Still, is unfortunate that someone was preaching against Potter in Christina's homeschool co-op. Doesn't seem quite the place. I would be be very put out.
Oops! I meant to say, "People don't like it that the good characters are called 'witches.'"
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I just saw this. I'm glad that you and others have said you agree because I was pretty much asked to leave the homeschool group and told to start my own group because it was a Christian group and nothing non-Christian was to be a part of the group. It didn't matter that I wasn't the only one who reads the books, I was the only one who spoke up about it. It wasn't just about the Harry Potter stuff, there were other things as well, but this topic set off a big argument.
ReplyDeleteEveryone also stopped coming to my science co-ops, that's why I've been so bummed lately.