Potter may help the devil: Mexican priest

AP ^ | July 21, 2007

[fatima]

It appears that the invitation for this spiritual invasion was inadvertantly initiated through a favorite aunt of the boy. She had died in St. Louis two weeks prior to the first registered phenomena. “It developed that the aunt of the boy and his parents had used a Ouija board, and this probably gave the devil his first entrance.”
http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/stories/an-exorcism-story/

[GraniteStateConservative]

Would love to have ... a house elf.

And you thought Jesse Jackson was annoying. Wait until you have to deal with the elf-version demanding you free your elf and give him reparations.

[Aquinasfan]

She is reading "The Order of the Phoenix" right now ten feet from me. She said, "no, you have to be born one."

And when Harry got older he discovered that he was born one.

[Aquinasfan]

It's just a book. It's made of wood.

Are books the same as wood?

[GraniteStateConservative]

So I ask my eight year old if she thinks she can become a wizard. She is reading "The Order of the Phoenix" right now ten feet from me. She said, "no, you have to be born one." So I guess, Wizardry is something like Calvinism, one has to be predestined. Anyway, Fr. Mendoza might ought to read the books, before he starts spouting off stuff that he doesn't know anything about.

No, Mendoza is acting exactly the way Jews and Christians would have acted thousands of years ago. The Bible says witches and the Devil are both very real. If they are real, then there are consequences that follow. God nor Jesus ever told Christians/Jews directly to stop killing witches as he commanded earlier, Christians/Jews just lost the stomach for it. Both the Old and New Testament clearly say witches exist and they are condemned in both the OT and NT.

[Oztrich Boy]

Are books the same as wood?

If they weigh the same as a duck.

[newguy357]

Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that count darkness as light, and light as darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Just make sure you aren't the one it's speaking about.

[Pistolshot]

The books are great examples of good vs evil.
Whether you read them or not is entirely a personal choice, but to think that a storyline can change a persons beliefs in an Almighty and create evil, is absurd. Children raised to believe in something greater than themselves and with love, caring, and the ability to think for themselves will always have that love and caring and that belief.

Seperating fiction from reality takes a willful mind to accept the 'truth' and to accept the story for what it is....a story.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Wow, you must be just a bundle of fun on Halloween.

Well, no Christian should celebrate Halloween. It's a Celtic pagan holiday that began as a festival when Druids would sacrifice crops and animals by fire to Celtic gods and the period was believed to be a time when the ghosts of the dead could appear on earth because the wall between life and afterlife thinned during this time.

You're honoring pagan gods by handing out candy and dressing up your kids. God will not be pleased. Pray for your eternal soul.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I forgot to add that the concept of contrition plays a large part in this book. Putting things right, feeling remorse, these are not satanic at all. There is a book out there for Catholic parents, I think it is by Nancy Brown: “The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide” if one wants to read it before they read the books. I loved the book, am going to start re-reading it again today.

If Rowling wanted to write a book that was righteous, she would have written stories about teens who are obeying the laws of God and doing good for and loving their neighbors, without the paganism. Rowling will answer for all the souls she sent to hell for all eternity.

[Aquinasfan]

If they weigh the same as a duck.

You've contributed much to the discussion.

[Cicero]

I’ve often heard this charge, but I think it’s naive. Yes, there’s black magic involved, but Harry Potter is fighting it. I think the books have a good sense of the nature of good and evil.

I would make this charge against the Golden Compass trilogy of childen’s fantasy novels, which are attacks on God. But Philip Pullman is another story entirely. His central purpose is to undermine and twist the religious faith of his young readers.

[LordBridey]

And when Harry got older he discovered that he was born one.

Yeah, well, it is fiction. Harry Potter is a fictional character. That means that it is not real. My eight year old daughter knows that she cannot become a wizard. She knows that she was not born to wizard parents. She knows that she was born to sinner parents so she is a sinner too, and must practice Catholicism all her days.

Her seventeen year old sister, who read the HP series as well, does not practice witchcraft, nor aspires to be a wizard, also being fully conscious of her status as a sinning human. Unbelievably, and despite having read the HP series devotedly as each book came out, that daughter attends mass every Sunday and regularly confesses her sins without any parental prompting. She knows who and what she is and acts accordingly.

Everyone knows, by reading their Frank Baum that all wizards are frauds.

[LordBridey]

Both the Old and New Testament clearly say witches exist and they are condemned in both the OT and NT.

Well, Harry Potter does not exist. Therefore, he can't be killed. I guess that is a bummer.

[airborne]

I have accepted Jesus as my personal Saviour, and no silly fictional book will change that.

To paraphrase Freud,”Sometimes a book is just a book.”

[Aquinasfan]

”Sometimes a book is just a book.”

Every novel promotes some kind of worldview, whether explicitly or implicitly, so choosing books for children is a serious responsibility.

With all the great books in the world, there's no reason to encourage children to read books that may enkindle an interest in the occult.

The, "at least they're reading" defense is no excuse either. What is being read is far more important than the act of reading, per se.

[Aquinasfan]

Yes, there’s black magic involved, but Harry Potter is fighting it.

With what? "White magic," or "good magic." And so the lie is promoted; the damage is done.

[CholeraJoe]

Potter ping.

And besides being demonic, the Harry Potter novels contain murder, kidnapping, torture, slavery, child abuse, theft, animal cruelty, voyeurism, interspecies lust, underage drinking and inter-racial dating.

[EmilyGeiger]

Tut, tut that horrid book! ;) /sarcasm

[Tax-chick]

If it’s not one thing, it’s another.