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Bringing Harry Potter to Church (barf)
Christianity Astray (oops I mean Today) Blog ^ | July 23, 2007 | Caryn Rivadeneira

Posted on 08/01/2007 1:17:00 PM PDT by Terriergal

I think what’s so enthralling is that what we see happen with Harry is what we’d love for our own lives (though I could do without the Inferi or the Dementors). We all want to be told we’re somehow special, somehow destined for greatness. We all want someone to say, “You, you alone can do this.” Right?

And I hope at some time, we all find that. Frankly, Christians shouldn’t go through life any other way. Without sounding trite, God made us each special, each destined for greatness.

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.christianitytoday.com ...


TOPICS: Apologetics; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: apostasy; harrypotter; witchcraft
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We all want to be told we’re somehow special, somehow destined for greatness. We all want someone to say, “You, you alone can do this.” Right?

And I hope at some time, we all find that. Frankly, Christians shouldn’t go through life any other way. Without sounding trite, God made us each special, each destined for greatness.

HE must increase, I must decrease. Any questions?

I’ve got a few reasons why I love the books. But the one I keep coming back to is one my friend Carla summarizes much more eloquently than I do (although I can’t remember how she says it—otherwise I’d quote her!). It has to do with the orphaned boy who sleeps in a closet and thinks he’s nothing (because he’s told that by his cruel guardians) who is suddenly told he’s special—and that he’s destined for greatness.

What a completly anti-Christian message.

1 posted on 08/01/2007 1:17:07 PM PDT by Terriergal
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To: Terriergal

bfl


2 posted on 08/01/2007 1:20:50 PM PDT by JamesP81 (Keep your friends close; keep your enemies at optimal engagement range)
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To: Terriergal
What a completly anti-Christian message.

You're joking. Right?

3 posted on 08/01/2007 1:29:34 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

Unfortunsately, I’m sure he/she is not. Some Christians actually hold such blighted views.

They’re exactly the type who scare people away from Christianity.


4 posted on 08/01/2007 2:11:12 PM PDT by TBP
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To: Terriergal
It has to do with the orphaned boy who sleeps in a closet and thinks he’s nothing (because he’s told that by his cruel guardians) who is suddenly told he’s special—and that he’s destined for greatness.

What a completly anti-Christian message.

Just like those darn Narnia books, right? Ordinary kids who enter a magical world and discover they're destined for greatness. Lewis was so anti-Christian.

/s

5 posted on 08/01/2007 2:52:08 PM PDT by The Blitherer (What would a Free Man do?)
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To: The Blitherer

I never said Lewis’s books were Christian...

He was rather inclusivist too.


6 posted on 08/01/2007 5:00:09 PM PDT by Terriergal ("I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace," Shakespeare)
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To: EveningStar

I’m dead serious.


7 posted on 08/01/2007 5:11:37 PM PDT by Terriergal ("I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace," Shakespeare)
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To: TBP; EveningStar

So you think this “you were meant for greatness” stuff is actually Scriptural? I’m glad I scare people with such a mindset away. Jesus scared a lot of them away too, when their reasons for following him were shallow.


8 posted on 08/01/2007 5:13:08 PM PDT by Terriergal ("I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace," Shakespeare)
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To: Terriergal
I never said Lewis’s books were Christian...

Then you're definitely on the fringe.

9 posted on 08/01/2007 5:23:54 PM PDT by jude24 (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: jude24

Then Lewis was on the fringe, himself.


10 posted on 08/01/2007 5:32:07 PM PDT by Terriergal ("I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace," Shakespeare)
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To: Terriergal; TBP; EveningStar

Obedience is the key. We are not destined for greatness, in fact we are actually called to humility and deference. We are destined for glory, not popularity - there’s a vast difference.

The Narnia children were obedient, not great.


11 posted on 08/01/2007 5:32:23 PM PDT by ItsOurTimeNow (FR Member ItsOurTimeNow: Declared Anathema by the Council of Trent)
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To: Terriergal
Then Lewis was on the fringe, himself.

Must be why he is the most acclaimed 20th-century Christian author amongst pretty much every Christian denomination. His Mere Christianity has influenced several generations of Christians already.

12 posted on 08/01/2007 5:38:24 PM PDT by jude24 (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: ItsOurTimeNow

That’s true too. But as far as I’ve heard, Lewis was EXTREMELY hesitant to say it was any Christian allegory.

And then we have these people who are even less role models to follow, but churches are ushering them in. Whatever happened to studying Scripture? *sigh*


13 posted on 08/01/2007 6:53:20 PM PDT by Terriergal ("I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace," Shakespeare)
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To: jude24
His Mere Christianity has influenced several generations of Christians already.

We weren't talking about that book of his, were we?

14 posted on 08/01/2007 6:54:03 PM PDT by Terriergal ("I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace," Shakespeare)
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To: jude24

And, frankly, there is a lot of inclusivist bent in that book as well. Other parts are good food for thought. But he did not claim to be a theologian.


15 posted on 08/01/2007 6:54:52 PM PDT by Terriergal ("I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace," Shakespeare)
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To: Terriergal; The Blitherer
I never said Lewis’s books were Christian... He was rather inclusivist too.

Isn't there something in Christianity about not bearing false witness? You have misrepresented Lewis's statements of Christianity. If you are going to make a proposition, you have to support it with reasons. You haven't given any.

As Lewis states in his preface to The Great Divorce:

Blake wrote the Marriage of Heaven and Hell. If I have written of their Divorce, this is not because I think myself a fit antagonist for so great a genius, not even because I feel at all sure that I know what he meant. But is some sense or other the attempt to make that marriage is perennial. The attempt is based on the belief that reality never presents us with an absolutely unavoidable 'either-or'; that, granted skill and patience and (above all) time enough, some way of embracing both alternatives can always be found; that mere development or adjustment or refinemenbt will somehow turn evil into good without our being called on for a final and total rejection of anything we should like to retain. This belief I take to be a disastrous error.
The point is that not everyone gets into heaven. In this story most of his characters do not.

Then there is his sermon "The Weight of Glory" in which he states:

St. Paul promises to those who love God not, as we should expect, that they will know Him, but they will be known by Him (1 Cor. 8:3). It is a strange promise. Does not God know all things at all times? But it is dreadfully re-echoed in another passage of the New Testament. There we are warned that it may happen to anyone of us to appear at last before the face of God and hear only the appalling words, "I never knew you. Depart from Me." In some sense, as dark to the intellect as it is unendurable to the feelings, we can be both banished from the presence of Him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of Him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside--repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored. On the other hand, we can be called in, welcomed, received, acknoledged. We walk every day on the razor edge between these two incredible possibilities.
I would not call either description "rather inclusivist." On the contrary, Lewis is quite explicit that any Christian may not be included at all.
16 posted on 08/01/2007 7:40:26 PM PDT by stripes1776
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To: Terriergal

>>Whatever happened to studying Scripture?<<

Well, golly, it’s just not *entertaining* enough for today’s fast-food, drive-thu, on-demand carnality! Churchtainment is much more enticing!

Think of how popular the Jenkins & LaHaye end times fiction series was. Why? Because our sinful nature likes a good mystery. We like being able to see clues and put puzzles together. Which is why reformed eschatology is not widely popular, despite being solidly Biblical. It’s just not entertaining enough to satisfy minds that love titillation and drama.


17 posted on 08/01/2007 7:46:20 PM PDT by ItsOurTimeNow (FR Member ItsOurTimeNow: Declared Anathema by the Council of Trent)
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To: Terriergal

“I’m dead serious.”

And you’re dead right.

Many Christians in our age seem to have lost all sense of discernment - if they ever had any.


18 posted on 08/01/2007 9:06:55 PM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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To: ItsOurTimeNow

“It’s just not entertaining enough to satisfy minds that love titillation and drama.”

In addition to being wrong.


19 posted on 08/01/2007 9:07:44 PM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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To: Terriergal
What a completly anti-Christian message.

God gave his life for you. If God did that for you, then wouldn't you think that you just may be something special in His eyes? Woudn't you think that maybe you are destined for greatness?

Methinks thou art overreacting a bit.

BTW, I have heard that JK Rowling is one of the few remaining practicing Presbyterians in all of Great Britan. And we're not talking PCUSA here.

20 posted on 08/01/2007 9:23:56 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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