[american colleen]

I respect what you are saying, but I think the reason we have so many problems today -- "sex, promiscuity, abortion, out-of-wedlock births, drugs, homosexuality, drug use ... all stems from the radical, free will, anti-Christian, do-it-if-it-feels-good sixties and seventies" -- are not because of Harry Potter, they are because PARENTS are negligent in their duties as Christian parents. I see it every single day. My daughter goes to school with three girls who are weekly altar girls. Two of them engage in lesbianism. We live in a society where everything is fine and too many parents don't say much of anything regarding faith and morals (right and wrong) to their kids and we who do are NOT generally backed up by our priests, nuns and bishops.

My daughter's faith withstood Harry Potter. It's pretty strong.

[american colleen]

I shoulda added that so many of the kids today are living in less then Christian homes... divorce with boyfriends and girlfriends of their parents staying over in the same house, their own TVs to keep them quiet, no grounding in any sort of faith, parents not setting a Christian example, you know we could go on and on. This is the problem, not Harry Potter. If a book was so influential that it could corrupt kids who read it, why hasn't the Bible in 2000 years done the opposite?

[Maximilian]

My daughter goes to school with three girls who are weekly altar girls. Two of them engage in lesbianism.

Whoa -- just when you think you've heard it all!

But to tie this to the topic of the thread, which one is the correct response to such a situation, to say that my kid is not that far gone yet, or to say that all the signs indicate that we are living in an age of depravity not seen in a very long while? When popular culture has fallen so far that such behavior is considered normal, then maybe we should be suspicious of virtually everything coming from those sources. And Harry Potter shows every sign of NOT being among those few that might seem safe (e.g. Mel Gibson's filming of the Passion).