Posted on 11/06/2001 8:08:10 AM PST by Starmaker
The overwhelmingly mean spirited response to my recent column critiquing the Harry Potter phenomena compels me to write a follow up. Some of the opinion websites, which usually carry my columns, apparently found this topic too hot to handle and took a pass. Where the column did appear the letters and emails were surprisingly furious and often personal and ugly. Based on the tone of the response, one would think that criticizing Harry Potter was like insulting someone´s mother.
The substance of my review was that the Harry Potter books are the equivalent of manuals for witchcraft. Having said this, I recognize that pagan and new age motifs permeate our society to such a degree that they are virtually unavoidable. My own 3-year-old daughter likes to talk about magic, wizards, and Halloween even though my wife and I choose not to participate. I´m not particularly concerned about this although I keep an eye on it.
My contention is that the Harry Potter books, however, are different in their high degree of advocacy of Wicca and New Age beliefs. These books blatantly instruct the reader in Wicca rituals and practices and use explicit Wicca names and incantations. They provide new age religious instruction in a way that is comparable to the Roman Catholic instruction of the Catechism. Maybe the millions who admire these brilliant and captivating books think witchcraft is as great and wholesome as apple pie and baseball, which is their right. I simply seek to point out the nature of these cultural phenomena and let the consumer be informed. Please don´t shoot the messenger.
The education change-agents who run our public schools blatantly recognize the religious nature of the Harry Potter books even as they introduce them as part of the curriculum. These hypocrites explain that while they ban the Bible, under the guise of Supreme Court decisions, the same decisions don´t apply to Harry Potter and Wicca because these constitute a minority faith that challenges a dominant Judeo-Christian faith. Harry Potter represents, they explain, a sort of religious affirmative action program necessary to promote "diversity."
The truth is that Wicca appeals to the education change-agents because it teaches moral neutrality and ambiguity. Rather than achieving through hard work, study, temperance, courage, and a sense of honor, the student of Wicca is taught to achieve through hocus pocus and an outside force that he simply needs to learn how to conjure up. Rather than belief in a creator of the universe, which is separate from man who is created in his image, Wicca believes that man can be as God and be possessed by supernatural powers.
The young practitioners of Wicca, in Harry Potter, are taught to feel superior to the "muggles" which is the term the books use for non-believers or critics of witchcraft who are portrayed villainously. This attitude is a classic reflection of the socialistic education change-agents themselves with their longstanding Jihad against those who hold "traditional values." It´s also the attitude of the Taliban and Islamic extremists who feel superior to those of us living in the Dar es Harb, which is how they describe the non-Muslim world.
Harry Potter is nothing more than a sugarcoated dose of paganism, pure and simple. Pagans, and their leftist fellow travelers are exulting in the success of Harry Potter and understand its effectiveness in their war against Judeo-Christian faith and values. Witchcraft, haunting spirits, and wizards, are becoming mainstream and those of us, who object, us Muggles, are viciously attacked as intolerant and crazy. I can attest to this based on the reaction to my writings on this topic already. Perhaps paganism has made more inroads than what presently meets the eye.
Perhaps ymost people think that being religous is one thing and being a nut is another?
Possibly you didn't quite understand the morals of Harry Potter stories and are trying to weasel out of it with this coulmn.
Perhaps you don't really know what you are talking about.
Harry Potter capitalizing on a youth culture that was so in need of a good reason to pick up a book?
Or you capitalizing on the success of this work by insulting it with 18th century religous techniques?
Chuck, what do you think of the "Narnia" books of C.S. Lewis? Are they acceptable reading for children?
If he answers that they are unacceptable, it is clear that there is no point in arguing with him further, his is a closed mind -- the overwhelming majority of Christians of all stripes recognize the Narnia books as edifying and wholesome.
If, on the other hand, he attempts to draw distinctions between Rowling's "Potter" books and Lewis's "Narnia" books, he will be much more easily and directly refuted and I look forward to doing so.
What'll it be, Chuck?
A CHRISTIAN SPEAKS ON THE FAITH AND PATH OF WICCA
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by James Clement Taylor
I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things are true of me. I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox Church, Calhan, Colorado. In this paper, I am not speaking as agent for any church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, speaking the truth in love, as we Christians are supposed to do.
A Situation of Strife and Shame:
There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ, having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan, proclaimed:
"Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12)
If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to judge others:
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2)
"But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13)
"Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be for- given." (Luke 6:36-38)
Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being un-baptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
In addition to these words from the Gospel, let us look at the words of Micah the Prophet, centuries earlier, who wrote:
Where, in any of this, does it say what doctrines one is to believe, or whose teachings concerning reality one must accept? All these things speak on how one ACTS, how one lives one's life, the kind of person one's actions gradually bring into being.
Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. The faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor faith that we have the right theology and / or belong to the right church. Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy:
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16)
But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them "Satan worshippers" are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity. Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it should: In the Bible we find the following:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it!
For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see "whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).
You will find that, while you may perceive the power manifested there as less than what you have experienced as a Christian, that power is clearly the power of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:40)
Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins.
"Mean spirited?" This guy has been hanging around with liberals too much. He can dish it out, calling Potter readers "pagans", "Marxists", etc. but he can't take it.
The substance of my review was that the Harry Potter books are the equivalent of manuals for witchcraft
Many of the so-called "mean-spirited" comments were in fact requests that he back this statement up with some facts. If he has read the books this should not pose a problem.
Please don´t shoot the messenger
He should stop whining. He has a free speech right to say these things; but I have an equal free speech right to respond. As an excellent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal pointed out today, the First Amendment protects the right to free speech, but it's not a shield from criticism.
Dear father God Jesus Christ High Soverign Lord of all help us to feel compassion for those who are about to die - Amen.
Good grief. As Christians, we are acutely aware of spiritual warfare. So why is it wrong to write a story about good versus evil in a different realm. I eagerly read all of the Harry Potter books. Thoroughly enjoyed them. No foul language and no sex. The folks that were evil did horrid things while Harry Potter was the hero and did not participate in evil activities. Clear cut: Good vs Evil (aka. Osama vs. Bush.)
But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them "Satan worshippers" are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that Satan exists.
They worship "god", not God. Their "god" is Lucifer.
Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity.
The God of the Bible is not an "unknown god".
Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it should: In the Bible we find the following:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)
Paul was making the point that these men were religious, that they pray to gods, even praying to "unknown" god. PAUL WAS NOT SAYING THAT THIS UNKNOWN "god" WAS THE GOD HE WAS PROCLAIMING!!!
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it!
Only in a very deceived, twisted imagination can you claim to that the God of the Bible and the wiccan "force/diety/god" are one and the same. The Bible is extremely clear that all forms of witchcraft/sorcery are an utter abomination.
The author of this piece provides no references or any other proof that the Potter books have anything to do with Wicca. Without documented proof to back up his assertions, Chuck Morse is merely another idiot shooting his mouth off over things he knows nothing about.
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