http://www.hpana.com/news.19584.html
I am very Christian, but don't understand why the Vatican causes such a stink about this.
Harry Potter is fictional. So is Lord of the Rings and Narnia. But I never seem to here them cursing those works.
Thoughts anyone?
2006-09-06 03:22:34 · 31 answers · asked by Molly 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
For those of you refusing to click on links, the article refers to the Exorcist of the Pope calling Harry Potter "the devil"
2006-09-06 03:27:53 · update #1
I agree, it's foolish.
I consider myself to be a witch - ecclectic and monotheistic, but a witch. Harry Potter, though a fun story, has no spiritual aspect. The thing that brought be to the craft is feeling spiritually bereft within the Christian church. The Bible demeaned me for my gender, the basis of the religion seemed silly and illogical to me and i found that other means of worship made me feel closer to God. My spiritual path - which scares the hell out of the vatican, was dictated by the failings of Christianity, not by the persuasive powers of a childrens' book.
2006-09-06 03:28:46 · answer #1 · answered by ZombieTrix 2012 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Every time a Harry Potter book comes out some idiot get his 15 minutes of fame by burning the book on television. Extremists are so full of it (or more likely full of themselves).
What would happen if someone was to burn the bible on television?
Learning to separate fiction from reality must require special skills, some of the people that vilify Harry Potter or any other work of fiction do not possess those skills, nor do they possess the ability to think for themselves.
When the movie Narnia came out, Disney promoted the movie has being of special interest for Christians and encourage pastors and the like to include Narnia as part of their sermons because it is about the battle between good an evil.
Harry Potter and Co. versus Voldemort and Co?
The Catholic Church, The Church of England, the assortment of christian churches all around, does it make a difference who bashes the Harry Potter books? Not at all, because readers know that those people are mistaking. My take is, they must have read the books to be so well informed and to be able to bad mouth them in the first place.
2006-09-06 04:17:23 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure what "very Christian" means. Either you are a Christian or you are not. There is not a grading system.
As a Christian, the answer to your question should be obvious. The Vatican did not "curse" the book. At best they said that the books are not consistent with the beliefs of the church.
I'm not catholic and could care less what the Vatican thinks. But as a Christian I can not support something that the Bible tells me in no equivocation that I should avoid, such as witch craft.
Those are my thoughts
2006-09-06 03:31:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wow, those are pretty harsh words in that article. I too am a Christian and I still loved the Harry Potter movies/books, and so does my 11-year old. We've seen them all and read them all, and I do NOT think they promote evil any way. Just like any other fantasy story, they promote good over evil. I think the problem some have is that the Bible condemns all magic as evil. I was just reading about this and I think the worry is that HP makes it look like there is some "good" magic, and you have to admit it looks pretty cool to be magical. Still, I don't think the movies are harmful or cause small children to become witches or wizzards. They only want to pretend, just like with Star Wars or LOTR or any other great movie.
2006-09-06 03:30:14 · answer #4 · answered by marys2boys 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
HA HA, I don't think YOU even bothered to read the entire article. Only a small portion talked about the exorcist condemning the series. The 2nd half of the article talked about Monsignor Peter Fleetwood from the Vatican who thought the series was great and well written. You don't seem to be "very Christian" by spreading 1/2 truths.
2006-09-06 03:56:53 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I see the Harry Potter books as just another setting for a teenage adventure. I have read all the books and seen all the movies. Though they are getting 'darker' as the series progresses, I don't see them as evil in themselves. I would not want my kid trying to be a 'junior witch' as a result of watching the movies, but I think parents are in control of this. My son is 5, and I will only let him watch the first movie. He's a bit too young for the others right now, but he may watch them later.
2006-09-06 03:30:32 · answer #6 · answered by Char 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This comes with the word Witch and Witchcraft and Wizard. Those words conjure up an idea in everyones head and I think that the Vatican is guilty of assuming what the words mean in this context, however you cannot deny that they are trying to protect fellow Catholics from becoming mystified with a paganistic or wiccian belief.
The simple fact of the matter is that paganism and wicca have nothing to do with Harry Potter. In the world of Harry Potter you are either born with magical abilities or you are not, we are not dealing with wiccans, we are dealing with the x-men. People different from average humans.
J.K. Rowling has not explained things this way and can be said to be guilty of her own pains with the church in this instance.
As I said, I do not blame the church from trying to steer people away from practicing spells and so forth. Interest in this area has increased as the popularity of Harry Potter has increased.
2006-09-06 03:29:59 · answer #7 · answered by TK421 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
That is absolutely ridiculous...Harry Potter would never try to take over the world...wait a minute I gotta get Ron away from the subliminal message machine...okay back. That is crazy. Those books are awesome. Besides, how many kids that hated reading are now reading because they have something INTERESTING to read. I am going to hate seeing the end of this series after the seventh book.
2006-09-06 03:27:14 · answer #8 · answered by kat g 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Christians love to attack anything science fiction, as well as anything that does not fall in line with their beliefs. Ironically, a lot of the story ideas in Harry Potter do come from the Bible, as do those in The Chronicles of Narnia. I guess Aslan is next in their line of fire.
2006-09-06 03:41:33 · answer #9 · answered by Jylsamynne 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That report was about one man and not the whole Vatican.
I can see that I got some thumbs down for my response, I guess that means those people who decided to rate that way believe in generalizing people by the beliefs they have, which is the same mentality as racists have against others diferent from them.
If you actually think about it, and read the story which was posted with this question, it singles out ONE person of which made the remark which inspired the story in the first place. So in essence my comment was based on FACT.
Those who choose to claim that a whole of a group should be dcided on one individual, are looking only at a very small percent, thus informing the rest of us that they are too lazy to take the time to reaserch for themselves, thus deifining themselves as Followers and sheep instead of free thinkers.
Just thought I'd comment on that.
2006-09-06 03:27:09 · answer #10 · answered by Kelly S 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋