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fpbThese are the "arguments" presented by a female German writer (Germany does seem a country unusually rich in oddbals) to condemn the Harry Potter novels. I particularly regret that the current Pope, when still a Cardinal, saw fit to send her a letter of vague approval, which she proceeded to transform into support for her desperately wrong-headed views.
Gabriele Kuby author of Harry Potter: Good or Evil
1. Harry Potter is a global long term project to change the culture. In the young generation inhibitions against magic and the occult are being destroyed. Thus, forces re-enter society which Christianity had overcome.
2. Hogwarts, the school of magic and witchcraft, is a closed world of violence and horror, of cursing and bewitching, of racist ideology, of blood sacrifice, disgust and obsession. There is an atmosphere of continuous threat, which the young reader cannot escape.
3. While Harry Potter appears in the beginning to fight against evil, in fact the similarities between him and Voldemort, the arch-evil adversary in the tale, become more and more obvious. In volume five, Harry is being obsessed by Voldemort, which leads to symptoms of personality disintegration.
4. The human world becomes degraded, the world of witches and sorcerers becomes glorified.
5. There is no positive transcendent dimension. The supernatural is entirely demonic. Devine symbols are perverted.
6. Harry Potter is no modern fairy tale. In fairy tales sorcerers and witches are unambiguous figures of evil. The hero escapes their power through the exercise of virtue. In the Harry Potter universe there is no character that endeavours consistently to achieve good. For seemingly good ends evil means are being used.
7. A (young!) reader's power of discernment of good and evil is blocked out through emotional manipulation and intellectual confusion.
8. It is an assault upon the young generation, seducing it playfully into a world of witchcraft and sorcery, filling the imagination of the young with images of a world in which evil reigns, from which there is no escape, on the contrary, it is portrayed as highly desirable.
9. Those who value plurality of opinion should resist the nearly overwhelming power of this peer pressure, which is being accomplished through a gigantic corporate and multimedia blitz--one which displays elements of totalitarian brainwashing.
10. Since through the Potter books faith in a loving God is systematically undermined, even destroyed in many young people, through false "values" and mockery of Judeo-Christian truth, the introduction of these books in schools is intolerant. Parents should refuse permission for their children to take part in Potter indoctrination for reasons of faith and conscience.
I will not bother answering this nonsense, but you can if you want to. All I can say is that there is nothing on Earth that this sort of argument could not condemn. All I want to say, folks, is: she is not typical. The fact that the Church is Catholic, universal, means that we get to have our weirdos too.
Gabriele Kuby author of Harry Potter: Good or Evil
1. Harry Potter is a global long term project to change the culture. In the young generation inhibitions against magic and the occult are being destroyed. Thus, forces re-enter society which Christianity had overcome.
2. Hogwarts, the school of magic and witchcraft, is a closed world of violence and horror, of cursing and bewitching, of racist ideology, of blood sacrifice, disgust and obsession. There is an atmosphere of continuous threat, which the young reader cannot escape.
3. While Harry Potter appears in the beginning to fight against evil, in fact the similarities between him and Voldemort, the arch-evil adversary in the tale, become more and more obvious. In volume five, Harry is being obsessed by Voldemort, which leads to symptoms of personality disintegration.
4. The human world becomes degraded, the world of witches and sorcerers becomes glorified.
5. There is no positive transcendent dimension. The supernatural is entirely demonic. Devine symbols are perverted.
6. Harry Potter is no modern fairy tale. In fairy tales sorcerers and witches are unambiguous figures of evil. The hero escapes their power through the exercise of virtue. In the Harry Potter universe there is no character that endeavours consistently to achieve good. For seemingly good ends evil means are being used.
7. A (young!) reader's power of discernment of good and evil is blocked out through emotional manipulation and intellectual confusion.
8. It is an assault upon the young generation, seducing it playfully into a world of witchcraft and sorcery, filling the imagination of the young with images of a world in which evil reigns, from which there is no escape, on the contrary, it is portrayed as highly desirable.
9. Those who value plurality of opinion should resist the nearly overwhelming power of this peer pressure, which is being accomplished through a gigantic corporate and multimedia blitz--one which displays elements of totalitarian brainwashing.
10. Since through the Potter books faith in a loving God is systematically undermined, even destroyed in many young people, through false "values" and mockery of Judeo-Christian truth, the introduction of these books in schools is intolerant. Parents should refuse permission for their children to take part in Potter indoctrination for reasons of faith and conscience.
I will not bother answering this nonsense, but you can if you want to. All I can say is that there is nothing on Earth that this sort of argument could not condemn. All I want to say, folks, is: she is not typical. The fact that the Church is Catholic, universal, means that we get to have our weirdos too.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-15 10:28 pm (UTC)I will never hold you responsible for idiocies on your side of the theological & political fences, if you will also hold me blameless for idiocies -- Prots & liberal humanists -- on mine. Otherwise, I fear, we'd have time for nothing except apologizing. And there really are so many more important things to do in life. I had read of her, and I promise you, your name didn't enter my mind.
Now, of course, I do expect you to hold me strictly accountable for my own idiocies, which keep me plenty busy enough apologizing, thank you, for the time I spend in this life.
Chuckling affectionately,
avus
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Date: 2005-07-15 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-16 02:48 am (UTC)God I'm so happy now.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-16 03:28 am (UTC)Even as regards to the Pope, I would hate to be held strictly accountable for everthing I've said & written, so why would I hold someone else to that. No one is that sensible or that orthodox. Or, for that matter, that foolish and unorthodox. We all have the right to be, as we used to say out in the country where I was raised, damnfools from time to time, or at least a little careless.
Paul, as I recall rather vividly, pointed to charity as the chiefest of Christian virtues, this after saying that right now we don't always see things so clearly, and that God will help us out on this later on. (I Cor 13) St. Augustine, also as I recall, agreed w/ him. Not that I'm in their class, but this seems right to me. However, I've never billed myself as a theologian or a Biblical exegete (sp?), though I do, from time to time, try to understand in my own fumbling & unclear ways.
Enjoy Book 6!