(no subject)
The idea that children who read Harry Potter books will eventually be turned to the dark, dark world of witchcraft is utterly absurd. The Christian Coalition and the other extreme right-wingers are, again, out of their minds. Their stance that the books have this supernatural power to lure children into adapting into a life of the occult is based on no merit whatsoever. They bitch and complain and point fingers, yet cannot produce any evidence where child psychoanalysts or psycologists can confirm that the books have a negative influence on children. Apparently pagan organizations are reporting an increase in younger people who are expressing an interest in learning about the pagan craft, and this is understandable. Indirectly, this series is opening up the eyes and interests of people to other forms of expression and beliefs other than the mainstream christianity which has is, still, trying to suppress the freedoms of thought for most. I cannot see the problem with this. Didn't the Davinci Code do something similar in opening up the possibility that the bible was more than what we had all been taught? And wasn't that book closer to reality than Harry Potter? Didn't that book offer suggestions that were much more probable than stories of a boy and his friends who practice a sort of magic that, in reality, doesn't exist in the way the writer is suggesting? Harry Potter and the theme behind the stories have nothing to do with evil, other than the typical good guy/bad guy sernarios required for good stories, and Harry Potter's character was not created as the leader of the underworld destined to take over the population alongside the devious lucifer in Christian lore. It's a series of stories that, obviously, children have taken to, stories that allow children to expand their imaginations and be entertained in a world that has become filled with negativity and violence. I'm just blown away at the small-mindedness of the right-wing community on such a ridiculous subject as a series of children's books.