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Harry Potter Vs. The Religious Right

the woman who tried to get the harry potter books banned from libraries just won the Washington Post's Idiot of the Year award!

Idiot Of The Year Awards

And The Winner Is

Envelope Please...

2006 Idiot of the Year: Laura Mallory, of Loganville, Georgia. This vigilant mother of four has demanded local schools remove Harry Potter from their libraries because, in her analysis, the books are an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in Wicca religion. Congratulations Laura, and good luck on your quest to eradicate the dark forces which pollute children's literature.

Silver Medal: Nevada state senator Bob Beers who's pushing the legislature to consider letting teachers carry guns in classrooms "to stem a rise in school violence." Ready, aim, learn!

Bronze Medal: The 22-year-old British war vet who attempted to launch a Black Cat Thunderbolt rocket out of his rear end, on Guy Fawkes Day.

Honorable Mention: The hard-working cops of Muzaffarpur, India who attempted to arrest a 3-month-old baby for robbing a bus only days after his birth.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/offbeat/ ... rds_1.html
 
Haha, I love it!! Ms. Mallory got just what she deserved.

I live right next to the state of Georgia and like most states (at least the Southern ones, and probably others too) there are plenty of "Christian" schools available. The kinds who would be horrified by the likes of Harry Potter and his evil doings. 8) I wonder why, if she feels so threatened by "normal" society, she doesn't send her kids to one of those "Christian academies"?? Or even home-school them, as some people do???

I just hope this doesn't lead to an epidemic of witch-burnings in the public squares--as happened in Salem Massachusetts around 1692! :eek!!!!:

Honestly, sometimes I think religion should be regulated like drugs are--some people can't seem to handle it without going nuts! :?

We also have "Christians" here who refuse to celebrate Halloween--or worse yet, allow their children to have a little fun on Halloween night. It's Satanic, you know. :roll:

I loved Halloween and dressed up as everything from princesses to *gasp* witches until I got too old to do it anymore!

And so far I haven't begun worshipping Old Scratch. ;)
 
synchronicity said:
I live right next to the state of Georgia and like most states (at least the Southern ones, and probably others too) there are plenty of "Christian" schools available. The kinds who would be horrified by the likes of Harry Potter and his evil doings. 8) I wonder why, if she feels so threatened by "normal" society, she doesn't send her kids to one of those "Christian academies"?? Or even home-school them, as some people do???

Probably so she can order the heathens about under the guise of a "concerned parent". Some people just love to be offended.
 
Anybody seen Jesus Camp? That crazy Becky Feischer woman rants about Harry Potter, claiming it's the work of 'warlocks'.

My only thought when she said that was 'she believes in warlocks?'
 
looks like she's scoping for the 2007 idiot of the year award too :(

Ga. mother will appeal decision to keep 'Harry Potter' on shelves

05:38 PM CST on Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Associated Press

ATLANTA – A suburban Atlanta mother who claims Harry Potter books teach children witchcraft said Wednesday she will appeal the state's decision to keep the best-selling books in Gwinnett County school libraries.

Laura Mallory, who has three children in elementary school, said she has requested an appeal of her case in Gwinnett County Superior Court.

"We will take a stand for truth, and pray God will touch the hearts of this generation," she said.

Mallory has tried to ban the books from Gwinnett County school library shelves since August 2005, arguing that the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft.

School board members argued that the books are good tools to encourage children to read and to spark creativity and imagination and in May 2006, the county decided to deny Mallory's request.

The state Board of Education backed Gwinnett's stance in December, voting without discussion to uphold the county's decision.

Mallory said she's ready for a legal fight. She said she's already contacted a potential expert witness to lend support to her case. And she said supporters who urged her to continue the case have sent her "significant donations" to help pay legal fees.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, published by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, have been challenged 115 times since 2000, making them the most challenged texts of the 21st century, according to the American Library Association.

The challenges most often claim that the series encourages children to question adult authority and promotes witchcraft, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the deputy director for the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Dallas News
 
I only assume His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, doesn't get challenged more -- it's far more subversive on the subject of religion than HP -- is because the people who try to censor HP are too stupid to read or understand it
 
It's always struck me how these sorts of people don't distinguish between "can encourage" and "does encourage". It's like doing away with coins because some kids swallow them and choke. Perhaps a few kids do dabble in the 'occult' from reading HP. Some kids will do stupid things; some Darwin Award nominees-in-the-making hanged themselves after watching footage about Saddam on TV (link). I don't think 'dabbling in the occult' is all that harmful anyway; what does it mean? Tarot cards? Crystal balls? The Necronomicon? Are these kids sending their lunch money to the OTO? How does a kid of eight or ten get 'involved' with the occult, exactly?

Let's look at some other works with unsavory subjects and potentially subversive messages, most of which are being taught in Ontaro high schools:

The Chrysalids: pro-evolution, mocks religion
Romeo & Juliet: underaged sex, flouting of parental rules
Othello: racism, alleged adultery
Macbeth: challenges to authority (regicide FFS), detailed info about witchcraft
A Separate Peace: two boys at boarding school in a slightly obsessive friendship, OMG teh gay!
Death Of A Salesman: unflattering look at American values
Lord of the Flies: violent as hell (some of the students in my grade 11 class looked genuinely upset by some turns of the plot); you could also argue, if you were a thick-witted twat, that the pig's head on a stick is also promoting cult/occult values

HP gets attacked because it's high-profile, and unlike the titles I referenced above it does not have that sheen of literature which might intimidate away some of the thickoes. I also think that there is a type of person who automatically assumes that children's pop culture icons are inherently suspect: comic books, rock and/or roll, Bert and Ernie MUST be OMG teh gay, the Simpsons, rap (although I object to rap too; it encourages violence because hearing it makes me want to kill someone to make the noise stop). Most of us grew to adulthood (or as near as dammit) under the influence of at least one of those things mentioned, yet still managed to become reasonably OK human beings. Children should be sheltered from some things, yes; I wouldn't let a tot I cared about browse rotten dot com, for instance. They also need to have their imaginations exercised, and most kids can distinguish between reality and a good fairy story; are there any out there who think parts of Star Wars were really filmed on the planet Tattooine, for instance? If HP or anything else conflicts with the values you want to teach your sprog, by all means avoid those things. I just wish these meddling sorts would resist the urge to tell other people how to live. Teachers have a hard enough time dealing with other people's parenting mistakes. I don't know if the latest hue-and-crier is a fundie or not, but what I find funny (if it weren't so terrifying) is how these people feel like they're being oppressed when they can't tell everyone else to live by their values. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that religious fanatics are a huge threat to western civilization, both from within and without.
 
a lot of the books we read at school were decidedly non PC, your right.

That was why kids loved Roald Dahl so much...he was subversive
 
When I was young, we had a Czeck program regularily being aired in Germany, about a young witch [actually it wouldn't surprise me if HR got her idea from THAT]. The whole flair was a bit like the Monkees [60's type hair, hip beats and general aimless running around whilst looking good]. I so wanted to be like that girl [Vetlana or whatever her name was] that I once sat in a cardboard box for several hours, not moving, concentrating hard to move the bloody thing by will alone [my mum left me to it after I told her not to speak to me for the mentioned reasons]. I also had all her spells written down and tried them all [to no avail]. There you go.
 
More Mallory Madness Manifest on Mugglenet.

I have to say the summing up comment had me in stitches...

Mallory: I must not quit

For the first time since she embarked on a relentless campaign to remove Potter from Gwinnett county's school libraries in August 2005, Laura Mallory has spoken out in detail about her motives. In a new article, she slams "myths" such as "this is a one-woman fight" and "witchcraft is just harmless fantasy." She writes that young children have been indoctrinated into witchcraft, causing their lives to be ruined. Furthermore, she implies that Potter is the reason for "violence, drugs, gangs, addictions, perversions" in schools nowadays, and that "we need God in America again."

In response to the question, "Do you believe Harry Potter promotes Wicca," JKR replied in a 2001 interview with this: "That's not true. Not once has a child come up to me and said, 'Due to you I've decided to devote my life to the occult.' People underestimate children so hugely. They know it's fiction. When people are arguing from that kind of standpoint, I don't think reason works tremendously well. But I would be surprised if some of them had read the books at all [Mallory hasn't].

"Witches and wizards are a huge part of children's literature; it'll never go away. Hundred years, two hundred years' time there'll be another kind of wizard story."

You can now contact Ms. Mallory at her website. Also, we don't plan to post anything Mallory-related until a verdict of her current case arrives.

Emerson's Comment: Winners never quit and quitters never win. But those who never win and never quit are idiots.
 
Furthermore, she implies that Potter is the reason for "violence, drugs, gangs, addictions, perversions" in schools nowadays, and that "we need God in America again."

Is that all schools? Or some schools? And is she seriously suggesting that there was no violence, drugs etc. in American schools before the Potter books were published?

Actually... why am I wasting thoughts on this woman? Gah!
 
Not to mention Ossie Osbourne before that and before that Alice Cooper and before that...
 
And 'Rock&Roll' and ' Rythmn & Blues' and Jazz and Ragtime and secular literature and fiddle music and theatre and singing and dancing.

Anything that's fun, that doesn't involve abject surrender, total obedience and supplication, to a higher Power, in fact :roll:
 
"Don't forget D&D."

Yes, D&D: the "gate-way" game to Satan Worship! Who would have thought that such a silly fear of role-playing games would still be held by so many Christians? I guess the Harry Potter scare has proven that indeed many Christians have an apparent anti-fantasy stance which is currently focused on the perceived witchcraft of the Harry Potter franchise. But they haven't forgotten about D&D, check out this story, a Christian group actually rejected money from a charity auction because most of the money was raised from the sale of D&D material!

"As has been reported by a few other gaming blogs and news sites, the Charity Auction at this year's GenCon Indianapolis was held to benefit Gary Gygax's favorite charity, which I will not name here for reasons that will soon become obvious. The fine folks at GenCon raised over $17,000 for this charity, which helps starving children in impovershed areas of the world--only to have that money actually turned down by the charity. The charity refused due to the fact that the money was raised partly by the sales of Dungeons and Dragons materials, which as we all know, puts an irrevocable taint of evil on the filthy lucre that us demon-worshipping gamers might want to use to, say, donate to starving children. Not only is this a slap in the face to every gamer, but it is especially insulting to Mr. Gygax himself, who I understand donated to their cause many times over the years. Plus, I'm sure the children who would have gotten food or clean drinking water with that money would be sort of upset, too.

I bring this story to your attention not simply so that you might let the people at this charity know how you feel (especially if you have donated to it before, as many did in the wake of Mr. Gygax's passing), but so that you would be aware that there is an alternative charity that I would personally recommend (based on our own charitable giving) if you have a desire to donate money to help starving children. Plan USA is a worldwide charity aimed at helping those who live in poverty and/or have suffered from a natural disaster, particularly with monthly sponsorships of individual children. Since the money of D&D players is clearly not welcome at this other charity, I can't recommend Plan USA highly enough to those interested in giving anyway. At least if you choose to donate through them, there's no chance your generous gifts to the starving children of the world will be rejected due to your weekend hobby.

(Incidentally, GenCon was also able to find another worthy charity with an entirely different focus, the Fisher House Foundation, that was willing to accept the money given in good faith by GenCon attendees.)"


Source:
http://www.giantitp.com/index.html

...and just in case you have forgotten why D&D is so dangerous:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp
 
In case anyone wishes to track down and chastise the refusenik charity, I'll save you some link-tracking and tell you it was the Christian Children's Fund.

The person who discussed this in the Knights of the Dinner Table lettercolumn charitably decided that the turning down was probably the idiot response of a single bureaucrat, not a policy decision at the organizational level, and that is certainly a possibility, and a polite assumption to make when sending a protest letter.
 
i don't think there is any real harm. The books and film clearly distinguish between the goodies and the baddies just as similar works has donw from C S Lewis to Star Wars.

exactly, if your gonna treat Harry Potter books and films like that then why not others there have been plenty of films that both adults and children have watched that contain magic and the occult so why start now?

considering HP is very stereotyped in its depictation of wizards and magic, i can't see how it is any worse than Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White and so forth. Or even, in the more modern era, The Wizard of Oz.

again i agree while yes parents would be concerned about what their children watch but at the same time the Harry Potter films have a rating on them so the kids going to see this or read the books are old enough yo understand this and not think its real.

from what i have been able to gather form the media, the claims that Harry Potter leads kids into the darkest, nastiest occult pratices are largely Americans, these are the same voices that claim role playing leads to satanism.

role playing is used eveyday in life thats hoe cartoons, films, theater, games and other things are brought to life from. so are we to assume that all these people are into satanism?

it just gets more and more pathetic next we will be told that reading the newspaper means we are secretly practising magic!
 
JK Rowling denied top US honour due to Witchcraft
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8282356.stm

JK Rowling's Harry Potter's books have sold more than 400 million copies
Harry Potter author JK Rowling missed out on a top honour because some US politicians believed she "encouraged witchcraft", it has been claimed.

Matt Latimer, former speech writer for President George W Bush, said that some members of his administration believed her books promoted sorcery.

As a result, she was never presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The claims appear in Latimer's new book called Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor.

He wrote that "narrow thinking" led White House officials to object to giving Rowling the civilian honour.

The award acknowledges contributions to US national interest, world peace or cultural endeavours.

Past literary recipients of the award include John Steinbeck and Harper Lee.

Others denied the privilege under the Bush administration included Senator Edward Kennedy, who died in August this year.

Latimer claimed, in his book, that the veteran politician and health care activist was excluded because he was deemed to be too liberal.
 
Why ever should she be given such a medal in the first place? Will Dan Brown be nominated next?
 
Xanatic_ said:
Why ever should she be given such a medal in the first place? Will Dan Brown be nominated next?

Good point! She was denied the award for the wrong reasons.
 
Renigirl said:
dont know if this has been discussed here or not, but in the us, theres all this controversy surrounding the release of the harry potter movies with some churches holding youth services as an alternative to the movie, some denouncing the books completely, etc etc...

i just didnt know if there was the same controversy in the uk or not and, seeing as how theres a lot of media now and likely to be a lot more after friday, i thought it might be an interesting point to bring up.

I had certainly experienced the same reaction from some people I used to hang out with here, almost being thrown out of someone's house for bringing it over for their children to watch

I find the movie to be most amazing and being a child at heart, really enjoy the idea of a magic wand, flying broom and mystical hidden society dedicated to sorcery
 
You would say that, just trying to obfuscate the TRUTH that SATAN is at work through modern literature and any book that is not the BIBLE, GODS WORD, should be burnt.

Ever noticed how Dante says that HELL is comprised of circles going down towards SATAN, just like... AN ONION.

Also the sulphur and fire of hell makes those there weep just like... AN ONION.

P.S. I think Jimmy Saville also ATE ONIONS.

Gah.
 
Religious parents want Harry Potter banned from the classroom because it 'glorifies witchcraft'

Headteachers have said if concerns are raised, schools should stop using the children's book in class


Religious parents at state schools have complaint Harry Potter glorifies witchcraft and want it banned from classrooms, the Government’s tsar has revealed, as teachers should refuse to teach the subject if there are concerns.

"There are many parents who are uncomfortable with their children discussing or looking at or reading anything at all to do with the occult."
Tom Bennett, the Government's behavioural tsar

The Government's behavioural tsar has said some parents – particularly of Evangelical Christian and Muslim backgrounds believe the children’s book “normalises acts of magic” and that therefore it is exposing their children to the works of the devil.

Tom Bennett spoke of parents raising concerns as some Religious Studies teachers use the fantasy novel, which is not in the syllabus, as an example of a collection of books that tell a greater story, like the Bible.

Following his revelations, headteachers have said schools should address parents’ concerns regarding Harry Potter and move away from teaching the story of the famous child magician.

Speaking at a City Hall event last month, Mr Bennett said: “Harry Potterdeals with the occult. There are many parents who are uncomfortable with their children discussing or looking at or reading anything at all to do with the occult.

“For many parents, particularly of evangelical Christian backgrounds and sometimes of some Muslim backgrounds, the occult is not something which exists in fiction and fantasy, the occult is something which is a very living – [a] live part of their faith.”

He added that this notion that Harry Potter was not fantasy “is quite a thing in some communities”.

He explained: “We're talking about evangelical protestants, non-indigenous expressions of Christian faith [like], imported Afro-Caribbean Methodism. ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...lassroom-because-it-glorifies-witchcraft.html
 
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