Harry Potter

[BusBus]

I pre-ordered my book online on Saturday. My friend got me into them shortly after The Order of the Phoenix came out (when the HP books became big, I was still a full time student/full time worker....so didn't really have the time to read non-school books). I am looking forward to it!

As for the folks whining about the evils of Harry Potter-I haven't tried to cast any spells or fly off my balcony on my Swiffer, so I don't see the problem with me reading the books.

[MadMike]

I don't get how people rail against Harry Potter for being 'evil', but they turn around and praise Chronicles Of Narnia, which contains many of the exact same elements.
There's no difference in my eye.

I wonder how many of these same people like The Wizard of Oz?

[Gurndigarn]

I don't get how people rail against Harry Potter for being 'evil', but they turn around and praise Chronicles Of Narnia, which contains many of the exact same elements.
There's no difference in my eye.

The difference, as far as the nutjobs are concerned, is that Narnia was written by a Stamped, Sealed, Official Christian Writer and is an Official Christian Allegory.

There's one thing I've never gotten about the whole 'spellcasting' aversion that Christians seem to have.
Isn't prayer, when you really get down to it, spellcasting?
I mean, you're trying to employ supernatural means to your own end.
Wouldn't that make them the same thing?

Again, as far as the fruity-tooties go, prayer is the Official Liscensed Product, and anything else is an Evil Plot.

As for the saner people, there is still a distinct difference, but I'll skip bringing it up here to avoid Yet Another Religious Thread.

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

I haven't tried to...fly off my balcony on my Swiffer, so I don't see the problem with me reading the books.

Thanks for the laugh, BusBus!

[Bliss]

I've already preordered my copy of the 7th book from Amazon. I am a Tazmanian Devil of impatience. I want it NOW!!

I'm going to be sad when it's over, though. Because it will be...over.

I preordered it too, and I'm pissed off it's gonna take so long , btw be HAPPY it's going to be over. HP is very very good but I don't want it to become a second "Wheel Of Time."

[mscrybaby]

I can't wait for the new book to come out.
Harry Potter is something my kids and I can read together and have fun with. True the movies are nowhere as good as the books.


I have to say that Book 6 left me MAD! I hope this one isn't as foreshadowed as the last two were. I knew who was going to die with in the first 5 chapters and really felt ripped. It seems she peaked with books 3 and 4 but the last two have been fairly down hill for me.

I will be sad when Harry ends with this book but I also will be happy because "everything is to work out" in this book. I have a feeling she will release at least one more to tie up loose ends that people write and ask her about.

[Ackee]

Church People

I can understand both sides to this tale but somehow I can't help thinking that crazy people who go to crazy "churches" alway blow things out of proportion.
You should be careful how children may interprate that will always turn into;THAT BOOK IS EVIL AND WILL CAUSE YOUR CHILDREN TO TAKE PART IN RITUAL SACRIFICES.
Oh well.

[PW_Elle]

I don't think it's fair to play the religion card when dealing with HP, either.

However... the minister at my church does not like Harry Potter. I happen to. He knows this. BUT... he doesn't condemn me to hell for it. He simply disagrees with me. AND, when I wrote a 10 page paper on it called "God vs. JK Rowling," he read it and conceded I made quite a few valid points.

-Elle

There are supposed to be two characters who die in the final book. I agree Malfoy will probably play a role in the last book. As for who dies I think perhaps Malfoy and Harry.

Actually, Rowling reported that two characters would die that she WASN'T PLANNING on. This suggest to me that there are more than two characters who die.

And, Harry can't die, because of the prophecy. If Harry dies, then Voldy would run rampant forever.

Elle

[PW_Elle]

There's one thing I've never gotten about the whole 'spellcasting' aversion that Christians seem to have.
Isn't prayer, when you really get down to it, spellcasting?
I mean, you're trying to employ supernatural means to your own end.
Wouldn't that make them the same thing?

It actually comes down to incantantational versus invocational spellcasting. HP is incantational, not invocational (shouting a phrase in butchered latin won't get you too far in the real world)

From the books I've read about REAL witchcraft (including those written by Wiccan writers- Scott Cunningham among them), casting spells in the real world requires invoking "powers" or "spirits" of the universe.

HP is incantational - pointing a wand and shouting a phrase.

Prayer COULD be considered invocational, but here's my perspective as a Christian: When I pray, I fully expect an answer - but it doesn't always have to be "yes." It could be "no," or even "wait." And, what we're praying for doesn't always benefit us. I have prayed for something to happen for someone else that actually put me at a disadvantage. Now, I didn't know that I was going to be disadvantaged, but that's the way it turned out. But, my prayer was answered.

-Moselle

[bike_grinch]

He closed the sermon with this, though, and I thought this was darned near profound:

"Remember, fiction, is fiction, and anything taken too literally and in the wrong hands can become a twisted device. Parents, just keep your kids grounded in reality and the difference between reality and fantasy, and they can read whatever they want."

And on another tack (hi btw - first post for me )...

I'm an assistant pastor in a pentacostal church here in Oz, a few weeks ago I was preparing a sermon and reading HBP and found the perfect quote for what I was preaching about.

So, this preacher has preached FROM Harry Potter (in a good way of course)!

[myswtghst]

The thing that gets me about the OP is that this lady thought she could get someone fired for liking a book sold in the store that the cashier worked in. Where does that start making sense?

[Format C]

I also happen to be a Christian who loves reading Harry Potter. Not only that, I play an online role-playing game which I cast spells and summon demons to do my bidding. My pastor must be evil too because he recommended that our congregation read "The DaVinci Code" about the same time the movie came out.

I am evil

[Jester]

I always had the thumpers come in and give me crap about the HP books. One proceeded to tell me how evil I was for not taking her return. Someone had give her child a copy of one of the HP's in hardback and had inscribed a message to the child in it. I wasn't taking it back. She lost her mind and proceeded to tell me how awful I was and she had to return this evil book and it couldn't be in her house.

So, someone GAVE her child a book, and this woman expects to return that book to THE STORE?

Logic, common sense, and simple etiquette would say she should return said book to the person who gave it to her child, and let THAT PERSON deal with whatever mess that may entail. The store is not going to take it back, since it is written in (and thus can't be sold as new), and frankly, since she didn't buy it there (even if it was bought there), she really has no basis returning it there.

To sum up: this woman is an idiot.

And I came to this conclusion without once commenting on the the book in question, as I have never read it, and have no opinion on it whatsoever.

[gregmaddux17]

I forgot about the prophecy. Who do you think will die in the final book? Is Doubledore really dead?

[Gurndigarn]

I forgot about the prophecy. Who do you think will die in the final book? Is Doubledore really dead?

Yeah, in the same way the Ben Kenobi died. He'll be around in the pictures, if nothing else.