|
Harry
Potter is not the Devil!!! |
The
movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is coming out this
month, and many children across the world will flock to see it. The most
recent book that has just come out has been the fastest selling book in
history. However, Harry's rise to fame has not been an easy one. Many
religious leaders have been preaching how Harry Potter is "evil and
Satanic". Some even believe that the book is preaching the occult to
children.
The four books in print have
been constantly attacked since they first came out in bookstores.
Christian groups claim that the books are teaching kids to practice
witchcraft and worship the Devil. These
claims are completely frivolous. Although
the Harry Potter books center around magic, they do not mention God, the
Devil, or even the slightest trace of religion.
The main characters in the books are students who are born with the
ability to do magic. They
aren’t brainwashed into a secular cult by reading books with
“subliminal messages.” Anyone
who has read the books can easily see that.
Extreme
religious leaders just do not see reasoning. Anyone who has read the Lord
of the Rings trilogy or the series of books that includes The
Wizard of Oz, can clearly see that the number of tales in the book
that are related to sorcery is about the same number as the Harry Potter
books. Lord of the Rings and The Wizard of Oz had lots of
magic in them, so why didn’t the religious groups complain about those
books being Satanic?
What
has happened to freedom of expression, literature, or choice? If the
mention of the words “magic” or “witch” is ghastly, then we might
as well ban all books with these words in them.
This would result in the complete obliteration of the fantasy
section of any library and bookstore.
Such books that would be missing are the above-mentioned The
Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Wizard of Oz.
Other books, such as Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes are
on trial as well. And why
stop there? We know of at
least a dozen Disney movies that the “magic”-fearing people would love
to incinerate. And what is
our point? Harry Potter is
FANTASY. We, as humans, need
to take a few moments to experience creativity and allow our imaginations
some fresh air. A world
without fantasy is a world of oppression, demanding that its inhabitants
stay within the barbed-wire fences of conformity.
Why be a sheep and follow the flock?
Be an individual, don’t hop on the bandwagon, and, most
importantly, keep an open mind when reading these types of books.
The whole reason that Harry is
so lovable is because he is an ordinary person. He does everything the
average school kid does. From reading the current Harry Potter books,
anyone will find that the book does not preach the occult to children. Of
course, Harry and his friends have to take classes in charms, potions,
transfiguration, and other magic-oriented subjects. They have to write
papers on what they learn in their classes, often times pulling
all-nighters to keep up with their grades. Plus, they have their own type
of sport for a diversion. This all seems to be like what the average child
does every single day when he or she goes to school. They take their
classes, they write papers, take tests, and divert themselves with sports
and activities.
On the Internet some time ago,
there was a site operated by a Christian network that condemned Harry
Potter. To emphasize this, there was a picture of a kid hiding in a basket
with only his eyes peeping out. Under this picture was a sentence that
went: "Little Timmy is hiding from his parents because he thinks they
have been abducted by the sorcerer's stone." Can these radicals get
any lamer than that? If the kid had read the book, he should know that the
Sorcerer's Stone does not turn anyone’s parents into some sort of a
zombie. In the book, it specifically states that the Sorcerer's Stone is a
"…legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will
transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life,
which will make the drinker immortal." (Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone, page 220) The operators of the web site probably
paid the kid to crouch down in the basket and pretend to be scared.
Average
people who have not even read the Harry Potter books believe that these
extremists are stupid. Sophomore Gustavo Rios says that Harry
Potter “…is just a book. I mean, what harm can a book do? We all know
none of us can do magic.” Junior Jeff Gardener says that the
author “should just speak her own mind and not let anything stop her.”
Another sophomore Adam Castle states that the religious leaders are
“…preposterous and unreasonable to criticize a book like that.”
After a while, the reasons that these religious extremists put out against anything become less and less meaningful. When it was Beanie Babies, they said that they were too costly and their value does not increase. As Teletubbies became popular, they said that one of the Teletubbies was gay. Then Pokémon became prominent, and they said that the word “Pokémon” means pocket monsters and they cost too much money to buy. Now with Harry Potter, they say he is teaching the occult. That is just plain stupid.