Christians & HP (side order of LOTR)

[Terry James]

>--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Richelle Votaw" <rvotaw at i...>
>wrote:
> > I just returned from my church organization's yearly statewide camp
>meeting (I'm Pentecostal)


>From: "Beth" <jillily3g at yahoo.com>
>
>You've got me soooo curious. Completely showing my ignorance and
>predjudice here (without really meaning to be either), are there many
>Pentecostals who've read any of the books? How do you answer fellow
>members who do shred the books without having read them?

Well, until Richelle posted that, I thought I was the only one!  ;)  A few 
of my friends are open-minded, but don't like to read, so they would never 
sit down with books like these.  Some who do
like to read are convinced, based on what they've "heard", that the books 
are Satanic, and if you try to defend them, obviously you are possessed 
also.  Apparently there was some kind of joke interview with JKR on the 
internet.  It has certainly made the rounds, and you cannot convince people 
not to take it seriously.

Mostly, though, the majority don't really care.  They think the books are 
probably bad for you, but so is pornography, and drug abuse, and alcoholism, 
and etc., and in terms of protecting their kids, there's a lot higher up on 
the list than HP.

If anybody starts with me, I ask them if they've read any of the books.  The 
answer is always "No."  Then, if I'm feeling kind, I advise them to do so 
before they start criticizing.  If I'm feeling particularly un-Christian, I 
hold them down forcibly and give them all the main themes of all the books, 
with quotes and chapter summaries, until they agree with me just to get me 
to shut up.

On a related note, my mother thought Lord of the Rings was !Evil until I 
dragged her to see the movie. Then, under pressure, she admitted to liking 
"everything except the fighting, the monsters, the guys in the hoods, the 
bridge falling, the guy dying, the flaming eyeball, and the other guy 
dying."  She did finally realize the overall themes were positive.

The problem with HP is that you can use the movies to attract people to read 
the books--I hooked my brother this way--but you can't use the movies as a 
substitute for the books, to explain why people love them so much.  Just 
MHO, of course, but the movies lose so much of the subtleties that we love 
to discuss, and non-readers like my DH watch them and say, OK, that was 
good, but how can you spend so much time analyzing that?  It's a kid's 
story.

What do you do with people who have never and will never read the books?  
Especially if you live with them.  :)  How do those of you who live with 
non-HPers cope?

Terry LJ

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