Christians and HP revisited

[Amy Z]

Richelle the obsessed Pentecostal Christian (and all power to her) 
wrote:

>If a Christian is going to use the Biblical scriptures that speak 
>out against witchcraft, then they shouldn't be watching or reading 
>*anything* relating to witchcraft.  Otherwise their reasoning is 
>flawed.

Even fundamentalists differ in their reading of Scripture.  The fact 
that one should not practice witchcraft (if that is even what the 
Bible says--there's considerable debate on that point) doesn't mean 
that one can't enjoy a work of fiction about magical people.

I suppose that's connected to a line of argument you didn't mention, 
one I've seen quite a bit:  that HP *isn't* about the kind of 
witchcraft the Bible is concerned about.  The word may be the same 
(by dint of the Bible translator's choice, of course) but in fact the 
phenomena are different.

And then there are Christians who take some Biblical passages as 
authoritative, and others as not.  I think there is great merit to 
that approach, personally; one may judge some laws to be eternal and 
others particular to the culture and time in which they were given 
without being a hypocrite.  Furthermore, I have never met a 
Christian, however devout, who observed the commandments to keep 
kosher, observe the Sabbath as laid out in the Bible, or circumcised 
himself and his sons, just as I have never met a Jew, however devout, 
who observed the sacrifices.  Christians believe that kashrut and 
Shabbat-observance and circumcision have been pre-empted by New 
Testament revelation (the logic with the latter, at least, being that 
Paul is more authoritative than the author of Leviticus, I guess) and 
Jews believe that the sacrifices should not be carried out until the 
Temple is rebuilt, if ever.

Amy Z
who has no sermons to write 'til September 7 and is evidently missing 
them