From main site OT: Christmas at Hogwarts

[meidbh]

Davewitley:
"That religion, politics, and sex are not discussed at parties is 
surely merely a quirk of the late 20th and early 21st Century west, 
and our descendants will doubtless laugh at us for being so 
repressed."

Meidbh:
Oh dear, I most definitely did not mean to come out in support of 
repression or supression of opinions *shiver shiver*. What I was 
trying to get across was that it's not so much an issue of subject 
matter but of context of expression. There are some environments 
where it makes sense to avoid issues that can provoke strongly 
polarised opinions. Argument as intellectual debate can be great fun 
when you know the players, but when you don't (ie the party context) 
there is always a risk that your debate can cause offence, anger, 
upset, alienate people and generally be counterproductive. 

So how does this tie into HP and religious themes? Well one of the 
many reasons the HP books have had such mass appeal is that  
references to the RW are kept general enough that a reader from 
almost any background can "fill in the blanks" and make the book 
their own. Readers in Beijing or Mumbai or London could all imagine 
themselves at Hogwarts casting spells at Harry's side. It truly is 
an incredible thing to tell a story so well that people all over the 
world listen and are enthralled. IMVVHO an overt association with 
any specific religious or political belief system would break this 
spell. 

Meidbh :-)