[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Harry Potter and God

[P. Alexis Nguyen]

Carol:
> As far as I know, only the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons do that (at
> least, here in Arizona), and you can see the Mormons coming a mile away
> (always two nice-looking, well-groomed young men in white, short-sleeved
> shirts and ties--again, that's Arizona style; don't know what it's like
> anywhere else). The Mormons, at least, are alway polite when I tell them I'm
> an Episcopalian and happy that way. (I don't tell them that I only attend
> church on Christmas Eve, if then!) It's odd that they would attempt
> door-to-door conversion/recruitment. It can't be very successful.

Ali:
Back home in KS, I remember that the Baptist church across the street
from my parents' house sent people to our doors every month or three.
Somehow, the fact that we're generally home on Sundays really bothers
them.  They're generally very nice, never long-winded and only
dropping off literature, and we were always nice in return,
understanding that they're doing what they think is best, but it is
the most obnoxious practice I have ever encountered.  My parents now
just don't answer the door, and I sometimes do because I only come
home for visits.

When I was in middle school, there were people who were outside after
school giving out little bibles (though I never saw this practice in
elementary/high school).

Living in Philly, I have a friend who (I found out recently) doesn't
answer her doorbell unless her friends have called in advance to let
her know they're coming because she's had so many Jehovah's Witnesses
knock on her door.

I know these people are doing what they think is best, and I try my
very best to be nice, but I absolutely detest this practice.


Carol:
> And although people have died in religious wars (e.g., the Crusades), that's
> hardly confined to Christianity. The Sunni and Shiite Muslims kill each
> other, and some Muslims want to wipe out the state of Israel. And, sure,
> some Christians owned slaves in the pre-Civil War U.S., but most if not all
> abolitionists were also Christian. And Christian missionaries wiped out
> evils like foot-binding in Asia and infanticide of twins in Africa. It was
> Christian groups in the U.S. and Britain who first called attention to
> cruelty to animals and child abuse.

Ali:
I completely agree with all your points here, but can I bother to ask
you to cite literature about the Christian missionaries and
foot-binding?  I ask because that was something I studied in college
and never learned about the involvement of missionaries wiping out
these particular practices, so I want to read up on this.

~Ali, who quite agrees that this thread is definitely no longer about
Harry Potter and God and has not been in a while