[HPforGrownups] Re: Anti-Potter groups

[Dave Hardenbrook]

No: HPFGUIDX 1453

At 08:10 PM 9/14/00 +0000, Kelley wrote:
>The best I can figure, people have the image of witches, etc., in the
>old-fashioned sense.  Dark, evil, eating children, fairy-tale stuff.
>They lump this image in with devil-worship, voodoo, vampirism, and so
>forth.  All they see is:  BAD.  They don't have first hand knowledge
>of this, just folklore and pop culture ideas.  This carries over into
>the popularity of Goth, and goth music, which I can't say I really
>find very pleasant.  Then, of course there's Columbine.

I think you're partly right -- I've heard at least one religious leader
blame Columbine on Harry.  They need a scapegoat, a whipping boy,
and Harry is the current whipping boy.  (I guess at least Filch is happy.)

But more than that, I think Fundamentalists are scared by the
increasing interest in "Witchcraft" in the context of Pagan religions.
Growing numbers of people are drawn to a faith that worships a
nurturing, gentle Goddess, reveres and respects nature, and has
no iron-cast dogma that one must follow to the letter or go to hell.
And the Fundies who want to control how we think and how we
live don't like it one bit.  And again, Harry has become the scapegoat, though
to paraphrase what someone on another forum said, saying Harry Potter
encourages kids to become Witches is like saying Gilbert and Sullivan's
_H.M.S. Pinafore_ encourages people to enlist in the Navy.



                                                 -- Dave