A Southern Baptist gives his opinion about HP

[nera at rconnect.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 17684

The following letter is from a friend of mine from West Virginia. He 
is about as good a practicing Christian as anyone could ever hope to 
know. 

Although I would never expect him to become a member of HPFGU, 
neither did he set himself above those who enjoy the Harry Potter 
books. 

Hi Doreen;
 
Well, I just finished reading the last of the Harry Potter books 
(Goblet of Fire). I have had the book for a while but got sidetracked 
by the"Left Behind" series."Goblet of Fire was a bit longer than the 
others and in places moved a bit slower than the others, but still it 
was anb interesting book.I still find nothing in the books to get 
excited about. The later books do get somewhat dark, but the magic 
and spells and hexes are really quite amusing. 
 
I guess it is possible Rowling's treatment of witchcraft and sorcery 
as children's fantasy could desensitize children to the real thing. 
Someone once said that if you tell a big enough lie often enough and 
long enough; eventually people will start to believe it. Hitler was 
ample proof of the validity of that statement. I think what some 
parents may be afraid of is that witchcraft and sorcery may begin to 
look like nothing more than good clean fun. (this is the lie) If this 
should happen problems could crop up, but an adequate amount of old 
fashioned parental guidance would take care of that problem. 
Unfortunately, many parents today do not want to accept the 
responsibility for their children. Everything is the fault of the 
either school system they attend, the books they read, the church 
they attend, the other children they associate with, etc. While any 
or all of these things will undoubtedly have an influence on any 
child, it is still the parent who must help the child put all this 
together and make sense of it.
 
I do not agree with those who claim that anything which gets a child 
to read must be OK. That idea is positively absurd. There are any 
number of books on the market that I would not want my children (if I 
had any) reading because of the suggestive nature with which certain 
things are presented, things which could easily be tried. 
 
The Left Behind series I mentioned (also available in teen version) 
has had the same effect of getting children to read although due to 
its religious content, perhaps not as widely as the Potter series. 
Yet having read both, if asked which I preferred, I would choose the 
Left Behind books. But that is just my opinion and I will not be 
upset when people disagree.
 
So! To make a long story short, I can;'t really find anything to get 
worked up about over the books. They make for interesting reading 
even if not the best I have read. (I also prefer 
Tolkien's "Silmarillion" and "Lord of the Rings) Another book I found 
quite enjoyable was "Sarum"  (I can't remember the author's name) 
which is a fictionalized history of England.
 
Anyway, for whatever it's worth, that's my opinion.
hugs and smoochies
Brian