Arguing with the clueless

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 29066

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Peg Kerr <pkerr06 at a...> wrote:
> Hi: I haven't been on the board or posted in awhile.  I hope you all
> still remember me!

Welcome back! We've missed you!
> 
> I was having a conversation at work about the HP books with a 
coworker
> who is a part-time missionary.  
> 
> In this latest conversation she said again that the books were 
Satanist,
> esp. because of the scene at the graveyard where "somebody uses 
flesh,
> blood and bone in a spell" (of course, she still hasn't read them).
> 
> "No, no, no," I said in some exasperation. "You're entirely missing 
the
> point of the books."
> 
> What I'd like to know is, what arguments have any of you found
> to be helpful/useful in shooting down the theory that the books are
> Satanist--or do you find it utterly hopeless to argue with people 
like
> this because their heads are buried too deeply in the sand?


I would explain her that the "flesh, blood and bone" spell is done on 
behalf of Voldemort, for whom the adjective "Satanic" would not be 
misapplied.  Assuming that she knows nothing about the book, further 
explain to her that Voldemort is the "bad guy" who wants to kill 
Harry Potter, the "good guy". JKR is unambiguously on the side of the 
good guys; she want to picture evil in all of its squalid 
repulsiveness. If an evil character is trying to achieve rebirth, it 
would hardly be compelling to describe an incantation using sugar 
water, dandelions, and lady bugs. 

   - CMC