Harry PotterA Worthwhile series??

[jchutney]

No: HPFGUIDX 33662

> Second, respect for order is a part of a Judeo-Christian world > 

I FINALLY realized why Kimball's essay totally turned me off.  It's 
not that its anti-HP.  I have several highly intelligent friends who 
don't like the books ---- not their cup of tea.  Some find HP silly 
or badly written or not in keeping with their personal beliefs.  And 
this is fine.  Vive la difference!  What troubles me about Kimball is 
that he is presenting HIS view of Christianity and trying to palm it 
off as gospel.  

#1 What is "Judeo-Christian" in the context of this essay?  Judaism 
and Christianity have many similarities but some big differences in 
world-view.  If he means to reference ONLY the things Judaism and 
Christianity share in common, why does he not include Islam, which is 
EXTREMELY similar to Orthodox Judaism?  Either, Kimball is talking 
about CHRISTIANITY, exclusively, or he means to include all the 
Abrahamic traditions.  Please be clear.

#2 If Kimball's real intention is to compare HP to an exclusively 
Christian tradition, than which one is it?  Lutheran? Catholic? 
Seventh-Day Adventist?  Is Kimball a Christian scholar?  Where does 
he derive his understanding of Christianity?

Kimball is free to attack HP all he wants, but what his basis for 
saying, "respect for order is a part of a Judeo-Christian world"?  
This is plainly contradicted in Mathew 10:

      34 "Don't imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, 
I came to bring a sword. 35 I have come to set a man against his 
father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law 
against her mother-in-law. 36 Your enemies will be right in your own 
household! 37 If you love your father or mother more than you love 
me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or 
daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you 
refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of 
being mine. 39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if 
you give it up for me, you will find it.[end quote]

MY idea of Jesus is obviously very different from Kimball's.  I see a 
reformer, a rebel, a "trouble-maker" who frightened the Romans so 
much they sentenced him to death.  Does this sound like someone who 
valued "order"?  And yet I don't try to insinuate that I am some 
scholar or compare HP or any other books to MY version of 
Christianity.

Personally, I am sick and tired of so-called religious people 
(whatever their creed) assuming that they have the "real" 
or "true" version.  There are billions of human beings who have 
perfectly functioning brains.  They can read their Bible or Quran or 
Bhagavad Gita and figure out for themselves what it means, thank you 
very much. 
 
jchutney