Voldemort AND Religion WAS Re: Religion in HP

[pamscotland]

No: HPFGUIDX 40587

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "lucky_kari" <lucky_kari at y...> wrote:
> Religion in HP - the topic that is - lost its appeal for me a long 
> time ago. You can only debate the significance of the Easter and 
> Christmas holidays for so long.
> 
> But something new has occured to me after reading all these 
marvellous 
> posts on the graveyard scene. First of all, they've really 
identified 
> why that scene made me feel so icky, in a way I couldn't quite put 
my 
> finger on. I didn't sit there reading the scene and going, "Oh this 
is 
> so sexually perverted" by any means, but now that I look, the 
elements 
> are there, and it goes a long way in explaining the revulsion I 
felt. 
> 
> As well, I think that the perversion of religion was there as well. 
> It's a very sacriligeous scene, isn't it?

I'm not sure why you think this scene is sacriligeous?  Doesn't 
sacrilege refer to the misuse of some religious or consecrated 
ground. building or artefact?  As noted in another thread, I don't 
have GoF here but I don't think it's ever occurred to me that the 
graveyard is in any way consecrated ground.  In this part of the west 
of Scotland there are very few churches with churchyards that will 
still take burials.  Many, many churches have been closed and the 
grounds and buildings deconsecrated.  Occasionally (not often) the 
monuments may be left in the deconsecrated churchyard and the 
municipal authority will take over ground and operate it as a 
municipal cemetery.  More likely the old churchyard is now a 
flattened piece of grass with interesting headstones set into the 
boundary wall. 

When I envisaged the graveyard in GoF I pictured our own local 
cemetery, first opened during Victoria's reign and clearly a monument 
not so much to God as to the rich Victorian merchants, shipbuilders 
and factory owners.  It has huge stone chambers, enormous headstones 
and statues.  One corner of it is devoted to the burial of deceased 
Roman Catholic nuns from the local convent but I do not think any 
part of this graveyard is consecrated ground. 

> 
> But what does that say about religion in the wizarding world? 
> 
> As noted, Voldemort twists at least three of the sacraments. 
There's 
> his rebirth in "baptism." The consumption of blood is a twisted 
> version of "communion," 

I really can't see that.  It assumes that Voldemort had the Christian 
sacraments somewhere in his head - there's no evidence for that.  
Even if Voldemort had been raised in a nominally Christian society it 
does not mean that he would know anything at all about the sacrament 
of communion.  Although I was brought up in a Christian family, until 
they left the Salvation Army to join the Baptist Church when I was 12 
or so I had never heard of Holy Communion.  I think we were taught to 
think of Jesus every time we ate and drank together rather than just 
at special 'communion' times.  

In many parts of the world, the consumption of blood has long been 
associated with the ingestion of the powers of the person/animal 
being consumed - and that's what I see in GoF. 

We all bring our own backgrounds to the reading of any book.  I was 
once a very committed Christian and I know how hard it is not to see 
Christian symbolism or anti-Christian symbolism in everything.  
Perhaps in secular Britain (wizarding or muggle) Christian symbols 
should be seen as having a cultural significance, but not a spiritual 
one.  

Pam