WW versus MW

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 46371

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Melody" <Malady579 at h...> wrote:

<< I find it slightly amusing that a week ago I was flamed for be 
"too Christian" and now I am being flamed for not being Christian 
enough. >>

Oh, dear, Melody, I *really* didn't want to make you feel like you 
were being flamed; I *tried* to be careful to choose gentle words... 
I shouldn't have said anything, even if I hadn't hurt your feelings: 
Pip!Squeak has already called me on the carpet for it.

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "bluesqueak" <pipdowns at e...> wrote:

<< Melody was replying to a post or two of mine (URLS snipped), 
in the first of which I mentioned several times that the argument 
was being based on Christian Theology (and quoting New Testament 
passages is also a pretty good clue that we're relating HP to 
Christianity). >>

Yes, I know. I read them and thought they were very clever, 
especially "[It is a huge relief to me that God apparently loves 
a smartarse ;-) ]". I wish I could put into words just what it was 
that bothered me about Melody's post. I shouldn't have said anything: 
"Whereof one cannot speak, one should keep silent."

<< I remember a particularly good post once where the (Buddhist)
poster discussed whether Dumbledore was in a Buddhist state of 
enlightenment. >>

Can you please point me to that point, as the subject is very 
interesting to me and I don't remember having read it. It might 
be on some list other than this one, or it might be on this list 
and I read it and I am suffering from memory failure, which happens 
more and more often... 

I had written:

<< [Dumbledore thinks] people don't *need* to defeat Voldemort (or 
whatever current great Dark Wizard), they need to try their damndest 
to defeat him honorably and leave stories that will encourage future 
generations to fight heroically against Dark Wizards. >>

Pip!Squeak replid:

<< Despite this, he has tried like heck to keep Harry alive, and is 
currently trying hard to defeat Voldemort. >>

"try their damndest" "tried like heck" "trying hard". That sounds 
like we agree so far.

<< Going back to on-topic canon, how happy do you think Lily would 
have been had she, for example, decided to accept Voldemort's offer 
of sparing her life if she would only stand aside and let him kill 
Harry? I think Lily's sacrifice was partly a decision that she was 
not going to stand by while her son was killed - she would far rather 
*die*, even if it only delayed Harry's death by seconds. Fighting for 
her son's life was more important to her than staying alive. >>

I am *sure* that Lily would *rather* have not had to make that 
choice. JKR has not yet revealed what Lily was doing before she 
went into hiding, but I am sure she was working VERY hard to defeat 
(hopefully destroy) Voldemort and hoping that she, her son, her 
husband, and all their friends would be left alive after the victory 
-- that they all would "live happily ever after". 

I don't know if she would have been depressed by the thought that 
even if her side won and survived and spent the rest of their lives 
happily fighting stupid politicians and educating wizards about 
tolerance, inevitably equally powerful and equally evil Dark 
Wizards would keep arising every century or so, and sometimes one of 
them would win and plunge the wizarding world into many centuries of 
tyranny and terror. *I* would be depressed about it. I *am* depressed 
by it, the Muggle analogs anyway.