Responding to anti-HPers

[dowen331]

No: HPFGUIDX 65892

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dally1025" <dally_1025 at h...> 
wrote:
> While reading my local newspaper, I noticed in the editorial an 
> article about my favorite books.  Basically, it stated that the 
books 
> are evil and children will turn into little devils.  Although it 
will 
> probably not do a lic of good to respond, I just can't keep quiet 
> with this one.  If someone would bring up some great points that I 
> can include please post them or e-mail them to me!!!  

> cera

I realize that this original message appeared an eon ago in list time 
(that is, 3 days ago), but this is the first chance I've had to send 
a reply.  Forgive me if this thread is old, but I feel compelled, if 
nothing else, to let folks know that we're not all crazy, book-
burning, Christians out there...:)

The best replies I have read to this question of the "evils" of Harry 
Potter have come from Connie Neal, who has written both "What's a 
Christian to do with Harry Potter" and "The Gospel According to Harry 
Potter."  The two main lessons I have learned from her writings:

1.  Everyone is entitled to their own view of things.  If I meet 
someone who reads HP differently than I do, I gently change the 
subject and don't attempt to make them see my point of view.  People 
will interpret any literature through their own experiences, and I 
can't change how they see the books.  Which leads to

2.  People will see what they look for in the stories.  Ms. Neal is 
very clear in her introduction to "The Gospel according to HP" that 
she doesn't think any of the religious parallels were put there 
purposefully, but you can nonetheless find them if you look for them, 
just as someone looking for witchcraft or occult practices can find 
them if they look hard enough.  That doesn't mean either witchcraft 
or Christianity is "taught" by the books, just because some parallel 
might exist.  She even quotes Rowling herself saying, "People tend to 
find in books what they look to find."  

There's a lot more in the book that I won't repeat here, but I 
thought these ideas might give you a starting point in thinking about 
how to respond to people, or at least how to head off a debate that 
is often unwinnable!

To quote Grey Wolf, hope that helps!

Deb331