Horcrux: was Baptism/Christianity in HP

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 153714

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "leslie41" <leslie41 at ...> wrote:
>
> The basic fact that I keep coming back to is that his parents 
> thought Harry's baptism extremely important.  Rowling herself said 
> that it was probably a hurried sort of affair, with just the family 
> involved.  Obviously, having their son Christened was extremely 
> important to them.  And the Christening service itself, the 
> baptismal service, is a deeply spiritual experience in which all are 
> required to renew their baptismal vows.  The godfather must be a 
> baptized Christian himself as well.

Or they wanted to have something 'normal,' something other people did.
A little celebration because they had a child. Nothing strange that
people who are chiristian quite often want their child to be christian
as well. They think it is important. There is no need at all to make
it deeply important. 

When I was in a children's choir I have sung at a number of baptisms
and I have been to another few. Nobody was required to renew their
baptismal vows. Whether it was deeply spiritual or not depends on the
persons there. To me it was not. 
> 
> Pardon me for thinking that yes, that's important.  You are free to 
> think it's entirely meaningless.  But it's in there.  Harry was 
> baptized.  Sirius was a Christian and so were his parents, or else 
> they would not have been allowed to have their child baptized.

So is most of the UK, nominally Christian. They go to church at
Christmas, and maybe at Easter. They get married in church, baptise
their children and that's it for most of them. 
> 
> If you want to ignore those canonical facts, that's fine.  But 
> they're there.  I didn't pull them out of the air, or anywhere 
> else.   

No, but blow them up totally out of proportion. Nobody denies Lily and
James were christian. What we do deny is that Harry being baptised has
any meaning in the story and has any link to him character, protection
or the AK. 
hrough love.
> 
> The fact that love is Harry's greatest weapon is absolutely 
> canonical.

Gerry
So? 
>  

> Leslie41:
> Do you doubt that "crux" means "cross"?  Look it up.  The 
> curse "crucio" is directly related to the crucifixion.  Oh, you can 
> blather about how "Crucio" is just the Latin word for "I torture", 
> etc. etc. etc.  But who among us, even those who aren't Christians, 
> are going to state that the word has no relation to the 
> crucifixion?  There are other words Rowling could have chosen that 
> mean the same thing.

Gerry
When in doubt, use the dictionary:

crux

/kruks/

  • noun (pl. cruxes or cruces /krooseez/) (the crux) 1 the decisive
or most important point at issue. 2 a particular point of difficulty.

  — ORIGIN Latin, `cross'.

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/crux?view=uk

Seems far more logical to me than trying to link this to the crucifixion. 

> Leslie41:
> Selling one's body for money is thought by most to be 
> immoral.  "Whoring" also has another connotation, also negative (I 
> know of no positive one).  We speak of people who have "sold their 
> souls" so to speak as "whores".  It doesn't always have a sexual 
> connotation. 
> 
Gerry
Hm, so when your biblical reference goes out of the window, suddenly
it is important what most of us think. And which was completely
opposite what Jezus did in the Bible. I'm sorry, but I don't buy this. 

> "Crux" means "cross".  That's a fact.  I think that what Voldemort 
> (flees from death) is doing is making a perverted, whored cross for 
> himself.  And if you can't see it, I don't know what to say to that, 
> because it seems perfectly clear to me.  It's right there in the 
> name.
>
Well, the cross was a Roman execution instrument. Jesus died on it.
Voldemort wants to stay alive forever. Completely the opposite. 

Gerry