Baptism/Christianity in HP

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 153726

In canon, of course, there is no evidence, yet at 
> least, that his baptism helped him, but it could have.  I think that 
> Lily's sacrifice saved Harry's life, but IMO, it may have been his 
> baptism that has protected his soul. But we don't know yet.  

Gerry
Why would baptism have protected his soul? What about the souls of all
those other wizards and witches who did succomb to evil? Lets face it:
Tom Riddle was quite probably baptised as well. 
> -----------------------  

> What I think JKR is doing and I applaud her for it, it needed to be 
> done, is to take the basic teachings of Jesus and put them into a 
> story where we see it acted out. It is not preached to us like some 
> wacko TV minister, it is not yelled at us from a street corner and 
> it is not filtered through the biases of different denominations. 
> She has taken out all of the roadblocks that cause many people to be 
> turned off by the message. It is presented in its purest form for 
> all to hear. I think that is a good thing.  

Gerry
??? I'm sorry, but I don't like Harry sacrificing himself for the WW.
Now unless you see the bible as a coming of age story or a hero's
journey this makes no sense to me whatsoever. 

> 
> I don't think that you can say that this symbol=x in the story in a 
> straight line sort of way. She doesn't write that way. And I don't 
> think that she means for the average man/woman/child in the street 
> to catch her at what she is doing. She is `crafty' that way. 
> She is, as someone here said, `not talking to the choir'. She is 
> talking primary to children and teaching them (as the teacher she 
> continues to be) basic moral lessons. What some of us are saying is 
> that her lesson plan was taken from the Gospels. And before you say 
> it, I will
  Yes, it is true that Christianity does not have a 
> monopoly on morality. I am not saying that it does. If she were 
> Buddhist she would probably be taking her ideas from the moral 
> philosophy of Buddhism.  

Gerry
And the difference for the story would be? I'm sorry, but there is
nothing inherently Christian about the moral values she is describing.
Sure, she will probably have gotten them from Christianity, but that
does not make the values in themselves belonging there. The
interesting thing is that she has taken universal values, to which
people of all faiths can relate. 

> 
> As I said I don't think that she wants the average reader to see 
> what she is doing. She only wants them to get the message. But she, 
> for the sake of the choir, has inserted a few clues that there is 
> something more here than just a nice story with some moral value. 

Hm, and the alchemical, pagan and mythological clues are there for?
And if she truly wants to have that kind of a story, why should it be
hidden? To secretly convert children to Christianity? 

Gerry