[HPforGrownups] Re: Hi everyone -- banning the books, Harry and the Dursleys

[Jordan Abel]

No: HPFGUIDX 159407

> Bruce Carter:
> We are talking about a 15 year old girl here - who doesn't have much
> depth to her religious beliefs.  But even she realizes that the
> witches of HP are not witches at all.

Does she, now? I think what she actually realizes is that they are not
Wiccans, a fact which has, of course, never been in dispute. I think
the key problem is not one of depth of beliefs, but rather the
entirely mistaken idea that "witch" does not mean, has never meant,
and cannot ever mean anything other than a practitioner of Wicca.

What I don't understand is this. Wouldn't it have been better for them
(that is, Wiccans in general) to simply stop co-opting the term
"witch" (and thus avoid being stereotyped as "witches") rather than
trying to fight a much older meaning of the word?

-- 
Random832