Christianity in HP (WAS: Religion & Law in HP and Smelting Sticks)

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 168958

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Kathryn Lambert <anigrrrl2 at ...> 
wrote:

>   I resent wholeheartedly your insinuation that sacrificial love, 
redemption, CHOICE, and other so-called "Christian" themes in Harry 
Potter are Christian at all. My objection is two-fold:
>   1 - There is an assumption by Christians that values that are in 
the Bible are somehow singularly Christian. Simply because you put it 
in the Bible does not mean it is owned by Christianity. The Bible may 
mean something to you, but it means nothing to me, and I believe in 
sacrificial love, redemption, spirituality, loving the Creator, and 
treating my fellow man with humanity. This doesn't mean that I am a 
Christian, nor does it mean that I am practicing "Christian" values. 
These beliefs belong to all of humanity - why do Christians get to 
hijack all virtues and claim them as their own?


Leslie41 now:

Not to completely hijack Geoff's response, but I'd like to answer 
this, at least in part.  Firstly, of course you're correct.  Loving 
thy neighbor isn't exclusively Christian.  Nor is redemption, 
sacrificial love, etc.  But Christ's teachings, which now seem to us 
seem generically "humanist" were absolutely *revolutionary* in his 
own time. He saw an equality of all people.  Not just "his" people, 
but *all* people, regardless of gender and tribe and color.    

Christians "hijack" these virtues and claim them as their own 
because, in essence, Christ "invented" these virtues and made them 
manifest in the world for the first time, in their completest sense. 
And I don't speak here of Jesus Christ as savior--you don't need to 
believe that at all.  I speak of Jesus as a philosopher.    
  
>   2 - I was part of that "groundswell" of other religions a few 
years back. I do not in any way believe that JK intentionally put 
Christian themes into these books. Perhaps her religion inspired her 
in an unconscious way (although I disagree with this as well), but it 
is obvious to me that these books are not religious. If there is any 
overriding faith theme in HP - it is faith in ONESELF - not in God! 
The fact that there may be an afterlife in HP doesn't mean it's a 
Christian heaven. Um...other religions believe in an afterlife. The 
fact that characters that we believed to be evil may redeem 
themselves in a sacrifical way in the end, doesn't mean it's some 
metaphor about Jesus - it's just really fantastic plotting and 
storytelling. Not everything has to do with Christianity! Jesus' 
story is a story that had already been told repeatedly in mythology 
by the writing of the Bible. Why? Because sacrifice and suffering 
makes a good damn story. 

Leslie41 now:

Well, yes, other religions have an afterlife.  But Harry Potter's 
world clearly includes Christmas and Easter, and Harry himself was 
christened (apparently that was very important to his parents) and 
has a godfather.  I don't necessarily think the books are 
overtly "religious" of course, not in a "Left Behind" sort of way, 
but a generic sort of Christianity permeates them, which I think goes 
beyond the merely decorative.