Now I know everyone on this page will think this woman is either a loon or a misguided soul, but Laura Mallory is trying to remove Harry Potter from the classroom because it promotes Wicca and other non-Christian things. To quote:
Today’s generation faces evil like no other in history with the bombardment of violent, sexual and occult images of our modern mass media. I think perhaps we are so desensitized, we couldn’t recognize it even if on the plate in front of us. This case addresses only one facet of that evil, being spoon-fed to our children, even in the public schools. With the deceptive, exciting, children-friendly packaging of witchcraft in the Harry Potter series, our youth today view witchcraft not only as good and fun, but harmless fantasy. I’d like to clear up some misconceptions about the case and then just share my heart for a minute.
I disagree with her on two points: 1) Our generation is NOT facing evil like no other. Jews in Europe in the 1930s and 1940 faced evil like no other. It’s just another example of the hyperbole being fed to us to convince us we need help from something.
2) Even if we were living in the most evil times, Harry Potter is not the problem. Parents who don’t take active roles in their children’s lives, or who attempt to prevent their children from discovering life for themselves, they are the main culprits in our children’s demise. Harry Potter has as much to do with children converting to Wicca as Huck Finn did to promote slavery.
Oh, and by the way: Mallory hasn’t read the books yet
My $.02 Weed
Ridiculous..
Okay, once again, the born-again dude on the blog has to chime in to please not judge the majority of believers based on this woman.
See, I do believe in concepts like sin. And, if someone were able to access a satanic power, for good or ill, like the one-ring, it would be bad.
But this is fantasy. This is Narnia without the Christian allegory. This is Tolkien, without the knowledge that he brought C.S. Lewis to Christ. This is a fantasy story about a bad dude named Voldemort, and a boy who fights to stop him.
That’s it. It does not encourage anything we could clearly call “sin”. In fact, this woman, if she’s worried about hidden societal threat, should be more concerned about these shows – which do NOT concern me:
Deal or No Deal: Encouraging the love of Money, which occupies a majority of Christ’s message.
Friends: Packed with casual sex and no consequences.
Star Trek, TNG: Encouraging non-theistic, socialist agendas.
Star Trek, DS9: Filled with the idea that there are different Gods for different cultures, and they are all valid and real (Kahless, the Prophets, etc)
24: The prevailing idea being that it doesn’t matter how evil the small thing you do is, as long as it serves the greater good.
Soap Operas: On while kids are home, and even more than the sex, has main character sho constantly lie.
HOW ABOUT CARTOONS Spiderman and Batman: Vigilantism and personal violence as a means to an end.
Simpsons: Half of the jokes are about disrespecting the father.
Barbie: Vanity
Jimmy Neutron: Self-importance
All this and more.. and this woman is worried about kids wanting to pick up a wand? There are no wands available, ma’am. And if you strip away the witchcraft, it is about laying your life down for your friends, honoring your parents, doing what is right, even when it is hard, and overcoming circumstances to be more than you thought you could be.
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For The Record
I intentionally did not make any references to her beliefs when I posted. I only pointed out her stupidity.
But you are correct. To worry about Harry Potter while not saying a thing about MTV is misguided at best. And to complain about something YOU HAVE NEVER READ is ludicrous. Perhaps she’s afraid she’ll read it and start drawing pentacles in her house.
My $.02 Weed
Point-by-point rebuttal
Here’s my point-by-point analysis of her “Myth vs. Truth” paper. I think her avowed, public motives are reasonable, but her conclusions are based upon incorrect facts. Additionally, she is attempting (thinly) to hide her real agenda.
The “myth” is correct. She is trying to ban Harry Potter from use in public schools. If, in fact, Harry Potter were promoting a particular religion and were being used in public school education, I would be as opposed to its use in the classroom as I am to the use of the Bible as a science textbook.
The core problem with with Mallory’s conclusion here is that it’s basd on a false premise. The “witches and wizards” depicted in Rowlings work are pure fantasy and bear little resemblance to any living or dead religion. The final rhetorical question of her answer to this “myth” gives her motivation away: if Harry Potter is to be assigned reading, then the Bible should be, too.
And one interesting note: there are Bibles, in multiple languages and versions, available in my childrens’ school library. There are also multiple versions of the Book of Mormon and Qur’an.
…and just because something is popular, it is the correct course of action. Additionally, apparently God is also telling her that this is His will. Although school boards do not operate at the level of US jurisprudence, I doubt that argument would carry any merit in court.
First: Judaism and Christianity are profoundly different religions. The use of the term “Judeo-Christian” is a political artifice designed to promote solidarity with the Jews due to Hitler’s mistreatment of them during World War II. It was first used in 1938 in the US to replace the term “Christian tradition”, while Hitler and the Reich claimed Christianity as their Aryan heritage. The Jews represented the only non-Christian religious minority in the US with a significant presence. Had Islam had the presence then it has today in the USA, it is likely the term would have included them, as well.
Second: Mallory is appealing to audiences to have a “revival” and a return to “traditional roots”. Let’s extol the virtues of the traditional roots of conservative Southern Christianity:
The list goes on, but I’ll stop there. It is the liberal element of Christianity — those who are willing to change, rather than to insist on adherence to tradition despite rational argument against it — which is responsible for most social progress in the US, along with those of other or no faiths. A return to the good old days is a return to the bad old days. I don’t think you’ll find a Black, Arab, or Jew, familiar with the history of their people, who is interested in a return to those traditional values.
But I admit, if one is a white, Southern, Christian, middle-class female who lacks an understanding of history, then yeah, what’s not to like about the good old days?
I trust the irony of her statement is not lost on those who are aware she has not read any of the books she is seeking to ban.
If she’s talking statistics, it seems that bearing children is the number one cause of depression and anxiety in the USA. It does not seem to be a coincidence that Utah and Texas, the two states with the highest birthrates in the nation, also share the highest antidepressant usage in the US.
Not that involvement in cult-like religions is healthy for children. Far from it. If Mallory is arguing that we should dissuade children from religious indoctrination which might lead them to depression and suicide, then I’m all in favor! As long as that dissuasion includes more religions than those she hand-picks as “abominations”.
It appears that Mallory can dredge up a single troubled teen and a single like-minded nurse to support her case. Bully for her. If she can round up a half-dozen more, maybe they can have a dinner party.
Here she again reveals her true intentions. Why, if Harry Potter can’t be removed from the curriculum, then the Bible should be introduced! Of course! It’s so logical! Not.
As far as her claim that our “schools and society are filled with violence, drugs, gangs, addictions, perversions”, is she aware that violent crime is near an all-time low in the USA? Is she aware that gang-related crimes are near an all-time low as well?
Ahh, wait, I see it. There’s that word. “Perversions”. This is a code word, folks. It has multiple meanings, but the primary meaning in the mind of every American like Mallory is “fag“. Therefore all of society’s domestic ills — most of which are much less common now than ever before — can be laid at the feet of those who threw God out of school. And the fags. Never forget that god hates the fags.
Idiocy.
Actually, to not “lie, steal or murder” is a common trait of humanity, most of whom are not Christian. Many of those non-Christians do not venerate Mallory’s god. The claim that the Christian God is the source of all good values is utterly baseless. But I’ve argued this same point enough times to know that people like Mallory can’t understand this point. From her point of view, God is the source of all goodness because anyone with any good in them got it from God. It’s like arguing with a hamster, forever spinning his little wheel and never going anywhere.
Well, if one is arguing on this level, the Bible is full of spell-casting. Jesus casts demons into a herd of swine. He kills a tree with his touch. He manages to fake his own death very convincingly (hey, maybe there’s hope for Dumbledore after all!). He manages a convincing number of parlor tricks.
Then there are the Old Testament prophets! Moses turns a stick into a snake. Elijah releases some hidden bears to devour a few small children. Another one manages to ignite a sacrifice despite being doused with water (though, I must admit, five years after teaching my last Sunday School class, I’m a bit rusty on who that was).
The only difference between what the “heroes” and the “villains” of the Bible did was the name under which they performed their mythical magics. There were those who did it in the name of some other god than Abraham’s, and those who did it in the name of Abraham’s god.
And that is what Mallory is actually about: the entry of right-wing, Southern-style closed-minded Christianity to the classroom under the banner of the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”. The Harry Potter thing is just her freak sideshow attempt to hold some public attention in order to draft a few other like-minded, weak-minded, fact-proof people into her cause.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Let Yourself Go
Matt,
/*******BEGIN TONGUE-IN-CHEEK**********/
By now, I think you know us well enough, and vice versa, that you don’t need to hold back anymore. Please, go back and re-do your post and tell us how you REALLY feel.
/*******END TONGUE-IN-CHEEK**********/
Seriously, I could not agree more. To say how bad things are now is to fear-monger in order to advance your position. I can drive 10 minutes away and go to a store that sells me any sort of clothes, food, medicine, and ware that I could want. I can drive 10 minutes away and get medical care unavailable to 90% of the rest of the world, for a co-pay and 20%. If I couldn’t pay, the hospital still has to treat me. A vast majority of the homes in my country have TVs. As long as I stay away from areas I should know are dangerous, I can walk freely and without fear of attack. I can spout off that I think the President is a dork and that the prevailing religion is false without fear of reprisals.
Where’s the bad side? With great freedom comes great temptation, so it’s my job to guide my children through the snares life throws at you. To remember the good ole’ days is to forget how many children died of diseases we;ve conquered. To remember the good ole’ days is to forget how it was okay to get liquored up and slap the wife and kids around. To remember the good ole’ days is to forget how you had to work from sun-up to sun-down every day in the growing season just to grow enough food to survive the winter. Maybe people acted better back then because they had no time to goof-off. Goofing-off meant death and suffering. Give me these evil years of 2000 over those good ole’ days anytime.
If the worst thing my kids ever do is practice Wicca, then I’d take that. But I bet my kids will be smart enough to read Harry Potter and not think they have to become witches because some character in a book was one.
My $.02 Weed
My $.02 Weed
How I really feel…
It would have involved considerably more invective. I censored myself repeatedly. I have encountered fact-resistant minds more often than I care to contemplate in my personal and professional life, and the inability to create consistent conclusions without relying on tautologies is a key indicator of a brain not fully used.
I have to remind myself, though, that I once had one of those types of brains. It took a lot of time, study, and painful life experience to figure out that my brain was crusty and in need of renovation (Note: this is not to suggest that all religiously-oriented brains are crusty… just this gal’s and some other people I know). Unfortunately, like a renovated painting, a lot of fine cracks and smudges still exist on the tapestry of my consciousness; eradicating them, as with the painting, would probably do more harm than good.
DING DING DING! There are certain ways in which our society has gone downhill quantifiably in the past few years. Reduction of civil liberties, increased tension among allied nations, out-of-control birth rates, and ballooning national debt are often near the top of the list. What she lists — with the possible exception of “perversions” as our nation has become more gay-acceptant — are things which have been reduced in recent years.
If you accept the tentative conclusion of “Freakonomics”, the principal reason for the enormous reduction in per-capita violent crime in the USA compared to the “good old days” is at least in part due to allowing what these Southern Conservative Christians abhor: abortion.
Fundamentally, I don’t think that’s what this lady is scared of. I think she’s scared of kids growing up tolerant of other beliefs and being willing to see differences as normal, rather than “abominations”. She’s scared of kids willing to think for themselves who don’t blindly follow the tradition of their parents. She sees the sea change of American upbringing following the wake of the scientific revolution we are in the midst of, and she’s terrified her kids are going to go to Hell.
Apparently, there will always be Luddites. While I understand her consternation about a challenge to her beliefs, banning books from public school in order to promote her religious agenda is not the best way to handle it.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
You had me..
Inflammatory mcuh? But you had to go to the “fake” his own death.. Man, I almost forget what else you were talking about.
You talk about every other miracle as stated in the Bible, but use the “fake” as a little jab at the faith.
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
Right, right…
Right, right, sorry, he didn’t fake his own death; his followers faked his resurrection.
Sorry about that!
😉
The principal reason I worded it that way, actually, was to be able to put in the Dumbledore connection… not to get a rise out of anybody.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
You’ll get yours..
In two years, a random, anonymous, fundamentalist blowhard will tear you down for that one – and I’ll have to respond.
You have opened up such a can of worms in two years. 🙂
Oh, and Dumbledore is dead.
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com