Thursday, December 21: Read the lastest news on Laura Mallory's doomed-to-fail crusade against the Harry Potter books.
Monday, October 9: Did this kid read Harry Potter???
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This story has hit national news (and here), so it must be heating up. I'll have more to say this afternoon about Laura Mallory, the Gwinnett County, Georgia, woman who's trying to ban Harry Potter. Stay tuned!
Before I comment on this story, I'd love to hear what you think.
Here are Part I and Part II of my view on Christians and Harry Potter. Also see About This Site.
Previous posts:
— Top 10 Most Challenged Books
— Harry Potter and the Gwinnett County Board of Education
4:00 p.m.: Please see update below:
Well, what else can I say that I didn't say in May? I wrote:
I believe the biblical admonition against sorcery is a distinct and separate issue from the hysterical call to ban the Harry Potter books from government school libraries. Reasonable Christians can discuss the biblical issue among themselves without bringing it into the public square. How reasonable is it to appeal to our faith to prevent unbelievers from reading a book?
The Bible is probably the most frequently banned book, and I certainly don't condone that. Yes, we Christians believe it is the inspired word of God, so we'd naturally (or spiritually?) think banning it is wrong.
Back to Mallory. She's trying to blame books like Harry Potter on the spate of school shootings (also see this), and I think such thinking is plain ignorant. Yes, children are influenced and affected by what they see and hear, but — and I can't believe I have to say this — the culture was degraded long before Harry Potter came along. Unless Mallory has a study that shows correlations, even weak ones, between kids who read Harry Potter and juvenile murderers, and kids who displayed homicidal tendencies only after they read Harry Potter, she's reaching.
At this point, I suppose I should mention that the Harry Potter books contain no school shooting scenes or admonitions to kill or injure other students. (Has Mallory read the books she's seeking to ban?) There's some self defense going on, bickering, rashness, jealousy and envy among young people, but it's not akin to massacring your classmates!
If Mallory doesn't want her kids to read Harry Potter, fine. She's the parent. If she doesn't want them exposed to HP in the school setting, she can take them out of government schools and send them to private schools. Or homeschool.
Look, I have serious problems with government schools, and library books are the least of those concerns. I support vouchers so taxpaying parents can use some of their money to send their kids to schools of their choice instead of being stuck with government schools. I also think parents who currently send kids to private school ought to get a tax break. You know the money they pay in property taxes that go to government schools? Let them keep some, most, or all it.
But when Christians start demanding that certain books be banned, I just can't support that. Aside from making us look like Dark Age-throwbacks, calling for book bans backfires! What did Hermione Granger say in Order of the Phoenix? Professor Umbridge banned The Quibbler because it contained a story that made Harry look good and the Ministry of Magic look bad. Hermione was happy! She said the best way to make sure someone reads something is to ban it.
Laura Mallory has a right to petition the government, and I hope she gets her day in court, as it were. But I hope her efforts fail, and fail miserably. I would say the same even if she were trying to ban Heather Has Two Mommies.
(AP photo)
October 4th, 2006 at 11:46 am
I think I don't want to live in a nanny state.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Harry Potter is the modern day equivalent to The Lord of The Rings. I heard people complain about that when I was a kid. If all you get from either books is witchcraft and paganism I would be willing to bet you didn't do very well on comprehension exams in english class. As a child I often fantasized about having extranormal powers and abilities. As an adult, not much has changed. The Lord of the Rings and Narnia fed and fueled my dreams as a child. Harry Potter has done the same for my children. The fantasy the Harry Potter provides in discussions with out children is a nice escape from the serious issues that I and my wife must confront everyday. Leave Harry and his friends alone. If I can believe in miracles why can't I believe in fantastical worlds and people?
October 4th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Now, trying to post the woman's physical address and phone number is not cool.
- Admin
October 4th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Laura Mallory,
I can appreciate the concern for the children of today for they are the future of this world, and they are the continuation of The Kingdom when we will be gone from this earth. In no attempt to distract from that, I do question your motives. Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lord of The Rings, the latter two of which were written by strong Christians, of one whom is still writing, envelope the entire concept of good vs. evil. All of these books use what we would call witchcraft, magic, rather those powers that humans consider unnatural, or to some, supernatural. I do not condone such practices because our Lord overrides all powers and principalities in all of the universe. BUT, blaming a writer for the problems of today is the same as blaming a musician or speaker, pointing the finger at a person when the true enemy is satan. Satan knows more about humanity than we do and he wants us to fight eachother at any cost and for any reason. People have made concsious choices, whether led by some force or not, a concsious choice to commit crimes. Influences come from a plethora of spirits both good and evil and it is OUR INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY TO PRAY FOR DESCERNMENT. Actions are caused by choices, not influences. What we allow ourselves to think and dwell upon is likely to be our action. We are all sinners no matter the degree. Jesus can wash all sin away, not the burning of books, nor litigation, nor extraneous argument of opinions. If your motives are pure, then your tree will have fruit worth eating. Know this, His watchman are always watching and listening. When one makes strong claims of spiritual forces is one who steps in dangerous grounds. I pray that your heart is ready. Many people will hate you and say very bad things about you. I pray your faith is undying.
-paul michael
October 4th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I don't think magic is the issue with Harry Potter.
In LotR, we know the good characters are good because they are virtuous. They have their flaws, but their characters are inherently loyal, kind, brave, humble, etc. If they use magical powers (i.e., Gandalf), it's never for personal gain or gratification. If a character does use magic this way, it always ends badly - just like the misuse of any other ability.
In HP, we know the good characters are good because . . . J.K. Rowling tells us they're good. Harry and his friends are vengeful (but it's 'okay' because they're vengeful against mean people), liars (but they lie for a good cause, right?) and general flouters of rules and authority (but it's okay because they're "special"). They constantly use their magical powers to play tricks and take revenge on others and to promote themselves. They're really not so much "good" as they are "not evil."
That said: I don't think the books should be banned. But I do have a problem with the message sent in the books. If you still don't believe me, hold up the "good" characters from both books to the Sermon on the Mount. See who matches up better.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Anyone who says they don't believe in censorship is lying to themselves. We all believe in it at some level. In Shawn's earlier posts she said she did not believe "child pornography" should be available in a public library. That's censorship and almost all but the strictest liberal and the child pornographer would agree with this.
We have the right to agree as a society and a community what we believe is presentable in public and when we are paying we have a right to agree on what we will allow to be made available to every kid in our community.
Laura Malloy has every right as a citizen to ask her community to not pay for this book based on her principles. If the majority of the community agrees with her they will do it. Nothing wrong with that. I commend her for standing up for HER principles. Most of us do not. Most of us simply pull our kids out of public schools and hope for the best.
btw - I do not believe Harry Potter books are evil and should be banned but I agree with her right to ask for this and to do her best to convince others. That's why I love America. What I don't like is people ridiculing her and writing her off as an uninformed idiot because they don't agree with her.
October 4th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Joanna, I don't buy that description of the characters in Harry Potter one bit. "Good" in Harry Potter is ultimately defined by love, self-sacrifice, loyalty, and courage. That's been the message book after book. The main characters, while certainly flawed, are good and becoming better (you can see a transformation in Harry through each book, for example).
Actually, I like the Harry Potter characters better than the Pevensies because the Pevensies (except for Edmund, and then Susan at the end) are almost too good. The HP characters are deeper, more complex, and more realistic.
And by the way, there was a certain prostitute who went and got herself justified in God's sight by lying for a good cause…
October 4th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
The Laura Mallory protest against Harry Potter, which I've been keeping my readers updated on since April, has made the national news, now she's brought her case to the state of Georgia. (HT to LaShawn)
October 4th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
You know with all this talk about banning Harry Potter a key point is missing. CHILDREN ARE READING THE BOOKS IN DROVES!!! That is incredible in itself. Rowling's books are engaging and use the time tested and honored good versus evil. Harry embodies values like honor, fidelity, loyalty, loss, love and friendship and sacrifice. In one way it parallels the story of Moses without the loving parents. So to say Harry Potter is evil b/c it contains sorcery is ridiculous. There is sorcery in the Bible after all. Read about Simon the sorcerer in the book of Acts. (HT to my favorite blogger LaShawn)
October 4th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
I'm a big fan of fantasy literature; I even write fantasy stories and post them on my blog. But something that I saw as a teenager makes me a little worried about the effect of these stories. I knew a kid in high school who went to the library to check out books on witchcraft because he wanted to have powers like on the TV show Bewitched. I was astonished that anyone would make a connection between that fantasy TV show and real witchcraft, but someone I knew did.
So, although I don't think these stories should be censored, we should not take the fears lightly.
October 5th, 2006 at 8:07 am
The whole thing reminds me of the time our overly nosy next door neighbor came to our front dooor because our daughter had mentioned that she was reading the 4th Harry Potter:
"Y'all shouldn't let her read that. It's much darker than the others, and one of the characters gets killed."
My reply: "My daughter knows the difference between make-believe and reality. After all, she's seen Scar throw Mufassa off the cliff hundreds of times with no ill effect."
Please, Ms. Malloy, give young people some respect - they know fiction is fiction.
October 5th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Harry Potter and the School Ban
I’ve sat down at the keyboard a couple of times today to try and hammer out a few words regarding Laura Mallory and her latest attempt to ban Harry Potter from Georgia schools.
I wrote about her first attempt back in April, and I’m hesitant to pl…
October 5th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
What is the Bible forbidding in this passage? What is being prohibited is attempting to do an end run-around God, to in effect manipulate nature and supernature without God's permission. One is not allowed to take advantage of one's knowledge of natural and supernatural law. One is required to go through the proper channel, (I.E., God), as evidenced by the wonders wrought by Moses, Aaron, Elijah, Elisha, and the other prophets illustrate. In the Harry Potter books, no higher source is ever called upon or used – not the Force (as in Star Wars), not the Valar (as in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings), not Aslan (as in the Narnia books) not Mother Earth or any kind of other power. In the Potter books, magic works because wizards say the right words, much as a magician (apparently) produces a rabbit by saying “Abracadabra.”
October 5th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
I love the HP books, just as I love the Chronicles of Narnia. In both cases, the books are so well-written that I have trouble putting them down, no matter how many times I've read them. They both represent the timeless and universal themes (I know that's somewhat redundant) of good vs. evil. No, Harry and friends are not perfect, they are not faultless, but they are not evil, and that is what they fight. Sounds like Christians–none of us is perfect, none of us is faultless, but–if we indeed belong to Christ–we are not evil. And evil we must fight.
Yes, there are some materials I would like to ban, though I've never called for that. I would not want to see HP books banned, and I have yet to hear any argument in favor of banning them that has any validity. I, too, wonder how many of those wanting to burn these books have actually read any of them. Meanwhile, J.K. Rowling has drawn many kids who never would read a book, before, into doing just that–and some nonreader adults, as well. And as I said, the writing is good, it is exciting, and except for the ending of Book 6, so far, the "good guys" have been winning. I'm holding out hope for them to carry the day at the end of Book 7.
I have to add this: Anyone with a smattering of literary knowledge should recognize some common themes and patterns in HP. In Greek tragedy, somebody died–somebody *good* but not perfect; somebody with, perhaps, the "fatal flaw." In Greek comedy, nobody died. The first few books in the HP series could be said, then, to fall into the comedy category. Then they turned dramatic/tragic. Good grief. Ban these books? Fie!
And if they are banned, are the Chronicles of Narnia next? They are filled with magic and several include witches.
October 6th, 2006 at 2:44 am
My take on Harry Potter has always been this:
In our world, the real one, magic and sorcery are intrinsically demonic; they require demonic aid. There's no way around that. That's why they are forbidden.
In Harry Potter, magic is something like another force of nature. Like gravity. It is neither good nor bad; it just is. Just like any other force of nature, however, it can be employed for good or evil.
Harry and friends do act rashly in the books. They do bad things. In other words, they behave just like sinners. In the end, however, they always give up their own interests, risking even their lives for the sake of others. The theme of sinners dying to themselves sounds rather familiar, doesn't it?
J.K. Rowling may or may not have intentionally injected elements of The Great Story into her books; I don't know much about her. But I do know that certain bits of the Harry Potter books ring achingly true.
October 6th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Misguided to say the least. I think it is really people like this that make following the news interesting and funny. Nothing will come of this, it has been tried and tried again and the next craze book series, like Harry Potter, will probably have someone step up for their 15 minutes of fame by demanding that it be banned or burned.
I have been reading the HP series since it came out, first to my youngest son and then (when he grew up), just for myself. They are imaginative and the characters are engaging. I was much more alarmed by the Divinci Code because it purports to be based on fact, when in fact it is not. But I would not ban that book either.
The Bible is strong enough to withstand these attacks (Divinci Code, etc.). If you think it isn't, you need to re-examine your faith, not ban books which oppose it. Isn't that exact issue what we are seeing with the Islamic uproar everytime their faith is "insulted"? We see it also from the Humanist religion too, when they shout down or assault people who have opposing viewpoints.
Christ lived during a time of many different religions and philosophies, many of them diametrically opposed to the things He taught. But we have no example in the Bible of Him carrying on like this in regards to foreign religions or ideas.
By the way, La Shawn, what is a Gravatar and why would I want a free one?
October 11th, 2006 at 7:41 am
In response to Monomorphic stating publishing the woman's physical address is not cool-I strongly disagree.
I feel that it may be a good thing-no not to harass her but to simply send letters and such to her showing her that we as wiccans and teachers have a different view and also to quote the WADL and Religious Tolerance stance.
She needs to realize that people have a difference of opinion and through the media is giving her bad press it always hits home when one receives "fan mail".
Sorry but one should be able to physically face their accuser. It works in law so why is it different here.
If one is afraid of nut jobs trying to hurt her just think it could very easily happen with her walking down the street or driving her car, etc.
Rhiloraye
HP Grove of the Triple Goddess
www.grovetg.com
October 11th, 2006 at 11:39 am
The world is changing and there is nothing she can do about it. It's a pointless fight, poor creature is wasting her time…
She need's to find herself a hobby.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
If your child is confused by fiction and non, then you have greater issues to deal with than Harry Potter and an imagined endorsement of Wiccan "theology". This mom has lost her focus, in my opinion. And the whole connection between Potter and school violence begs the question, "When was the last time a teenage killer sat down for a cozy evening with his semi-automatic and 800 pages of literature?"
October 18th, 2006 at 1:08 am
What I'd like to know is why Christians feel it's their "right" to force their views on the World? Don't we (Christians) hate it when the World does this to us? And didn't God say we were NEVER ment to judge the World, only our brothers and sisters in Christ? I find this sort of stuff sickening. And I hate that God is shown as a side show to further someone's personal agenda. They make themselves as bad as the ACLU.
Who cares if HP is evil! There's a gay man living next door–are you going to ban him from the neighborhood? There's an adulterer in the cubby next to you at work–are your going to try and get him fired? We are called to love, not condem. Speak life not death. Isn't that what Jesus did? I mean, he spoke against the "church", not the world, when he came. I'd look in the mirror before pointing a finger in the name of the one who came to save. This is a very dangerous business, and sets us up for all kinds of folly.
I'll be praying this blows over, very soon.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:12 am
Sorry, I know I was a little harsh. This stuff just really gets me. Please forgive any missplaced passion.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Laura Mallory is a nut case. I can not stand when one person presumes that their definition of morality is to be accepted by all. She has every right to monitor what her children read. Let others to decide what is best for their children. To blame school shootings on fantasy books takes her to the nut case level.
December 29th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Above me it was mentioned that they children are not so much "good" as they are "not bad" because they use their magic to flaunt authority and play tricks on one another.
But you failed to notice the problem with that statement, they are teenagers! Of course they're going to flaunt authority, real teens do that even without magic, and of course they're going to play tricks on one another.
December 31st, 2006 at 8:24 am
I love the Harry Potter books. Many people who are against it have never read all the books. I am a teacher and a sunday school teacher. I support Harry Potter. I can,t wait for book 7!!!
January 17th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
I am from GA… and a Christian.. You have gotten a lot of national publicity….. Are you against Grimm Fairy Tales???? This group of books have added reading to our grammer/secondary schools… I think it is unfortunate that you are creating a connection to witchcraft… I remember the 'witches' at UGA in the 1970s… they were reaching out for acceptance… Did you have a bad experience?? I am 54 years old… and with my grandGirls.. we love the Potter books.. and have a ball discussing the possibilities.. Yes.. I attended Lumis 2006 in Vegas.. I was appalled at the fan fiction that incorporated beastealty…. that is unacceptable… the books are amazing.. Please re=read with a positive attiude..
January 20th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Well it wasnt that hard to find her address, even her telephone number, all you have to do is go to the white pages website and search her…even just putting her first initial (L) instaed of her name brings up Laura Mallory, even her husband Cole:
[Deleted]
So i think she should recieve some letters form people with opinions other than her own, she should realise not everybody who reads these books is and evil son of a bitch hell bent on nailing our families to the wall and killing innocent kittens…she needs to experience the worlds veiw
January 27th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
She says that she hasn't the time to read the books she protests because they are long and she has kids. Does anyone think that her little holy war against Harry Potter is taking less time than would be required to read the whole series several times? Now I really don't care for the books much, but this level of ignorance is just beyond my ability to comprehend, it makes me want to buy the books and hand them out to children on the street.