One-Sixteenth

"3. It blows my mind that there are Christians who will not read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" because it contains a witch. Blows. My. Mind."

And yet, they will read a book that contains an evil devil...

Well, I'll take this opportunity to confess that I just don't get some Christians. :D My son read the entire Harry Potter series this year while he was 8. He knew about them, and they were already in the house, because I love them. The only discussion we had about him reading the books was whether he could read my hardcovers or if I needed to buy him his own paperbacks. I let him read mine, but he was warned that while I can't turn him into a toad, I can make him wish he were one, so he was to be very very careful with mama's books.

I can accept people not letting their own children read these, or Narnia, or whatever. I don't understand, but I can accept that and simply acknowledge (which has 2 e's; I checked) that they think I'm weird, too. What I don't get are the knuckle-dragging idiots who try to keep the rest of us from reading these books.

I'm going to take my oldest two boys to the theater for Goblet of Fire next week. I was indifferent to the first movie, never saw the second, but I thought the third was great. Goblet of Fire is my favorite book of the series, so I've really been looking forward to this movie.

I told my husband earlier tonight that if I wasn't a Christian, I'd probably be a Pagan. But now you've completely blown that idea with your list of the things that I still couldn't do. I'm just glad that I'm not in need of a backup religion.

Let me guess. You've been hanging out on some hs boards?

Hi Mama Lynx!

Blows my mind too - I think the points that Tolkien and Lewis kept trying to make in their writing is that there are universal themes that touch upon our lives here in this world and that things like political leanings or allegory or representation often get in the way. Personally, I think Tolkien held more true to that thought than Lewis did, but neither one of them bespoke their tales as only having one message or the only kind of message that a certain kind of group would understand. I have seen it where there are some Christians who try to claim that Lewis is MORE Christian than Tolkien because he was saved from atheism (by Tolkien) and shouldn't we be leary of the Catholic elements in a story ie if its Catholic, is it really Christian?

And to make it even more interesting, I have seen Catholics try to derail the Potter stories as evil themselves, yet taking great pride in claiming Tolkien. In college I used to sum these attitudes up with the saying "some of us are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good."

*waves*

havent seen it yet, but hoping to this Friday. And God bless your boys!

OH, Steph - I have some questions about the WTM history - is there a way I can chat with you through IM?? There is practically NO ONE around where I live who is following the same curriculum, and I am drowning in confusion. If you can, please contact me at my email address...would so appreciate your help!

Best,
Sharon

I am a (Christian) fan of Harry Potter and was just yesterday defending it to a friend of mine who said that the books shouldn't be read because Rowling is a Wiccan and incorporated lots of Wiccan elements into the book to get kids interested in Wicca. Since I don't know anything about Wicca, I don't know if there are genuine Wiccan elements in the book or not. Can anyone enlighten me? What is Wicca per se, anyway?

Wicca is a religion founded, or at least made public, in the 1950's by Gerald Gardner. It is in large part based on ancient (neolithic) European religions, and is animist, pantheistic, and polytheistic.

The primary beliefs are in the duality of nature, in particular the duality of Deity into a Goddess and God. The Divine is seen, in Wicca, as an immanent force; that is, the Divine is contained within (or for some synonymous with) the Universe, and does not exist outside of space and time (as transcendent gods, like the Christian Jehovah, do). There is a good entry at Wikipedia on beliefs, ethics and history of Wicca.

Wicca is an earth-based Pagan religion. Wiccans do generally practice magick, so spelled to distinguish it from sleight-of-hand tricks and illusions, but it is not magic of the Harry Potter variety. For one thing, Wiccan magick is more like active prayer than anything; it is most assuredly not waving a wand, casting a spell, or performing a ritual after which everything just happens.

There are many varieties of Wicca, as there are many varieties of Protestantism. Beliefs differ between them, but the common elements tend to be the duality of nature, particularly the God and Goddess, and adherence to the Wiccan Rede (Do what thou wilt, an harm none).

So, given that there is no religious aspect (no god and goddess, nor notice taken of the quarters and cross-quarters other than Halloween, etc), no attention to the natural world, no earth-based magical system (the system that they do have is incoherent, but more or less based on the popular conception of ceremonial magic), and no ethical system based on the Wiccan Rede, there's basically no similarity.

OK, the girls are called witches, but the boys are called warlocks (which is a term for oathbreakers, who during the Burning Times betrayed their fellows to save their lives, and is not a term Wiccans would find anything other than offensive), and some Wiccans do use wands. That's about it, though.

HP is a fantasy, a kids' fantasy at that, rather than anything related to Wicca. "The Craft" is a better portrayal of Wicca, and it's not particularly close, either, IIRC.

I cannot remember anyone in Harry Potter being called a warlock. They are witches and wizards, aren't they?

Thanks Jeff! That was really helpful. It sounds as if my friend was just continuing the cycle of criticizing without checking out the background. (Which is very common when it comes to HP books, I have noticed.)

Yep, I'd say you've been hanging out at homeschool message boards.

The backlash against the HP books is largely based on ignorance. Most of the people screaming about the HP have no clue want Wicca is, and assume Wiccans engage in Satan worship.

There is also, I'm afraid, a kind of peer pressure among some Christians. "Oh, Sally isn't letting her kids read HP, so I shouldn't either. Jane isn't letting her kids celebrate Halloween, so neither should we." Neither Sally nor Jane have ever read HP, but they're just repeating what Mary told them at co-op, and then all three get on hsing message boards....and the cycle continues.

I don't think Christians have the market cornered on ignorance, but I do think sometimes we're the loudest about it.

i think wiccans should make a school for wiccan childen the kids deserve it