Harry Potter Book Ban?
Ratzinger:
It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.
Seems the pontiff does not approve of J.K Rowling’s wizard boy.
I give not one shit what Herr Ratzinger thinks about Harry Potter, as a matter of face he can leck mich am Arsch. Don’t worry, he’ll understand. I can’t wait for the 6th book!
matter of fact not face…it’s late and i’ve been typing papers all night.
The fundamentalists mindset thinks Harry Potter is competition for their members. They think it is wicca evagelism. It is just a book in fact!
LOL and I misspelled evangelism after a night of new blog manufacturing! But then I do that when I have had a good nights sleep too. I have fat fingers.
It also seems like he really did have a disagreement with the old Pope over the books. Why else would he encourage the Anti-Potter woman in Germany to send her book of why Harry Potter is evil to the Vatican’s minister of culture. It sounds like Cardinal Ratzinger was trying to convince someone.
It is looking very suspiciously like he wants a full alliance with the American religious right. He has been making antiscience comments as well. He has also been dissing what he calls nanny states, which is code for complete privatization, dismantlement of the safety net. Opus Dei Pinochet crap. Anyway I hope it doesn’t turn out that way. I will simply leave the church for good and never look back, if it loses all it’s lefty traits.
And here i thought we could have a nice discussion about how the Roman catholic church has taken issue with a fanatical craze for magic like nothing before it, iin contrast to what some rabbis perhaps might have to say on the matter. Little did i forget how inanely biased some jews get the moment you utter the name Ratzinger.
As opposed to some of the issues being raised by jews who are haviong other types of religious difficulties with harry potter ( http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2… )
Also, in the context of Jews who love to ban books for religious or influential reasons, reason Harry Potter has indeed been banned by some yeshvas. ( http://www.enetation.co.uk/com… )
Town Crier-
The Yeshiva officials can leck mich as well, it hasn’t much to do with the fact that it’s Ratzinger besides the fact that Christians seem to be have a special disdain for the Harry Potter series.
Harry Potter is a book series, a fiction book series. And it’s about a wizard child, oh no! Hide the children, or they may want to be wizards too! What’s more, their kids are reading..NOOOOOOO!!!!!! We can’t have children being interested in reading. It’s just ludicrous.
They are wonderful books and i can’t wait for the 6th book.
1. You still don’t give any indication what your problem is with the Pope.
2. If it were just a book series, you might have an argument. But since it is a crazed obsession now with forced legal statements for consumers, it is a little more than the Barenstein Bears.
My problem with the pope is that he is actively participating in discouraging children from reading books because it is about a wizard who does magic. And for the record, Ratzinger argument isn’t that the book is too popular it is that it is dangerous to children, keeping them from Christian lives.
The obession with the series by the way, is that the story is SO DAMN GOOD 🙂
My problem with the pope is that he is actively participating in discouraging children from reading books because it is about a wizard who does magic. And for the record, Ratzinger argument isn’t that the book is too popular it is that it is dangerous to children, keeping them from Christian lives.
The obession with the series by the way, is that the story is SO DAMN GOOD 🙂
This blog is great, but the community seems to be very religious. Anyone know a mostly Jewish Humanist one updated more often or read more widely than humanist rites?
It’s not just the concern about it being witchcraft, I’ve heard Christians discussing their concern about how the books show authority and that good things come from doing bad. I’d never really thought of it as being anti-authoritarian before, but I’m buying the next book just because of that!
the use of magic as opposed to prayer is very threatening to some religious ideas about how god should be approached as opposed to manipulated. this is one of the big idea struggles that the bible God is very concerned over.
meanwhile, for a long time now, Aron Rahzel has been pointing out, harry potter is mentioned in the gemara. Harei pattur, behold! it is permitted!
I’ve said this else where before, I just don’t get the Christian/Catholic problem with the books. The characters celebrate both Christmas and Easter in the ‘proper’ regional fashion. They even celebrate Halloween, which was spread around the (Christian) world by the Catholic Church when they convert the celebration/ceremony of Samhein in to All Hallow’s Eve/All Saint’s Day. The stupidity of it is just amazing.
Well jsut because the pope said it doesnt make it bad. I do not think that exposing our children to such goyish ideas at a youg age is a good idea there are plenty of good jewish storybooks.
Shmuey says “goyish” like it’s a bad thing. Here are some of the “goyish” ideas from Harry Potter that he’d rather not have his children exposed to:
-Tolerance of the “other.”
-Empathy for one’s fellow man.
-Fighting racism (or in this case “muggle-ism).
-Courage in the face of evil.
-Sticking up for the little guy.
-Love is the greatest “magical” power of all.
Yeah, I guess he’s right. That stuff really is at odds with Judaism. Now who’s “goyish?”
ps The Daily Show made a great point abou this Ratzinger quote. Nobody knows more about “subtle seductions” of children than the Catholic Church.